From our friends at Run Vermont. Give some thought to the Vermont City Marathon this year when you exercise your USATF-NE grand prix vote!
We are honored to be considered at the USATF NE Grand Prix Marathon. Below you will find some helpful information to help you with your decision. We pride ourselves in hosting a quality race where the runner comes first.
Course Overview
Our USATF certified course starts at Battery Park, overlooking Lake Champlain and the Adirondack Mountains. The opening miles are run through tree-lined residential streets and Burlington’s Pedestrian Marketplace where an enthusiastic crowd of spectators will inspire you.
At mile 3.7 you begin a 4.5 mile out and back section on the Northern Connector, a divided highway which is closed to traffic only once a year – for your race. On the Northern Connector, enjoy beautiful views of the Green Mountains and get a chance to see the leaders and your friends as you cross paths.
At mile 8.2, return to city streets for a second pass through the Marketplace and a loop of Burlington’s South End. At the half-way point of the course, enter Oakledge Park and run alongside Lake Champlain. Mile 15 brings the Assault on Battery; 6 blocks climbing Battery Street. You’ll see and hear the Taiko Drummers and throngs of spectators to inspire you up the hill. The next 6.5 miles take you out North Avenue on gently rolling terrain through many shaded neighborhoods.
A steep downhill at mile 21.5 brings you to the Burlington Bike path, which provides beautiful lake views and flat-to-slightly-downhill terrain over the last 4.5 miles. Your finish and all post-race festivities occur in Waterfront Park where you’ll be greeted by thousands of cheering spectators.
RunVermont will provide a finish area hospitality site to enable all clubs will to have direct access to USATF representatives near the finish area, as desired by USATF
Start Corrals -Preferred Corral Access
• In order for a marathoner to qualify for the Preferred Corral, you must submit a qualifying time of 3:20:00 or faster (marathon), 1:35:00 or faster (half marathon) or 43:00 or faster (10k) from a USATF Certified Course. Due to our limited staff resources, these are the only distances we will consider for inclusion in the Preferred Corral.
• The race date must be between January 1, 2014 and May 1, 2016. You may submit a qualifying time at registration or via email prior to May 6, 2016.
• If you do not qualify for the Preferred Corral you can gain entrance to the Club Corral (located directly behind the Preferred Corral) by showing your Club Singlet to the volunteer.
Registration
Official USATF-NE Grand Prix Participant Rates
• 10% Discount on opening marathon price – Effective USATF Price $90
• Valid dates: Opening – 3/31/16
• Secondary Rate – Effective USATF Price $99
• Valid dates 4/1/16 – 5/21/16
Prize Money
Team Prize Money
Race highlights:
• Spectator friendly for teams that have a coach, club manager or family wishing to give details to their athletes.
• 1700 volunteers
• 20,000 spectators
• Many affordable and convenient options for lodging
Do you want to run a fast marathon?
In 2013, VCM was tied for the 40th largest marathon in the US with 2622 finishers, up from 44th in 2011 and 2012. All things being equal, you’d expect that races that have more finishers than VCM would have faster winning times and more fast runners. We’re proud to say that this is not the case. The winning time of 2:18:24 posted by Chris Zablocki was the 21st fastest winning time in all US marathons last year. Of the 8 US marathons with greater than 10,000 finishers, only 5 had faster winning times than VCM. Of the 20 marathons with faster winning times than VCM, 16 were won by international runners; primarily the Kenyans and Ethiopians, who dominate this sport.
What about deeper down in the results, runners under 2:20, 2:30, 2:45, 3:00? By any metric VCM is extremely competitive for runners in those ranges.
• Sub 2:20…VCM had 2 under 2:20, 18 US marathons had 3 or more. Chicago was the leader with 27 finishers under 2:20.
• Sub 2:30…VCM had 4 under 2:30, 22 US marathons had 5 or more. Boston was the leader with 83 finishers under 2:30.
• Sub 2:45…VCM had 26 under 2:45, 16 US marathons had 27 or more. Boston was again the leader with 478, which surprised me. I expected NYC, with nearly 3 times as many finishers, would have more sub 2:45 finishers than Boston, but NYC was a distant 3rd at this data point with 165 under 2:45.
• Sub 3:00…VCM had 94 under 3:00, only 14 US marathons had more than that. No surprise, Boston, Chicago, and NYC were far ahead of anyone else in terms of the number of sub 3 hour finishers.
These statistics are all similar to the last time we checked, which was 2010. No matter whether you’re a 3 hour marathoner or you’re out there for 4-5-6 hours, the point is that the VCM course lends itself to being a lot faster than your average marathon course. Maybe it’s the 100′ elevation difference between the start line and the finish line? Maybe it’s that the last 4.5 miles are nearly flat on the bike-path alongside Lake Champlain? Maybe it’s that there are only 2 real hills of note on our course, just enough to enable a runner to switch gears for a few minutes? Maybe it’s our awesome spectators who give you so much energy?
