DISC GOLF WORLD CHAMPS | SPEED-RUNNING THE LONG TRAIL | PRO TENNIS RETURNS
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CLIFF DIVING WHY VERMONT IS THE HOT SPOT FOR THIS NEW ACTION SPORT
Surf 's Up
A LITTLE HAWAII BOOMS ON LAKE CHAMPLAIN
WORLD-CLASS TRI LOCAL ATHLETES JUST SHOWED THE WORLD A THING OR TWO
AUGUST 2018 | VTSPORTS.COM 3
4 VTSPORTS.COM | AUGUST 2018
VERMONT
5 The Start
SPORTS
Bring on the Pros The best in the world hit up Vermont this month.
NEW ENGLAND’S OUTDOOR MAGAZINE
6 Great Outdoors
Disc Golf Flies High
ON THE COVER:
Smuggler's Notch hosts top players.
Zeke Neubauer sends it at Dorset Quarry Photo by Ali Kaukas
12 News Briefs 15 Feature
Pushing the Limits
PUBLISHER
Karen Newman's last triathlon was so much more than a race.
Angelo Lynn - publisher@vtsports.com
EDITOR/CO-PUBLISHER
Lisa Lynn - lisa.lynn@vtsports.com
18
ASSISTANT EDITOR
Chair(wo)men of the Boards
Abagael Giles abagael@vtsports.com
Want to learn to foil, windsurf, kite or downwind SUP? Burlington's new Surf Club, Community Sailing Center and SUP rentals have you covered.
EDITORIAL INTERN
Rylee Ewald editor@vtsports.com
DESIGN & PRODUCTION Shawn Braley
MEDICAL ADVISORY BOARD
Dr. Nathan Endres, Dr. David Lisle, Dr. James Slauterbeck —University of Vermont Robert Larner College of Medicine; Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation; Jamie Sheahan, M.S., R.D.
20
Feature
Leaps of Faith Why so many extreme cliff divers love Vermont.
CONTRIBUTORS
Brian Mohr, Phyl Newbeck, Leath Tonino
27 Health
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Greg Meulemans | (802) 366-0689 greg@vtsports.com
31
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Featured Athlete
The Bearded Trail Runner
SUBSCRIPTIONS, PRINTING & DISTRIBUTION Lisa Razo - lisar@addisonindependent.com
Why a Bolton auto mechanic
EDITORIAL AND PRODUCTION OFFICE
is speed running the Long Tail.
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42 Endgame
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Feature
Riding the Watershed There are 363 miles of mapped bikeways to ride around Lake Champlain. Look who's diving into the deep cool waters of the Ottauquechee. For more, see p 20. Photo by Zeke Neubauer
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AUGUST 2018 | VTSPORTS.COM 5
THE START
BRING ON THE PROS THIS MONTH, SOME OF THE WORLD’S TOP ATHLETES DESCEND ON OUR STATE. HERE’S WHERE TO SEE THEM.
On Aug. 18-22, get a courtside seat to watch some of the world's top tennis players compete in Stowe.
V
ermont is not the first place you’d
won his first ATP Tour title, and Yoshihito
expect to see some of the world’s
Nishioka, who upset #13 seed Tomas
top pros in action this summer.
Berdych last year, are two of the eight who
That’s changing. In fact, there’s so much
will vie for the $35,000 in prize money. The
spectating to be done in the next few weeks
event,benefits the Chill Foundation.
it may be hard to find time to bike, run or
for the tournament last year, both from the
swim. From August 1-5, the top mountain
sponsors and the fans,” said tournament
on
director Kyle Ross. “Our goal last year was
Killington’s 35 miles of trails for the Fox US
to lift this event off the ground. This year
Open. Pros such as last year’s champion
we’re looking to grow it into a sustainable
Niko Mulally, Dakota Norton, Bruce Klein
part of summer here in Vermont.”
bikers
in
the
country
descend
and Connor Fearon may not be household
Then, the first week in September, the
names but they’ll be racing for a $40,000
best disc golfers on the planet converge
purse on trails that weave down the same
on Smugglers' Notch’s two courses to
mountain Mikaela Shiffrin raced down at
play for, get this, more than $100,000
the FIS Alpine World Cup last November.
in the Professional Disc Golf World
Better yet, the pro-am format means
Championships. That event, tied in with
anyone can sign up to race the downhill,
FallFest, is also promising to be a crowd
enduro or best whip contests and kids
pleaser.
have their own events. Killington expects
While it’s great to get a chance to see the
close to 5,000 people to watch the race and
top athletes in the world come to Vermont,
attend the clinics, vendor tents and post-
we can’t forget our top amateurs. Last month
race parties and concerts.
Vermont sent three age-group champions
That same weekend, Chuck Patterson
to the Fyn ITU World Championships in
(see "Chair(wo)men of the Boards") and a
Denmark. Two came back with medals (as
host of top paddlers will come to Burlington
described on p. 12). And the third, Karen
for the 10th annual Stand Up for the
Newman, raced with a courage that is
Lake paddleboard race, vying for a $3,500
almost hard to fathom. Her moving story,
purse. The event, started by the same folks
as told by Abagael Giles, is on p. 15.
who brought you WND&WVS and the new
Perhaps there’s some irony to the fact
Burlington Surf Club, is a fundraiser for
that even the most innocent of summer
Burlington’s Community Sailing Center.
sports, diving into a swimming hole, is also
Two weeks later, on August 18-22, tennis fans have the opportunity to sit courtside at
moving into the pro arena as Red Bull and Volcom get involved.
Spruce Peak as Grand Slam Tennis Tours
On p. 20, our summer intern Rylee
brings professional tennis back to the area
Ewald tells the story of her neighbor and
for a second year. In last year’s inaugural
friend Derek McNamara’s rise from local
Stowe Tennis Classic, Albert Ramos,
swimming hole stud to nationally-known
ranked 22nd in the world, won the event,
cliff diver.
beating out five others. This year, ATP Next Gen star Frances Tiafoe, who recently
6 VTSPORTS.COM | AUGUST 2018
“We were overwhelmed by the support
Dare we say it? He’s making a splash. —Lisa Lynn, Editor
AUGUST 2018 | VTSPORTS.COM 7
GREAT OUTDOORS
DISC GOLF WORLDS COME TO VERMONT THE BEST DISC GOLF PLAYERS IN THE WORLD WILL DUKE IT OUT AT SMUGGLERS’ NOTCH THIS SEPTEMBER FOR MORE PRIZE MONEY THAN YOU MIGHT EVER IMAGINE. BY LISA LYNN
I
f you know how to toss a disc (don’t
director Jeff Spring, who has been
Without knowing it, Braithwaite had
Fox Meadows. There’s the challenge
call it a Frisbee), there’s more than
leading the development of Smugglers'
shot it straight into a basket he couldn’t
of zinging a disc under branches,
$100,000 in prize money up for
Notch Resort’s two courses since 2012.
even see, rattling the chains in what has
around trees or, sometimes, trying to
The courses are now rated among the top
become known as a legendary albatross
intentionally ricochet the disc off a trunk.
10 in the U.S. by DiscGolfScene.com.
(coming in three under par).
