In this edition of the RunVermont Pulse:
2. Don't Let Your Running Shoes Hibernate!
4. 'Tis the season for RunVermont Races
7. RunVermont Lodging Partners
Spooky Youth Fun Run Recap
Youth Participants Ready at the Start, Max Baron Photography
This fall marked a new milestone for RunVermont as we brought our first event to Saint Albans, joining Downtown Saint Albans for their annual Spooky Saturday celebration. The Spooky Youth Fun Run gave us an opportunity to connect with families in a new community and share what RunVermont's youth programming is all about: creating opportunities for kids to get moving and enjoy being active together.
Taylor Park was filled with superheroes, princesses, goblins, and other creative characters walking, running, and strolling around the park.
Thank you Downtown Saint Albans for welcoming us to the celebration, and to all of the families, participants, and volunteers who made the morning a success.
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Don't Let Your Running Shoes Hibernate!
Alas, the fall racing season is behind us. Having a race to run can surely be a great way to stay motivated. What is one to do now? Fear not, registration for our Freezy Cheeks 5K winter series is open AND we’ve added a fourth race to the series. No need to wait until winter to partake in the fun, as our first race is slightly in advance of winter with a date of December 13th.
Whether you're looking to maintain your hard-earned fall fitness through the winter months or just enjoy the crisp air with great company, our open start format from 11 AM - 12 PM allows you to tailor your start time to suit your goals.
Race dates and locations:
- First Frost: December 13th at American Flatbread in Stowe
- Second Squall: January 17th at Black Flannel Brewing in Essex
- Third Berg: February 7th at Zero Gravity Brewing in Burlington
- Fourth Flurry: March 14th at Switchback Brewing in Burlington
Keep your shoes out of hibernation this winter. Layer up, grab a friend, and embrace winter running with us!
A quick heads-up from our snowperson mascot, Winston Windchill: registration prices for First Frost increase on December 11th. Register today to save!
Connelly's Corner: It’s been a marathon, in so many ways!
Hello Friends. You never really know how life is going to turn out, do you? Growing up in the 1970s I was the slowest kid on all the teams I was on – Little League and Babe Ruth baseball, CYO basketball, football in the street and around the corner in Boxwood Park. I remember the Munich and Montreal Olympics - Frank Shorter in the marathon and Dave Wottle winning the 800m wearing a baseball cap, and of course Bruce Jenner and Edwin Moses in 1976. I remember running a lap or two around my neighborhood and being all kinds of inspired. But then there was the 6th grade track meet and I finished pretty much last in the 75-yard dash. Reality kicked in.
High school comes around and I start running sophomore year as training for XC ski team in a pair of Adidas low-cut basketball shoes. Did a whole year that way before I got my first pair of running shoes, a sharp pair of blue and yellow Brooks Vantage Supremes that bled blue dye through to my socks every time we ran in the rain. Drove my Mom crazy on laundry day! That was my first love of running, and it came about because I had such awesome teammates that made it fun to show up every day and put in our miles.
College rolls around and I kept up XC ski racing here in the Burlington area at Saint Michael’s College, and of course kept up my running. Not knowing this area at all, I did hundreds of miles in the Gilbrook Woods next to campus, plus down in the cornfields across Rt 15, plus the sidewalks down into Winooski and over to Burlington. And as a junior the XC running team finally convinced me to come out and race with them in the fall. Thank You to Coach Cleary for pushing that button and to all my teammates who encouraged me to keep up when I thought back to being the slowest kid growing up.
Post-college I kept up running and skiing, got into cycling and that got me into triathlons. Plus I started volunteering at local races pretty much right away. That was all due to training with the Green Mountain Athletic Association, hearing the people I was training with talking about whatever the next race was that the club was putting on and of course somebody on the inside would always lament that they were short on volunteers. That will never change! So I started making a point if it wasn’t something I was racing in I’d call up the Director and let them know I’d be there to help out.
2001 rolls around, I’m 14 years out of college and decided accounting was maybe not for me. At least for a while. Had somehow managed to race 20 marathons with 19 finishes and over 500 other races. Had been co-Director of the GMAA’s Rollin Irish half marathon for 5 years. Had been a volunteer and then a member of the Vermont City Marathon Race Committee almost every year except 1989 and 1993 when I raced it. I got back from driving around the country and Andréa Sisino gets in touch and says “I heard you left accounting, any interest in doing some work for the marathon?” This was even before we were RunVermont. We talk, it feels like a good vibe and a good way to have some structure in my life while I decide what I want to be when I grow up.
A few years of seasonal turned into part-time turned into full-time as RunVermont started to offer more races. I got lucky! The last 26 years have been a blast. I got the chance to use my logical brain to work through the operational details it takes to safely produce races. I got the chance to use my creative brain to come up with ways to make our races better, or to put races together that were outside the norm. It’s been a joy to work with so many dedicated and highly skilled people, both on the staff and our volunteers.
