April 2025 Newsletter

Hello, UVRC!

While we might see a few more flakes fall before we put away all of our cold weather gear, I still think it’s safe to say that spring has sprung! As I have come to learn in this, my third spring in the Upper Valley, the official kick-off to the season has nothing to do with the date of the equinox. but rather, the running of the Shamrock Shuffle. What a beautiful spring day it was for a 5k! It was awesome to see so much UVRC gear out on the course and at the finish line – y’all really represented! It was also so heartening to share enthusiastic greetings with everyone I saw rocking their UVRC gear, whether we knew each other or not. Community and vitamin D are good for the soul.

We look forward to continuing to build that community in the warmer months through shared laps around the ol’ oval at TNT, shared carbs with melted cheese at Runner’s Night Out, more races in the Upper Valley Running Series, and, new this year, a June campout in conjunction with the Mount Washington Road Race. See details in the announcements section below! 

Happy Mud Season, folks. Dry trails are right around the corner!

Kristina

Mount Washington Road Race – A Few More Volunteers Needed! 

UVRC has fielded a team of volunteers for the past few years at the MWRR to help with parking. Volunteers receive a delicious turkey lunch and t-shirt – not to mention all the good vibes that come along with volunteering, and a chance to win prizes in our Volunteer Challenge. In exchange for providing volunteers, URVC receives 8 bypass entries for club members who do not get in via the lottery. Email uppervalleyrunningclub@gmail.com if you are interested in volunteering.

UVRC Campout!

We have reserved space at Dolly Copp Campground the weekend of the Mount Washington Road Race (June 14th 2025) for UVRC members and their families to camp. While we will do our best to accommodate all members who are interested, campsites have capacity limits that we must adhere to. We will guarantee spots on a first come, first serve basis. Please be patient and bear with us as we organize the campout. We will do our best to communicate information in a timely manner. Please use this form to indicate your interest in attending – we hope to see you there!

Volunteer Challenge Update

The 2025 Volunteer Challenge is on! Every hour that you as a UVRC member spend volunteering at a race/running event or doing trail work will get you one ticket into a drawing for some sweet swag and prizes at the end of the year. Each time you volunteer at an event, email us at volunteering@uppervalleyrunningclub.org with the subject line “UVRC Volunteer Challenge”. Let us know the number of hours and at what event you volunteered. We’ll keep track of your hours for you until the big drawing at the end of the year!

Running Warehouse Discount Code

As part of your UVRC membership, you are eligible to receive 20% off socks and clothing and 10% off nutrition, select clearance shoes, and hats/visors. Enter the discount code Z3XX6UYP at checkout. 

Sponsorship Opportunity

Do you work for a company or know of a local business that is supportive of UVRC and our mission to provide an inclusive community for runners of all abilities? We are currently seeking business sponsorships to fund swag items for UVRC programs. Opportunities for advertisement on such items is an option. Please reach out to contact@uppervalleyrunningclub.org to learn more!

Trail Running Film Festival in Ludlow

The Trail Running Film Festival is coming back to Ludlow, VT, but this time, it’s free admission! Email katie@mthillyrunners.com to reserve your spot, just let me know your name and how many seats you would like to reserve.

Come and watch some amazing and inspirational films, as well as hang with some special guests on Saturday, May 17th. Doors open at 6:00 and the films will start at 6:30. Total run time, approximately 2 hours.

Congratulations to everyone who ran the Lebanon Shamrock Shuffle 5K on March 15th, the 2nd race in the Upper Valley Running Series (UVRS)! 119 UVRC finishers, according to my calculations: Wow!

Photo: Sean, Geoff, and Dan at the Shuffle

The April race in the UVRS is the Lake Morey Icebreaker 5M on April 6:

https://runsignup.com/Race/VT/Fairlee/LakeMorey5Miler

In case you don’t see this newsletter until after that race, the May race is the BarnArts 5K/10K on May 18:

https://runsignup.com/Race/VT/Barnard/BarnArtsRaceAroundtheLake

Both great races, you should come run!

What’s the UVRS? It’s our club’s series of local road races. Checkout the UVRS website for the latest information:

https://uppervalleyrunningclub.org/upper-valley-running-series/

UVRS results are now available! Check the UVRS website (above).

Not running? Got a friend or family member who will be there but not running? Consider volunteering:

https://uppervalleyrunningclub.org/volunteering/

Happy Running!