Smaller than a regular Frisbee, the discs
grabs in Jeffersonville on Sept. 2-9. For the first time, the Pro Disc Golf Association World Championship
Among the pros signed up is Philo
Unlike golf’s manicured fairways,
comes to the Green Mountains. “We’re
Braithwaite. In 2016 he threw a disc that
disc golf is played in more natural
In the last few years, the sport has
expecting 288 pros, and watching these
went 850 yards, soared high and then
environments, like Smuggs' wooded
taken off. “There are now more than
players is pretty cool,” says tournament
cut left and out of site behind some trees.
Brewster Run course or the more open
8,000 courses in the United States,”
8 VTSPORTS.COM | JULY 2018
come in as many variations as golf clubs.
Valarie Jenkins, of Bend, Ore., currently ranked number two in the pro standings, put her energy into a throw at a past Green Mountain Championship. Both Valarie and her brother Avery are former World Champions and on the roster for the Worlds.
says Spring, who first learned to play in
learned to play as a kid on a public course.
In 2013 Spring invited a number
first year was Nate Voss (then the World
Waterbury, Vt. Meanwhile, the number
Now a full-time pro, Wysocki plays more
of pros to play the course. “I told all my
Champ). Voss set the Brewster course
of regulation golf courses has dropped
than 20 tournaments a year around the
friends how amazing it is and since then,
record, coming in 12 under par. Later,
to about 15,000, according to Golf
globe. He has 101 PDGA event wins and
we all look forward to coming back to
Voss and Michael Johansen both broke
Magazine. “Disc golf is so much easier
career earnings of $334,957.
do the Green Mountain Championship
that to tie a new record of 13 under par.
and cheaper to get into. It’s more laid
For many of the pros, it’s not the first
each year,” said Wysocki, on a phone call
“This year, we’ve created two new
back and it’s inclusive, not exclusive,”
time they’ll play the Smuggs courses,
from Sweden where he was playing in a
holes on each course that just opened in
says current top-ranked player Ricky
which, says Wysocki “get better and
tournament in late July.
mid-July,” says Spring, who says that as
Wysocki of South Carolina. Wysocki
better each year.”
Among the pros who played that
the pros get better and the discs more
AUGUST 2018 | VTSPORTS.COM 9
GREAT OUTDOORS
in the event, which is limited to ranked and invited pros. White River Junction’s Stephen Heaps is currently the top ranked
high-tech, the courses are getting harder.
Vermonter with Burlington’s Chris Young,
“We’re now seeing more par 4 and 5 baskets.”
a former chair of the Green Mountain Disc
About 10 Vermonters will be playing
Golf Association, right behind him. Only
Richard Wysocki, one of the top two players in the World, will be returning to Smuggs.
44 women have signed up to date, including Vermont pro Alex Benson of Williston, and they will all have formidable competition from top ranked Paige Pierce. The
event,
which
happens
during
Smuggs' FallFest, will draw spectators. Spring recommends watching at around 1 to 2 pm Saturday and Sunday afternoons. That’s when Wysocki and Paul McBeth, who keep trading off the top two spots, are likely to go head to head. The basket to watch in the pro rounds on Sunday, says Spring, is #7. “It’s a 1,200-foot Paige Pierce, the woman currently leading the circuit, has plenty to smile about.
par 5 with a stream crossing.”
NEWS BRIEFS
14-YEAR-OLD SWIMS TO CANADA On July 18th, seven swimmers plunged into the waters of Lake Memphremagog for the start of a grueling 25-mile swim to Canada. Hosted by Kingdom Games, In Search for Memphre started at the EastSide Restaurant in Newport, Vt. and ended in Magog, Quebec. Only two finished all 25 miles: Sharessa Guiterrez, 37, of Omaha, Nebraska and Vera Rivard, 14, of Derby, Vt. and Springfield, N.H. At 14, Vera is the youngest person to ever complete the race across Lake Memphremagog, with a time of 16 hours and 24 minutes. Vera tastes her win. Vera’s open water swim career began when she was 10 years old. The same year, she won the Northeast Kingdom Open Water Swimming Association Swimmer of the Year Award. Vera has completed 31 total swimming events in her career. Vera’s mom, Darcie Rivard, says she is very proud of Vera and especially of her ability to concentrate for so long. Darcie kayaked alongside her daughter for all 25 miles of the race. “I’m happy I did it and to have finished that goal,” Vera says. “I have been training for over a year,” she added. Reflecting back on how she felt after finishing the race. “I knew I could finish when I could see the beach, which meant there were seven miles
10 VTSPORTS.COM | AUGUST 2018
With her mom in a kayak, Vera Rivard sets out from Newport, Vt. for Magog, QC.
to go.” Before this 25-mile push, Vera’s longest swim had been 15 miles, which she finished in seven hours and 15 minutes. The weather only added to the difficulty of this year’s In Search of Memphre. For the first 15 miles, swimmers faced strong headwinds at 20 mph. In Vera’s case, this seemed to be a good thing. “I think that was the key to her success… the challenge of the waves is what she enjoys…” says Darcie. Vera said she was ready for the rough conditions after training in choppy waters at her family’s lakeside cottage in Derby, Vermont. Vera’s excited to compete in a new upcoming challenge, Northeast Kingdom Swim Week, which runs from Aug. 11 through Aug. 19. In that event, competitors swim 8 lakes in 9 days for a total of 46 miles. —Rylee Ewald
VERMONTERS WIN WORLD MULTISPORT CHAMPS “What I wasn’t prepared for was jellyfish,” Richmond’s Courtney Kaup said after winning her age group in the cross triathlon in the Fyn ITU Multisport World Championships in Denmark in July. Kaup, 40, along with Karen Newman, 57, of South Burlington, and Stowe’s Keith Woodward, 67, was part of Team USA, racing against the globe's best triathletes—both pros and amateur age groupers—from around the world. Woodward, a perennial contender in the Worlds, also took gold, once again, in the 65-69 age group in the sprint duathlon (run, bike, run) and Newman finished sixth in the aquathalon (swim, bike). Kaup, a physical therapist with DeePT, not only won her age group by a whopping four minutes, she finished ninth of all women (pros included). Kaup and others
NEWS BRIEFS had to swim through a veritable morass of jellyfish, both stinging and non-stinging, before making her way to a largely off-road bike and then a trail run that actually went through a circus. The distances were a 1K swim, 27K mountain bike and a 10K run. “I’ve been training for this and making this my A race,” said Kaup who doesn’t use a coach and just recently started training with a hear rate monitor. “I’ve been really old school and just decided I should try it,” she says. It helped. Kaup has raced both off- and on-road triathlons but has focused on off-road the last three years. “It’s safer, you don’t have to worry about cars,” she says. Three years ago, a friend of hers, Richard Tom, was killed by a speeding teenager in Hinesburg. She’s since excelled at off-road, finishing first in the 35-39 age group last October in the XTerra World Championships in Maui in 2017, 12th overall and second of all amateurs. What’s next? Back to the XTerra and after that? “Who knows,” she says. “Women in their 40s are really, really fast.” As for Woodward, in 2012 he was inducted into the Mt. Washington Road Race Hall of Fame for having run the race 37 times, winning it in 1983 and setting a men’s age group record for ages 60-64. A groomer at Crafstbury Outdoor Center, Woodward also won his age group in the Duathlon World Championship in 2013 and 2017.—L.G.