As I write this in early November having let the staff, our Race Committee, and now our newsletter friends in on the news that I’m moving into retirement mode, I’m looking forward to, I think, 7 races that we’ll produce between now and June 1st. A few fun runs too. I’ll be thinking a lot about the awesome community we’ve created, and about all the people who have been so encouraging along the way. This slow kid will always be amazed to have found a path that included running throughout my life.
Joe Connelly at 2024 NYE Run/Walk to Highlight, Max Baron Photography
'Tis the season for RunVermont Races
December is shaping up to be a mini race/fun run season here in Vermont. In addition to the ever-popular Freezy Cheeks 5K Series (scroll up), we are also offering two additional (and FREE) ways to get out there on the run (or walk) with RunVermont in December.
We will, once again, partner with the Church Street Marketplace as part of Festive Fridays. Specifically, the Festive Friday that is all about lighting up the night on December 18, 2026. For our part, we’ll be decking runners in glowsticks and sending them up and down Church Street and zig-zagging through City Hall Park on a one-mile fun run. Not necessarily conducive to speed (spectator dodging and seven turns), this is more about having an additional reason to enjoy the holiday festivities on the Marketplace.
Learn More & Register – Light Up The Night Fun Run & Walk
After taking an unplanned hiatus last year due to icy conditions on the bike path, we are thinking grippy thoughts as we plan to Run/Walk to Highlight on December 31, 2026. With multiple distance options for this out-and-back on the Burlington Bike Path and many ways to enjoy Burlington City Arts’ Highlight, this fun run is a great way to finish 2026 on an active note.
Learn More & Register - NYE Run/Walk to Highlight
While you stay tuned for more information on Festive Fridays and Highlight, get your crew registered for these free fun runs and get excited to celebrate the holiday season.
2026 Light Up The Night Fun Run & Walk, Max Baron Photography
From the Blog
Something pretty amazing happened in the 5K at Island Vines this year. Women came in first, second, and third. While the outright winner—Kate Nourse of the UVM Running Club—is 19 and the second-place finisher is 31, almost all of the women who finished in the next 2.5 minutes to round out the top 10 are in their 40s. Specifically, 50 percent of the top 10 were women in their 40s. And so, as blog mimics life, there have been some wonderful blog posts reflecting on being a woman about to be or celebrating turning 40.
- In Over the Hill? Not Even Close, Emily Norris, part of the RunVermont Operations Team, blogged about how impactful running has been to her in her 30s, and some of the Vermont women in their 40s who she views as her role models as she approaches 40.
- Taking a different approach, Shannon Salambier, of the RunVermont Board of Directors, recapped the 40-mile trek that she took from Burlington (where she grew up) to Montpelier (where she lives) on her 40th birthday in Reflections on 40.
- And because the musings of our 40-something female Executive Director regularly fill the blog, we also shared her reflections on pacing at Leaf Peepers and working up the courage to embody someone sparkly in Glitter Freckles: Pacing, Sparkling, & Hyping.
As a reminder, we usually post a blog every Wednesday. And this week will include the RunVermont debut of the word “ambivert.” Any guesses as to how that relates to running?
Shannon celebrating her 40-mile run on her 40th birthday with her children
Join the RunVermont Team - Director of Race Operations
In anticipation of the retirement of Joe Connelly in summer 2027, RunVermont is looking for its next Director of Race Operations. We anticipate this new member of the team starting in February 2027 so that there is ample time for overlap and learning the ropes (and the history) from JoeConn.
Job Description and Application Instructions
A Community Experience from Sun Up to Sun Down – VCM Lodging Partners
One way RunVermont embraces the fact that the M&T Bank Vermont City Marathon & Relay is a COMMUNITY-driven event is by partnering with lodging establishments embedded in the community. To help these lodging establishments connect with our out-of-town visitors, we have a page on our website for lodging establishments that have listed with us. Some are new each year, while others have been with RunVermont for years.
The Best Western Plus Windjammer Inn & Conference Center is one of those lodging establishments that has been in our corner for years, lodging participants in Half Marathon Unplugged and the Vermont City Marathon each year. The Windjammer has seen many iterations of how lodging partners work with RunVermont, including when there was a robust shuttle system that took participants to and from the start and finish of the Vermont City Marathon from multiple lodging establishments in the surrounding area, not just the DoubleTree by Hilton Burlington. We are thrilled that for 2027 we are bringing back shuttles from several additional hotels, including the Windjammer, to the start for the Vermont City Marathon. Save yourself the hassle of driving yourself to the start or let your support crew sleep in a bit before driving down the hill to cheer. We will share more information on how these additional shuttle buses will work as we get closer to May. In the meantime, book yourself a stay directly through our Lodging website. Interested in listing a lodging establishment? You can complete a form on that same page.
Exterior of Best Western Plus Windjammer Inn & Conference Center