Geoff and the UVRS committee

• Name: Eastern States 20 miler
  
• Date: March 16, 2025
  
• Distance: 20 miles
  
• Location: Kittery, ME
  
• Youtube Recap: https://youtu.be/yU5nmDeyGps
  
• Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/13901171788
  
• Time: 2:23:33
  

Goals

Goal	Description	Completed?
A	sub 2:20 (7:00/mi pace)	No
B	sub 2:30 (7:30/mi pace)	Yes
C	don’t bonk (and have to walk)	Yes
D	finish	Yes

Training

I’ve been training for the REVEL white mountain marathon in may, but as a somewhat new “serious” runner — and by “serious” I mean entirely “someone who signs up for a lot of races” (don’t get the wrong idea, I do NOT think of myself as fast), this was a great race to get under my belt. It’s a race that many Boston marathoners do as one of the last longer training runs in their block, given the convenient timing and 20 mile distance. My friend Ryan convinced me and two others from our run club, Jim and Sean, to run it together a month ago, so I’ve had good time to prepare. Since the beginning of 2025, I’ve decided to really ramp up mileage, mostly on a whim and partially because I have this goal of building up to 100 MPW. Suffice it to say this goal is HARD, and I’ve been lucky to average 60ish MPW. But because I had the month notice, I came into this race with a little bit of a taper, doing two lower volume weeks leading up to the race.

One wrench thrown into the mix of the taper: a 5K that I was already committed to, unfortunately set for the day before my 20 mile race. Because I had a bit of a local rivalry against another runner (only in my head – he’s actually much faster than me) I intended to show up for, I had decided to run both races full out. In short, my 5k did not go well. My rival crushed me, I ran 35 seconds above my intended goal of sub-20, and my minute positive split of 6:05, 6:30, 6:59 pretty much summed up the race. Which is to say: PAIN. I’m pretty new to races, so my apparently nonexistent sense of pacing, especially for shorter distances, really shone here.

Given this 5k performance I’ll admit I had quite a lot of doubts coming into the race. I really thought at this point I was a sub-20 5k kind of a runner, but having given it my absolute all, dying at the end, only for a sloppy-ass 20:33 (rightfully) knocked my inflated ego down a peg.

On the day Jim was shooting for even splits of 7:30 throughout the race, Ryan was shooting for negative splits to hit an average of 7:00. My plan was to stay right behind Jim for most of the race before ideally starting a slow kick around mile 15.

Pre-Race

The buses were slated to leave at 8:45am from the parking lot for a 11am gun, which meant generously, at least 1.5 hrs of waiting at the start — not super appreciated by our crew given it was another 1.5 hours to drive to the parking lot in the first place. Of course when we get there its a two lane road with hundreds of drivers on it, so there was inevitable traffic meaning inevitable bus delays meaning nowhere near a 8:45 last bus departure time. In the end, I didn’t mind it too much, since at the starting line there was a school we could go inside of to stay warm and sit. Apparently they didn’t give access to the school last year, which I could definitely anticipate being frustrating.

I guess the other huge benefit of being at the start line for so long is that I could go to the bathroom multiple times. 4, to be exact. As they say, third time’s the charm, and it was for me — after that trip I knew immediately I had shaved at least 10 minutes off my time :).

Probably should have gotten a little longer of a warm up in, but I settled for a 10minute jog and called it a day. Didn’t have any breakfast, but did have a stick of Clif energy Bloks, along with some zero cal gatorade. Nutrition was actually on point the entire race. In previous marathons, I’ve done gels which are annoying to open and always get my hands all sticky/gross, but for the day I had a small bag of skratch sour gummies that I would periodically pop one of into my mouth. This worked like a charm, and I’ll be definitely trying this again in future races.

Race

Head-Windy. Foggy. Long stretches of Coastal gloom. But also the perfect temperature –low 50s– and along with the fog, a whole race blessed with uninterrupted cloud cover. I’d take the last two over the first three any day, so for me, race conditions were pretty great. A cool thing about the fog was that every now and then you’d run into a section where the fog lifted, and for that section I felt a huge mental boost, as if my mind was suddenly shaken awake. Those periodic moments of mental clarity were greatly appreciated and quite motivating.

Anyways, right as the race started plans of tailing Jim were thrown out the window. He started fast, with a 7:15 first mile, and I felt good and followed for all of maybe a kilometer before passing him near the end of a 7:05 mile 1. From then on I had my sights set on Sean, who was planning on negative splitting to average 7:00s. I locked in behind him for the first few miles, before he started to widen the gap mid-race.

At this point, I am acutely aware of two things:

1. At low 7:00s I’m kind of a speedy mofo right now, especially given yesterday’s 5k ending with a third mile split of 6:59. (blehh …)
   
2. I feel good. Or rather … ok. Like I might just have the ability to stick this out for the rest of the race Starting from mile 7 or 8, around when the course moves out of the town of Kittery and into the actual (high-winds) seacoast, I become aware of another thing. Someone is drafting behind me! I speed up a little, and the footsteps get faster along with mine. I slow down, they slow down too. You know what? Fair fucking play. I’ll admit later on in the race it took me a bit longer than it should’ve for me to pass others too. It’s windy out there, and players got to play.
   

This stretch of seacoast, around miles 7 to 16, moves fast but starts feeling a bit tougher as we run along. It’s basically flat, but there are a few stretches of just the slightest uphill whisper, and those gradients begin to feel a bit more noticeable.

Sometimes in training, and generally, in running, I like to think about the squeeze. I come from a background of competitive chess, and there are positions which require you to slowly squeeze the opponent, to apply pressure ever so slightly and surely, and slowly, before they finally cave and crumble from the weight of all the impending pressure. The positional bind just becomes too strong. In this section of miles 7-16, I like to think Eastern States was starting the squeeze on me.