Courtney Kaup, (third from right) on the top of the podium for her age group. Photo by Karin P. Ward
BOLTON VALLEY BRINGS BIKING BACK About 15 years ago, Bolton Valley was known for rugged downhill trails with steep, tight sections, technical bridges and big air. After a decade of dormancy, the DesLauriers family plans to bring that reputation back. In May, Bolton Valley announced plans to host alternating bi-weekly singletrack mountain bike group rides and volunteer trail days to “kick off Bolton’s re-entry into the mountain bike scene.” Bolton plans to establish a solid uphill trail on the Wilderness section of the mountain and to refurbish and re-open six of the original downhill trails. The jump trail under the lower Wilderness lift line will also be rehabilitated. An eight-trail expansion is slated for the future. As of press time, improvements to the existing uphill trail were close to completion. All trails are open to human-powered bike traffic. Access is free for summer 2018, and Bolton is hosting weekly group rides on Thursday nights. —Abagael Giles
VERMONT SKIERS UP FOR SPORTSWOMEN OF THE YEAR Every year the Women’s Sports Foundation recognizes one individual sport athlete and team sport athletes whose performances over the last twelve months have been exceptional. For 2018, several Vermont athletes made the cut. In the individual sport category, Burke Mountain Academy graduate Mikaela Schiffrin was nominated for
12 VTSPORTS.COM | AUGUST 2018
Bolton Valley resurrected its mountain bike trails this summer with trail work days, and some trail riding days too.
Sportswoman of the Year. Schiffrin is currently ranked number one in alpine skiing World Cup standings by the International Skiing Federation. She had a big year, winning gold in the giant slalom and silver in the alpine combined at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in PeyongChang. Nordic skiers Jessie Diggins and Kikkan Randall were nominated in the team sports category for their gold medal in the team sprint at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games. They were the first American team to win a gold in that event. Diggins is a graduate of Stratton Mountain School and has a home near there. Cast your vote at sportswomanoftheyear.com by Aug. 3.—A.G.
SOLD: CATAMOUNT OUTDOOR CENTER
signing of a purchase agreement with
acre property, and to allocate $600,000 from the town’s environmental reserve funds toward the purchase. On July 25, Project Manager Kate Wanner reported that the agency has raised all but $138,000 of the $1.9 million needed for the Town to purchase the property. Once the purchase is complete, the property will be renamed the Catamount Community Forest and managed under a conservation easement. Catamount Outdoor Center will continue its current operations at the site, but will no longer charge fees for pedestrian traffic on its trails. Since the project's initiation, a neighbor has offered to donate 18 acres of land adjacent to the Catamount
the Trust for Public Land for the 393-
property to the town. —A.G.
If all goes as planned, the Town of Williston could assume ownership of the Catamount Outdoor Family Center property by October. The property has been owned by the McCullough family since 1978. They have since retired from operating the nonprofit outdoor center, which draws more than 20,000 mountain bikers, runners and skiers to use its 20-plus mile trail network each year. The Trust for Public Land is brokering the sale. On July 10, Williston’s selectboard voted unanimously to authorize the
TRAIL TALES
AUGUST 2018 | VTSPORTS.COM 13
survey were Fort Collins and Boulder, Co. and Wausau, Wisc. – all of which earned overall scores of 3.5 out of 5. PlacesForBikes rated 484 towns and cities. The overall scores awarded were based on ridership, safety, connectivity, the reach of biking infrastructure within a community and how fast biking infrastructure is growing. —A.G.
NEWS BRIEFS
THE WRECKTANGLE'S READY
RAILBIKE THE ADK.
Want a different way to explore a beautiful section of the Adirondack Park? Try a railbike.
Revolution Rail Co. is offering 2-hour, 6-mile excursions out of North Creek Railroad Station on self-pedaling contraptions that attach directly to the historic railroad tracks. Participants pedal their way uphill one way, along the banks of the Hudson River and up off the ground into the Adirondack forest canopy. The tour even crosses the Hudson via a historic trestle bridge before descending back to the station. Rental prices are set per bike, at $140 for a quad and $80 for a trip on a tandem bike. Tours run daily every two hours from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. —A.G. Photo by Madeline Chapin
HAPPY CAMPERS This summer, Vermont State Parks collaborated with Burlington’s Outdoor Gear Exchange to offer first-time campers free rental camping equipment and instruction in how to use it through the First Time Happy Camper Program. A free campsite was also part of the deal, with campers selecting a weekend away at Bomoseen, Button Bay, Grand Isle, Stillwater or Woodford State Parks. According to Marc Sherman, owner and founder of Outdoor Gear Exchange, the goal of the program was to break down economic barriers that keep some Vermonters from enjoying public lands and resources through outdoor recreation. The program is the brainchild of Sherman, who serves on the Vermont Outdoor Recreation Economic Collaborative, a group of outdoor recreation leaders tasked by Governor Phil Scott with boosting Vermont’s outdoor recreation economy and creating new recreation opportunities. Sherman worked with Kelty,
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Mountainsmith, Black Diamond and Primus to secure gear donations for the program and offered heavily discounted $35 summer weight sleeping bags through OGE. Sherman said the pilot program saw 70 applications on the first day it was launched in late June 2018. Though the program is a pilot, Sherman said he hopes it will someday be funded by the State. According to Rochelle Skinner, Parks Sales and Service Manager for Vermont State Parks, 600 people signed up for the program this summer, and 14 families had participated as of press time. To apply, visit www.vtstateparks. com/happy-camper. —A.G.
a 2.1 out of a possible 5, Middlebury earned a 1.4, Rutland earned a 1.5 and Brattleboro took home a 0.9. In contrast, Las Vegas, NV earned a 2.6. The highest-scoring cities on the
In June, Killington Resort opened the Woodward WreckTangle, an outdoor Ninja obstacle course equipped with cargo nets, balance beams, rope swings and more. It is one of five Wrecktangle courses in the world, which means you can compete virtually with competitors at other sites. Killington’s course serves up 10 unique variations. The course offers great fun for kids (seven and older) and adults alike. A day pass to the Adventure Center earns you access, at $70 for participants seven and older, and $42 for kids six and under. The Adventure Center includes the Beast Mountain Coaster, Zip Line, a bunjee Jump Tower, the Skye Ropes Course, Trampoline Jump, Alpine Tubing and a massive maze. —A.G.
SHALE HILL SAYS GOODBYE On July 4, Shale Hill Adventure Farm announced that it will no longer offer day-to-day obstacle course training, effective after the 24 Hours of Shale Hell race on July 7. The Polar Bear 8, scheduled for February 2, 2019, will be the obstacle racing center’s last event. According to owner Jill Bogert, the business and 141-acre property are for sale. —A.G.
HOW BIKE-FRIENDLY IS VERMONT? According to biking advocacy group PeopleForBikes, not-so-friendly. In the organization’s PlacesForBikes City Rankings survey, a two-year datadriven project that awards cities and towns a score based on the quality of cycling life they offer, Burlington earned
Test your mettle on the new Woodward Wrecktangle at Killington Mountain Resort.
Pushing the Limits DEFYING THE ODDS, KAREN NEWMAN IS SHOWING THE WORLD WHAT'S POSSIBLE BY ABAGAEL GILES
A
t the start line on June 23 everything was still. Then the gun fired, and Karen Newman plunged into the
waters of Lake Dunmore for the swim leg of the Vermont Sun Triathlon. For 600 yards, her world was consumed by churning water and the kicking feet of other swimmers. She was one of the pack, wearing the number one bib she’d earned as a past Vermont Sun Triathlon Series Champion. Karen reached the shore and jumped on her bike, feeling her slim but strong fivefoot-three-inch frame relax as she eased her pelvis onto the saddle. She felt none of the pain that had debilitated her just a few days before, a pain that made her wonder how long she could bear to sit. In that instant, she knew this race would be about winning, not just finishing. As she ran the last mile, Karen was flying, dark hair streaming behind her. Her husband Peter Newman filmed her as she closed in on the finish line. “It was like watching a 16-year-old run. I choke up just thinking about the joy in her smile,” said Peter. “I sent the video to our three boys, who couldn’t be there that day, with the headline ‘Screw Cancer.’” Karen raced the sprint triathlon just one week after finishing radiation treatment for stage IV metastatic breast cancer. It was the third time in 10 years that she had faced a stage III or IV cancer diagnosis. On June 22, she wrote in her blog, “Tomorrow I will race in my last triathlon… It’s been nearly 30 years, more than half my life.” At 57, she finished the race 6th overall among women, beating competitors half her age, with a time of 1:20.48. At 23:16.9, she had the fourth fastest run for women for the 5K. She finished the 600-yard swim in 10:18.2 and the 14.25-mile bike leg in 45:14.7 and she won her age group. On Mother’s Day, 2018, nearly two years to the day since she had received her second diagnosis, Karen Newman learned she had another new tumor, this one at the bottom of her spine in her sacrum. She was also told that several tumors in her pelvis were growing. The doctor who read her PET scan told her that one should have cracked her pubic bone, though it has not. For weeks, she
Karen Newman in her element, after winning the silver medal for her age group at the 2015 Huntsman Senior Games. Photo courtesy Karen Newman
couldn’t sit down for pain in her pelvis and back. In June, she underwent another round of radiation, which was especially tough on her body because other delicate organs and tissue near the tumors were affected.
AUGUST 2018 | VTSPORTS.COM 15
“I was worried the bike ride would break my pubic bone,” said Karen when I met her at her family’s lakefront cottage in Charlotte in early July. “But I jumped right back into racing mode, and I guess the warrior in me
When she's not racing, Karen leads regular Wednesday night Wellness Walks at Tomgirl Juice Co.'s Burlington location. Here, she races in the 2018 Aquathlon World Championships. Photo courtesy Karen Newman
came out.” Fourteen days later, she would be flying to Denmark for the Aquathlon World Championships on July 12. She said it would be her last.
THE WARRIOR Karen has been a warrior of sorts on and off the triathlon circuit for more than 30 years. She was diagnosed with dyslexia as a child and is now the published author of a memoir, Just Three Words. She struggled with an eating disorder for half her life (and beat it) and currently serves as the President of the Vermont Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. She didn’t start racing triathlons seriously until she was in her late 30s and has competed in nine International Triathlon Union World Championships in aquathlon and sprint triathlon since 2001. Karen started out as a cross-country runner at the University of Vermont. It was there that she met Peter Newman. He was a freshman tennis player and she was a
overall. "What really makes her stand out is
sophomore. At a fraternity party, she asked
her speed on the running legs—though she’s
him if he wanted to go for a run with her
no slouch in the other two events either."
early the following morning. She picked him up and they ran the streets of Burlington in
RACING CANCER
a blizzard. They dated for seven years, until
When Karen Newman was first diagnosed
parting ways in New York City in 1988.
with breast cancer in 2008, she was a
One year later, Karen was engaged to
successful dietitian and nutritionist and a
another man and on her way to finishing
working mom with three young children.
what would have been a sub-three-hour
She was 46 years old, a triathlete and
marathon. When she got to
harboring a secret.
the 24-mile
mark of the 1989 New York Marathon, there
That secret came to a head with her
was Peter, with a sign. He’d chased her
cancer diagnosis: Newman had struggled
for seven miles. The sign said, “Go Karen
with disordered eating since she was a
Stetson” on one side and “Will you marry
teenager. A near-deadly bout with anorexia
me?” on the other.
at age 14 led to a 20-plus-year battle with
“She stopped running to stare at me. All she said was, ‘Are you serious?’” said Peter. Karen said yes right then and there
Karen's teammates nominated her to carry the flag during the Parade of Nations at the 2008 World Triathlon Championships and at the 2016 World Championships in Cozumel, Mexico. Photo courtesy Karen Newman
bulimia. By day she counseled others about their nutritional habits, provided relief to people suffering from their own eating
and finished with a time of 3:33:00. She
past me on the running leg this last race,”
Championships in Vancouver, B.C. in 2008.
disorders and was a dedicated mother and
maintains that Peter was worth slowing
he added. Hare is a former all-American
The difference? That was just days after
accomplished athlete. By night, she was
down for.
triathlete.
she completed her fourth chemotherapy
making herself sick.
Karen will be the first to tell you that she
Karen started winning her age group
treatment for advanced, aggressive stage-
didn’t start competing seriously in triathlons
in regional triathlons in her late 30s. In
three breast cancer. She recovered and
before
until 2000, after her sons Stetson, now 26,
1999, her times in regional sprint triathlons
went on to win silver at the 2012 Age Group
would tell me, ‘oh, you look great!” said
Chase, 24, and Trent, 19, were born.
qualified her to compete in the Triathlon
World Championships in triathlon as the top
Newman, a strikingly beautiful woman. “I
“I was a triathlete making myself sick national
championships.
People
Steve Hare, owner of Vermont Sun
National Championships in Oceanside, Ca.
American participant in the women age 50-
thought my husband would divorce me and
Fitness Centers and founder and organizer
She didn’t qualify for Worlds in that race,
54 category with a time of 1:20:59.
that I’d lose my job if anyone knew.”
of the Vermont Sun Triathlon Series, said
but she did qualify for a second series of time
In 2013, Karen broke the Huntsman
The addiction was so engrained in her
Karen has competed in his races for more
trials in Lake Placid, N.Y. later that year. At
Senior Games World Triathlon record with
that when she was first diagnosed with
than 15 years. “She started winning in her
that event, she passed a competitor just feet
a time of 1:11.00 for a 450m swim, 20K bike
cancer, her first thought was that she’d
‘40s, and everybody was like, ‘whoa,’ this
from the finish to earn the fourth spot on
and 5K run. In 2015, the USA Triathlon
probably lose weight while undergoing
woman is really fast.” And she kept getting
Team USA. That meant she would compete
Federation presented Karen with the Most
chemotherapy. She felt relieved. But she
faster.
for the women’s 40-44 age group at the
Inspirational Comeback award. She has
stopped making herself sick that day, after
“Except for a few really exceptional
2001 World Championships in Edmonton,
been named an All-American triathlete
it became clear that if she continued, she
runners out there… once people turn 50,
Canada. Seven years later, she was still
eight times.
would not survive for her three boys. “For
their running goes downhill,” said Hare.
at the top of her game and she competed
Hare says that even with cancer Newman
“Not so for Karen. I saw her blow right
in her age division in the World Triathlon
was and is an exceptional competitor
16 VTSPORTS.COM | AUGUST 2018
anybody who is a parent, your child always comes first.”