And if we continue the analogy, Mile 17 is when I start to feel the bind. Mile 17 is TOUGH. Legs are getting heavy, the person in front of me is getting a little farther away, and every little anthill begins to feel like the end of a brutal hill workout. And then if mile 17 is tough, mile 18 is PAIN. We’ve arrived into Portsmouth now, which means that the two-lane highway besides us has become a sprawling 4 lanes. What’s worse is the imperceptible grade, coupled with emboldened headwinds. My cadence decreases, not for lack of trying, and with every turn my legs feel like they’re being dragged out of mud. It’s at this point that I seriously contemplate stopping and walking the rest. It’s been a good race after all. Didn’t think I’d get this far anyways. A sandbagging group of runners pass me, doubling down on my feeling of despair.

What keeps me going is the runner in front of me that also gets passed – someone I haven’t seen before. A beacon of light in an otherwise gloomy world. I realize that I must be going faster than her, since it seems like I am barely inching closer. She’s just within the perfect realm of doubt on whether I can catch up to her in the last mile and a half, and I commit myself to at least matching her cadence.

Miles 18.5-19.5 are passed in this way, but it still feels BAD. Like my body is ready to STOP. Like actually, it’s been ready to stop 30 minutes ago. But nevertheless, I have gained some ground on the runner ahead of me. With .25 to go, I prepare for the all out kick. I think I pass her at 19.85, but by then passing her is already a foregone conclusion. I lock in to the runner after, next in line in striking distance, and sprint as fast as I can, which to be honest, is not that fast right now. Still, I edge him out right at the finish line. A picture perfect finish. 😊

Post-race

2:23:33. Holy moly. I am SPEED (or, rather, speed’s underdeveloped toenail). I am also, GASSED. I stumble up to my friend who has finished more than two minutes ahead of me, mumble something incoherent, and make a beeline for the snack table where I proceed to down three vitamin waters, two bags of Pirate’s Booty, and 2 yogurt sticks. For the next 10 minutes I walk around in a daze, resisting the immediate urge to drop to the floor and have my legs completely give out under me. The post-race cold settles in, After everyone’s finished, we head to a brewery nearby and get some well-deserved (and tasty) grub. An excellent finish to an excellent day.

Splits

Mile	Time
1	7:05
2	6:55
3	7:04
4	7:07
5	7:09
6	6:55
7	7:07
8	7:08
9	7:09
10	7:11
11	7:03
12	7:10
13	7:08
14	7:07
15	7:09
16	7:11
17	7:19
18	7:31
19	7:20
20	7:12

Final thoughts

Man, racing is awesome. Especially when you pass people.

It’s funny, not too long ago I actively avoided racing. It just felt like a big fuss over nothing, and something that I had to pay for on top of. Running for me was something I did purely for the love of the activity itself, a tool for maintaining my health, for keeping me sane in an otherwise monotonous world.

I still love running, and I will never stop appreciating running for, at the least, nothing more than the pure love of the run. But now I’ve come to appreciate the specific joy of getting faster too. There is just something about racing that can bring out the best of you – something which I just cannot simulate while running on my own. It’s crazy to think that three years ago I could barely string together 10 minutes of continuous running at 8:30 pace, and that now I can freaking finish 20 miles at 7:09. What a strange, but wonderful world we live in. 

I’ve recently started a youtube channel, and made a video about my race! https://youtu.be/yU5nmDeyGps

Made with a new race report generator created by u/herumph.

This poem was written while on a run that I dragged myself out for, as the title hints, at night. Since I have such easy access to the treadmill, it’s become the default for any situations that require even a modicum of mental effort to convince myself to run outside. Raindrops in the sky? Treadmill. Slush on the ground? Treadmill. Too dark outside? You get the idea. On this particular night though, with my daily run pushed off till much later than usual, around 8ish pm, I decided against the treadmill. 

It was the first true night run I’ve had in a while, with pitch black skies that were so breathtakingly clear it seemed like you could see the stars in the sky for miles and miles. It was everything you’d want a run to be. A little danger—the roads were incredibly icy, with a section of unanticipated black ice that left me comically skating right as a car was turning into the road—, a lot of clarity—it had been quite a long day, with lost of thoughts stuck, unclarified, in my head—, and the greatest deal of awe—at the magnitude of it all, of me being lost in it, in seeing myself as that tiny speck, among so many other specks, otherwise lost in the vast expanse of black sky above me.  Somewhere in that run I wrote this: 

run at night

every now and then, 

a run under the stars is what you need

— but not yet what you know you need

 , or want

for who jumps? 

who?

At thought of [run at night], [in dark and cold], 

on [frozen rain, ground slick // no light]?

who jumps but I?

writing—running, under starlight

I’ve been trying to gamify my running recently in order to up my mileage, and while it hasn’t worked as much as I’ve wanted to, I have tried to make a fun challenge around it which I hope to make into a video series. If you want to follow along: Average Runner tries to run Elite Mileage