When Karen signed up for chemotherapy,
during exercise. Karen said she can feel the
it was on the condition that her doctor allow
weakness in her pelvis. “Sometimes it feels
her to keep training for the 2008 Triathlon
like there’s not enough bone there to support
World Championships, which she qualified
my back,” she said. Dr. Wallace said it can
for by placing fourth at Nationals in 2007. It
take patients years to recover their former
took her three separate meetings to find an
athletic capacity after undergoing such
oncologist who would let her compete.
invasive radiation therapy.
Newman swam daily throughout her
In Karen’s case, she’s competing as a
first round of chemotherapy. She learned to
world class athlete.
run and bike during the eight hours between
When asked why she endures so much
her treatments and when the nausea would
to race now, Karen said, “I want to push the
sink in. Competing became a metaphor for
limits of what people think is possible, so
life: She’d promised her sons she would
that other stage IV metastatic breast cancer
compete at Worlds, and if she could finish
patients know they can do amazing things.”
the race, she could beat cancer too.
With a smile, Karen says she is looking
When the time came to race, her doctors
at other treatment options for this fall. She
advised against it. Peter and her closest
is optimistic, and when you meet her, she
friends supported her.
exudes a health and warmth that makes you
In the end, she competed in the World
forget the cancer.
Championships just five days after her fourth round of chemotherapy. She finished
THE LAST RACE?
hypothermic and in second to last place.
On July 12, 2018 at the start line for the 2018
When her hair fell out, just days
World Aquathlon Championships in Fyn,
after she returned home, she was all the more determined to keep competing in triathlons–even through a mastectomy
Denmark, Karen Newman bobbed between Peter proposed to Karen at the 24-mile mark of the 1989 New York City Marathon. Even in 2008 (below), when she first endured chemotherapy, he never questioned her drive to compete. Photos courtesy Karen Newman
two buoys along with twenty other women from around the world. As hordes of jellyfish
that resulted in lymphedema. “That was the
stung her exposed feet, she marveled that
first time I had really cried about cancer,
she could be there just three weeks after a
my family and what I was going through—
shot of chemotherapy.
everything. I sobbed that my children had
When the gun went off, she plunged her
to worry about their mother dying,” Karen
face into the water and was immediately
wrote in her book, Just Three Words. She
stung on the mouth. After the 1K swim
was determined to show them otherwise.
through myriad tentacles, she struggled
Peter said he never once questioned
to get her ear and nose plugs out. “That
whether Karen could race. “My role was to
transition cost me the podium,” she said.
support and encourage her. Failure wasn’t
At 22:37, she ran the fastest 5K of any
an option. She always brushes herself off
competitor in the women, age 55-59, division.
and gets up and keeps swinging.”
Her overall time was 43:10. She finished in
In 2012 she returned to the World
sixth place overall and was the first American,
Championships to finish second in her age
proudly representing Team USA.
group with a time of 1:13:44. “That was the
When asked if she still plans to retire,
most impressive thing I’ve ever seen,” Peter
Karen said, “I just might be back. If I can get
said. “She is fearless. She comes off as sweet,
the fastest run time in the world after only
but she is tough, and she is the strongest
two weeks of training, who knows what’s
person I know.”
next?” She said that when she runs, she feels
A NEW LIFE
that she would qualify for one more World
last spot on Team USA for the 2018 World
Championship.
Triathlon Championships. It was something
“There is a pre and post cancer Karen,”
healed.
In 2009, Karen thought she had beaten
For months, there were days when she
she was looking forward to. Then, on
said Peter. “Sometimes situations like hers
cancer. And for seven years she was cancer
could hardly get out of bed. She spent nights
Mother’s Day 2018, Karen was told that she
remind you of how precious life is. She has
free. “Cancer was not a death sentence, it
throwing up from chemotherapy and days
has stage IV cancer. Doctors also told her
always been someone who laughs. She’s
was an opportunity for life,” says Karen.
training. “It’s important in treatment to
that after the radiation therapy required to
the most unique person I’ve ever met,
It ended her battle with bulimia. She also
have a goal. For me that was to get up and
treat the tumors in her pelvis, she’d likely
and despite what she’s been through, she
started going to church again. “Your trial
get myself outside. Every day I would say a
never walk again.
maintains a childlike wonder at the world,”
allows other people to be the eyes and hands
grateful prayer before my feet ever touched
Since completing that radiation therapy,
said Peter, who has watched other cancer
of Jesus and it changes you to know you are
the ground. Then I’d push through the pain,”
she has been swimming almost daily. She
patients and athletes react to Karen over the
loved. It is powerful to know that the way
said Karen.
spends time with her family and she works.
years.
you walk through your trial can bring others hope,” she says.
That September, Karen placed fourth in her age group, women 55-59, at the ITU
Aquathlon
days a week.
person in the world when you’re in front of
According to Dr. H. James Wallace,
her. Despite the fact that we’ve aged, she
Jericho on Mother’s Day in 2016, she
Championships, with a time of 45:32. A few
medical director of Radiation Oncology at
still makes my heart jump when she walks
suffered a stress fracture in her spine. She
days later on September 15, she placed 31 at
the University of Vermont Medical Center,
around the corner.”
walked the rest of the race and collapsed
the ITU World Triathlon Grand Final with a
radiation therapy to the pelvic region
“This life is about love,” said Karen.
at the finish line. The cancer was back and
time of 1:37:59. Afraid of a catastrophic fall,
causes fatigue in most patients, and can
“And my mission is to leave a legacy of love.
it was in her bones. A doctor told her she
she raced on a mountain bike.
cause anemia, nausea, and reduce the
Nobody is going to remember what you did,
body’s ability to oxygenate local muscles
but they will remember how you lived.”
would never walk again. She told her kids
Cozumel
“She makes you feel like you’re the only
World
Then, at the Pump-it-Up 5-miler in
2016
She rides her bike and she runs two to three
Those performances earned her the
AUGUST 17 JULY 2018 | VTSPORTS.COM 17
The foil on his sailboard lets Russ Scully catch air, even lighter Lake Champlain breezes.
CHAIR(WO)MEN OF
THE BOARDS WITH A NEW SURF CLUB OPENING, BURLINGTON IS BECOMING AN UNLIKELY BOARD SPORTS CAPITAL. BY LISA LYNN
O
“M2O is the toughest SUP race in the
n a windy day this spring, Burlington’s and
Russ
Stowe’s
Dr.
world,” says Patterson.
Scully
Bob
Arnot
found themselves in the middle of Lake
MAKING WAVES
Champlain,
building
On a hot, windless day in early July Chuck
waves. Snow clung to the peaks of the
Patterson lounges in an Adirondack chair
Adirondacks. A swell, pushed by the strong
bearing the insignia “Burlington Surf
southerly, funneled them past Charlotte’s
Club.” The chair is one of many that’s
Thompson’s Point. By the time the two
casually arranged to look out over the lake
were off Shelburne, the water was heaving
at the new Burlington Surf Club, located
itself into what might be considered a lake
just off the bike path in the South End.
surfing
down
Last summer, this stretch of waterfront
version of breakers.
was part of 16-acre lot with three vacant,
The pair, dressed in wetsuits and carrying positioned
paddles
and
themselves
life as
the
industrial
jackets, waves
miles, balancing the standup paddleboards
headquarters
are people swimming and paddling off the
crested. They stroked hard and glided down the glassy faces. They surfed for 15
buildings—the
of 72 years for Blodgett Oven. Now, there Roxanne Scully (third woman from right) and the WND&WVS crew that won the 2017 Dragonboat Festival. The team included Ali Marchildon (far left) who moved to Burlington from Hawaii and California's Chuck Patterson (second male from left). Photo by Lee Krohn
beach. Kids practice on windsurfers. A few Hobie Cats are pulled up on shore. Patterson has his foil boards (paddle or
with their feet, bending forward Gumbylike, sinking a paddle, stroking back, legs
Scully. “We now have a trailer, so we can
stretches of ocean in the Hawaiian islands.
kiteboards that rise up on an underwater
moving like springs with the up-down-
take a whole bunch of boards anywhere
Currents, rogue swells and sharks are part
foil) ready to go. The first week in July, he
up-down of the swells. After hours of
and do a downwinder back. Sometimes
of the fun. Scully, 49, has done the race
was giving foiling clinics.
this, they came into the lee of Burlington
we take the ferry over to Plattsburgh and
as part of a two-person team with big-
At 6’2”, all chest and big guns,
Harbor, where they pulled ashore just off
paddle back.”
wave surfer and paddleboard pro Chuck
Patterson sports the perpetual tan and
The Molokai to Oahu (a.k.a M2O) sends
Patterson, also 49. Arnot, 70, has done the
zinc-oxide nose that are hallmarks of a pro
“We did a lot of those downwinders to
stand-up paddleboarders on a one-way,
race five times solo. On July 29, he planned
surfer. “I have huge respect for anyone who
train for M20, but also just for fun” says
32-mile crossing of some of the gnarliest
to race his sixth M2O.
can do that race,” he says, talking about
the Blodgett building.
18 VTSPORTS.COM | AUGUST 2018
massive wave. “The helicopter wash was so strong it kept blowing me back and I barely got over the lip—I was scared to death,” he says of his now-famous 2009 first descent of the wave on skis. He stuck it and streaked down the face making GS turns as the monster roared and crashed behind him.
STANDING UP FOR THE LAKE Looking out at the flat, glassy waters of Lake Champlain, you might think that Burlington would be the last place you’d find a waterman like Patterson. Yet, he spent two weeks here in July and is coming back for a week in August for the 10th running of Stand-Up for the Lake. The SUP fest has grown to attract more
The Scully' new Burlington Surf Club where anyone can rent a board or get a day pass to hang and enjoy beach chairs, a yoga pavilion and the surf retail shack. Photo by Lisa Lynn
than 80 competitors from both sides of the
we were foiling, there were kiteboards out,
in Maine eventually built into the skis
border. It now has a cash purse of $3,500
a few windsurfers and then when it died
Patterson used to surf Jaws.
and is one of 24 Paddle-League affiliated
down some we took the Hobie Cat out — all
Starr went on to found Paddlesurf
races held around the globe. It also has
in one day,” says Patterson. “It amazes me
Champlain in 2009, and still occasionally
helped raise more than $60,000 for the
that this lake is so undiscovered. Look at
does lessons on the paddle skis out of his
Community Sailing Center, where Scully
it! I think I’ve seen the best sunsets here of
Oakledge Park base. “I don’t get a lot of
served on the board for many years.
anywhere.”
demand for that, but it’s fun to get them out
While Patterson will be there for his
For
Patterson,
there’s
another
every once in a while," he says.
sponsors (WND&WVS is one, along with
connection to Burlington. In 2007, two of
GoPro, Naish, DaKine and a host of others),
Patterson’s friends, Cody Townsend and
for
Starr is one of the people responsible
the California transplant has started
Mike Douglas, were looking for a way to
Champlain
making more and more visits to Burlington
ski on waves. Meanwhile, Jason Starr, a
lessons and guide service at Oakledge.
just for fun. “This place is awesome! I’ve
former freestyle skier from Essex, Vt., had
Steve Brownlee is another. Brownlee’s
become really good friends with Russ
been experimenting with making skis for
Umiak Outfitters sets up SUP and kayak
and his wife Roxanne, so why not hang
waves—though he’s the first to say, “I’m not
rentals at Burlington’s North Beach (and
out here?” he says, looking out over the
really a surfer at all.” An avid river paddler,
on the Waterbury Reservoir). And the
water. “Last Friday it was as windy here as
he started with paddle skis, then designed
new Community Sailing Center, right on
anywhere, blowing 25 to 30 knots. Man,
the skis that the McDermott brothers
the city’s waterfront, is another popular
bringing
paddlesports
with
his
on-lake
to
Lake rentals,
M2O, “and Dr. Bob, well he’s a legend,” Patterson says. (The legend was stoked when The Wall Street Journal wrote a July 21 story on Arnot, entitled “No Ocean Is No Problem For This Vermont Stand-Up Paddleboarder.”) Patterson continues to talk about M2O and what it's like to paddle in to Oahu’s China Wall, where hefty Pacific swells heave into a backwash. “It’s like paddling through a mogul field,” he says. Patterson should know. Along with surf icons Laird Hamilton and Dave Kalama, he’s one of the foremost “watermen” in the world–someone adept at using any type of board for any type of watersport. His bio reads like a series of coverlines for Outside Magazine: set record for skiing off 142-foot cliff; paddled with Great White sharks circling under him (and caught underwater footage with his Go-Pro); fourtime winner of the U.S. Extreme Combined Ski & Snowboard Champion; and skied (yes, skied) the giant 40-foot-plus wave that stacks up off Maui that locals call Peahi or, more commonly, Jaws. With Red Bull filming from a helicopter,
Russ Scully kiteboarding off WND&WVS winter retreat in Rincon, Puerto Rico.
Photo by Amy Rodriguez
Patterson was towed in by jetski to the
AUGUST 2018 | VTSPORTS.COM 19
"It's pretty cool that we can get guys like Ben and Chuck to come to Vermont." Big wave surfer Chuck Patterson used skis designed by Essex, Vt.'s Jason Starr, to surf-ski Jaws, a massive wave off Maui. For a video of his ride, see vtsports.com. Photo courtesy Jason Starr launch and rental spot.
“Just like the Community Sailing
North of Burlington, in a shallow bay
Center, our goal here is to show that
off St. Albans, Curt and Jerri Benjamin
anyone can get out on the lake,” Russ says
and their son Jordan and his wife Erin have
as he nods toward the water. While the CSC
also made board sports a way of life. The
focuses more on sailboats and dinghies,
elder Benjamins, now in their 60s, started
the Burlington Surf Club is about the
off windsurfing more than 30 years ago
beachier side of water sports. Once a week,
and have since moved into kiteboarding,
Canadian Olympic canoeist and paddler
becoming the only Professional Air Sports
Tommy Buday comes down to host SUP
Association (PASA)-certified instructors
paddle clinics. On Tuesday nights, there’s
in Vermont. "We teach at St. Albans but
SUP water polo. Wednesday nights are
also out of the Burlington Surf Club," says
races and time trials.
Jerri, 65, who just finished teaching a
All summer, there are kids' windsurfing
women's clinic there. From their St. Albans
camps. “Windsurfing camp! I can’t think of
spot, the Benjamins' KiteNPaddle also
anywhere in the continental U.S. you could
offers kiting and paddleboard trips out to
find a windsurfing camp going as strong as
the Champlain Islands. In the fall, they
it is here,” Patterson exclaims. “It’s like a
head to Cape Hatteras, N.C. For a state that’s hasn’t seen a salt water wave in a millennium, Vermont’s surf/
Patterson celebrated Fourth of July, 2018, in Burlington, giving lessons on how to foil. Photo courtesy Chuck Patterson
little Hawaii here.” Quietly presiding over “little Hawaii,” the Scullys look like they just stepped
paddle/boardsports scene has grown at a
Santa Barbara, Ca. in 1997. “We wanted a
shoreline where Blodgett Oven was based.
out of the ocean. Tanned and fit, with
surprising rate. And now, the Burlington
breakfast place like Mesa Café, where we
“At first, I just wanted the land beside it,”
sun-streaked
Surf Club is taking that scene up a notch.
used to go in Santa Barbara,” Roxanne
says Russ who lost out on the original bid.
flip flops, they both look a lot more like
recalls. So in 2009 they
created the
Then, the place came up for sale again. He
SURF CITY
surf instructors than investors who just
surf-themed restaurant, The Spot, in an
put together $14.3 million and closed on
bought a 14 million-dollar property. They
Not long after Russ Scully finished his
architecturally historic former Phillips 66
the property in June, 2017. The idea: first
are both. Russ is the current chair of the
downwinder last May, he and Roxanne
batwing gas station on Route 7. Then they
build a surf club, then see what else would
Burlington Business Association. Roxanne,
started work on the surf club, a dream they
started selling boards out of The Spot.
come.
48 is a strong slalom waterskier and Brown
have had for years, and the logical next
That spawned WND&WVs in 2012. Then,
By our interview in early July, there
Belt Nia dance teacher at the South End
step in what can best be described as their
in the summer of 2017 they opened Spot
was a surf shop, storage cabins for SUPs,
Studio. She supports local charities via her
efforts to surf-ify Burlington. “I just want
on The Dock, at the heart of Burlington's
windsurfers, kiteboards and more. In a
Onda Foundation and has helped lead the
to make Burlington a model so that people
waterfront.
shaded pavilion, a woman was leading a
WND&WVS team (made up of employees)
All the while, Russ had his eye on what
yoga class. Kids played on the sand bars
to victory the last two years in the annual
was perhaps the most prime piece of real
out front. Hammocks hung between trees,
Burlington
estate left in the city: the building and
clusters swung in the breeze.
which support cancer research.
look at what’s being done here and the good that can come out of it,” says Roxanne. The Scullys moved to Vermont from
20 VTSPORTS.COM | AUGUST 2018
hair,
board
Dragonboat
shorts
Festival
and
races
Ali Marchildon, who helps manage the
states. When he got to Vermont in 2017, the Jason Starr on his prototype paddle skis Photo courtesy J. Starr
WND&WVS shop, embodies the beach/ business vibe the couple have established.
WND&WVS crew guided him to a standing wave on the Mad River. Gravy checked off
She moved to Burlington from Hawaii and
the “I surfed Vermont” box, sort of: “Who
worked for the Women’s Small Business
knew surfing was a thing in Vermont? Well,
Program before joining WND&WVS. “I’ve
now it is,” Gravy deadpanned in his V-blog.
seen days out on the lake when people were
“It’s pretty cool that we can get guys like
out surfing the waves off the point,” she says,
Ben and Chuck to Vermont. They become our
nodding to the north. “It’s not Hawaii, but it’s
ambassadors and we want them out there
still a pretty great place to live.”
talking about what’s going on here,” says
Why would any surfer move to Vermont?
Scully.
For Marchildon, it was for her former
It’s a strategy that starts to make sense
husband’s career. For the Scullys, it was
when you pull back and look at Scully’s
something different. “We were both from the
bigger picture and the old brick Blodgett
East and liked to ski. We thought we’d just
building that lies just past "little Hawaii."
stay for a year or two, but we got married
“This land has always been a dream of
here and then it stuck. This is such a good
mine,” says Russ as he sweeps an arm. “Just
place to raise a family,” says Russ. The couple
look at this: in what other inland city can
now have two sons, ages 15 and 17.
you ride your bike down to the beach and
Russ grew up surfing in New Jersey
go paddleboard or swim or sail or windsurf.
and went to St. Lawrence University, where
That’s got to attract a business.”
he started dating Roxanne, who grew up
The old Blodgett buildings sit waiting,
in the Adirondacks. After, graduating the
proprietary retail software e-beans (which
bought a place in Rincon, Puerto Rico where
as Russ, who, draws up plan after plan—
couple headed west. He began working in
he created originally for Vermont’s coffee
they now hold surf, SUP and kiteboard
some involving retail and business space,
graphic design for a newspaper in Santa
roasting industry) his shops use today.
camps with pros like Patterson. They also
some residential. “One of our goals is to
started
continue to host fundraisers for Miller’s
see Burlington grow—a place like this
the surf culture there,” Roxanne says. But
Stormboarding (teaching snow-kiting in
latest venture, the Rozalia Project, which
could attract another tech business like
with family in Dorset, Vt., and in New York,
the winter and summer kiteboarding in the
focuses on getting plastic out of the ocean.
Dealer.com,
the couple moved back. Russ worked on
Champlain Islands), first introduced the
software development for his own company,
Scullys to windsurfing in 2004.
Barbara, Ca. “We both just fell in love with
Rachel
Miller,
who
perhaps
a
Google,”
Russ
The shop now has a “team” of sponsored
says. Considering the start-ups that have
pros. “Our 'sponsorship' isn't much. It’s
launched in some of the Scullys’ other
Scully Interactive, and eventually teamed up
“She was the one who really got me
really a way of just helping them out a little
properties:
with Dave Gibson to found Propeller Media
hooked,” Russ says, and credits Bob Arnot
bit so they can live the dream,” Russ says.
Lunaroma and Eco-Bean, it’s not unlikely.
Works. He later left to focus on real estate and
with getting him into SUPs. The Scullys were
The “team” includes Ben Gravy, a surfer
They just need to find more chairmen and
his own web design company and created the
so caught up in the surf scene they eventually
from New Jersey who set out to surf all 50
chairwomen of the boards.
WHERE TO GET ON BOARD(S)
Budnitz
Bike
(and
Ello),
of the islands in the Inland Sea (Burton, KiteNPaddle shows new kiters the ropes.
Woods or Mosquito). They also put together fall kiting trips to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. A three-hour intro to kiting lesson
If you want to get into the Lake Champlain
costs $165 and the Benjamins are PASA
surf (or SUP) scene, Burlington is making
certified. Kitenpaddle.com
it easy. With rentals, lessons and events going on weekly, you can have your pick.
Paddlesurf Champlain
Grab a board and test yourself against
For nearly 10 years, Jason Starr has been
some of the best at Stand Up for the Lake
renting paddleboards and giving lessons out
on August 5, or just cruise the coast.
of Burlington’s Oakledge Park with Paddlesurf
Here’s where to SUP, kite, windsurf,
Champlain. You can take an hour lesson for
paddle or foil.
$30 or rent a board for $15 for a 1.5 hours. Paddlesurf stocks boards by Evolve, Jimmy
Burlington Surf Club
Styx and Liquid Shredder. You can also ask
The Burlington Surf Club opened this
Starr to give you a lesson on the paddle-skis
spring with SUP, Starship and windsurfer
he designed. Paddlesurfchamplain.com.
rentals for anyone and a place where Umiak Outfitters
members (membership is $250 a year for an adult) can store their boards.
Waterfront, the Community Sailing Center
KiteNPaddle
Burlington’s biggest public beach, North
There’s also a pavilion that has weekly
rents everything from keelboats (Sonars
Set on a spit of land near St. Albans that
Beach, is where Umiak Outfitters rents SUPS
yoga and Nia classes, Tuesday night SUP
and Rhodes 19s) to sailing dinghies (420s
sticks well into Lake Champlain’s shallow
($25 for two hours), and kayaks—as well
polo, paddle clinics and kids' windurfing
and Lasers) to canoes, kayaks and SUPS.
waters, the Benjamin family home is
as at the Waterbury Reservoir. With shops
camps. An hour SUP rental is $15.
Sunday mornings there’s paddleboard
like a yacht club for board sports. Curt
in Richmond and Stowe, Umiak also sells
Burlingtonsurfclub.com
yoga. SUPs rent for $15 an hour. There are
and Jerri, who have been windsurfing
boards and boats, offers lessons (in SUP’s or
also a host of programs for kids and adults
and kiting for more than 30 years, and
kayaks) and organizes trips on the Winooski
Community Sailing Center
and the Center has the goal of creating
their son Jordan and his wife Erin teach
and the Lamoille Rivers. Umiak.com
Housed in an architecturally-stunning
access to the lake for all, no matter their
kiteboarding and windsurfing and offer
new
circumstance.Communitysailingcenter.org
SUP rentals and guided trips to some
building
on
the
Burlington
AUGUST 2018 | VTSPORTS.COM 21
A I F T F H O S P LEA ONT E DGE S, V E R M L D N A S IE R R QUA OR T LESS RIVERS, G AC TION SP IN WITH ITS END W O R -G T S E FA A HUB TO TH HA S BECOME LD . BY RY LEE EWA G IN P M U J F OF CLIF
22 VTSPORTS.COM | AUGUST 2018
Derek McNamara launches a backflip off the 50-foot bridge into the Ottauquechee River in Quechee Gorge. Photo by Zeke Neubauer
Within view of Quechee's Simon Pearce showroom and restaurant, Derek McNamara does a flying front flip into the Ottauquechee.
O
Photo by Ali Kaukas
Derek
say to yourself ‘I got this’, if you aren’t 100
McNamara, a 19-year-old from
percent sure, even 99 percent confident,
Proctorsville, stood at the edge of
just don’t do it,” Derek says as he discusses
a 112-foot cliff, staring down at the glassy
the many times he’s walked away from a
water below. The cheers from friends
jump because he felt “off.”
ne
day
last
spring,
Most cliff jumpers spend numerous
behind him were drowned out by the sound of his own heartbeat thumping in his ears.
hours
perfecting
their
jumps
on
As he prepared to launch off the cliff,
trampolines and into foam pits before
the highest jump he had ever attempted,
they’re ever ready to follow through with
something didn’t feel right. Normally
the jump in real life. Confidence is key,
fearless, Derek felt his breath stick in his
Derek stresses when he talks about the
chest. His hands were numb. He shook his
quick few moments before he gets ready to
head and turned from the edge and walked
jump off an 80-plus-foot cliff. “It took me a long time to be ready for
back toward his friends, feeling the cold
this jump. I walked away many times… I
stone beneath his feet.
wasn’t quite ready,” said Derek about the
Karen McNamara arrived just in time
112-foot cliff.
to see her son turn away from the cliff. As she’d approached the Barre quarry she’d
One day in June he would stand at
been held up by police, who wanted to know
the top of the cliff, 100 percent confident
why she was walking on private property.
McNamara, 19, has started to get invitations to cliff dive around the country.
Photo by Zeke Neubauer
in himself that he’d land the jump safely.
She asked Derek why he didn’t jump. He
“There’s no stopping him. Even if I
“It makes me feel better that [Derek] stops
Which he did, completing a perfect flip
said he had already seen multiple people
didn’t like what he was doing, he’d go out
and thinks. He doesn’t go out there just to
into the water below where he was greeted
injure themselves that day. Someone had
and do it anyway,” says Karen, when asked
be crazy. If it’s not feeling right one day, he
by fellow jumpers waiting to high five and
passed out from the impact of hitting the
if fear ever gets in the way of supporting
won’t jump for whatever reason.”
fist bump him as he resurfaced.
water. Another friend injured his ankle.
Derek and his passion for cliff jumping.
“When you look at a jump and you don’t
AUGUST 2018 | VTSPORTS.COM 23
A favorite swimming hole for the UVM freeskiing team is Stowe's Bingham Falls.
Photo by Brooks Curran
Zeke describes the community as “talented kids and athletes who drive each other to do big, massive stuff.”
also helped popularize the sport through
him in 2017. That summer he found ways
Zeke Neubauer, another Dorset Quarry
around his injury and continued to cliff
jumpers do. Volcom has also begun to dip a
regular, grew up in California jumping
dive. After many months at the Dorset
toe in the rising sport, by sponsoring young
cliffs at Lake Havasu, in Arizona. As a
Quarry, he started to become recognized
athletes such as Rob Wall and Jay Briggs.
kid, Zeke was into BMX mountain biking
for doing big jumps. He started to get
The company has even created swim shorts
and practicing tricks on trampolines. He
invitations to travel around Vermont and
specially designed for cliff jumping.
describes the cliff jumping community as
A SPORT ON THE RISE Derek grew up near me in Proctorsville, a town with a population of less than 500 people. He spends most of his winters skiing and training and all of his summers cliff jumping. As a kid, I remember him jumping off the top of the trestle bridge, a 38-foot jump which no other kid would ever dare to do. A freestyle skier at Okemo, Derek’s skiing career was starting to take off when an ACL tear and a bone fracture sidelined
his videography. His YouTube channels showcase some of Vermont’s top spots and divers. Berritta “discovered” Derek at the Dorset Quarry and introduced him to a network of jumpers from as far away as the West Coast. This summer, the first ever full-length cliff diving movie, “Flow State” was released. The film captured jumpers from all around the world, among them athletes in our own state.
beyond with a growing community of cliff
Videos of people cliff diving have gained
“talented kids and athletes who drive each
divers. Soon, he began meeting cliff divers
popularity online as well. Photographer
other to do big massive stuff… it’s cool
from across the country.
Brooks Curran’s 2015 montage “A VT
because everyone’s still progressing and
Day” showcased some of the state’s top
has a different style. They work together
freeskiers spending a day hucking four of
to push each other. There are really no
Vermont’s popular dive spots in one day:
guidelines,” says Zeke.
In the last decade, cliff jumping or diving has become a rising action sport. In 2009, Red Bull introduced a cliff diving
Jumping into the aqua waters of "Little Bahamas," a quarry near Brandon. Photo by Robert Pond
Warren Falls, Bingham Falls, Winooski
“We’re all similarly minded people. We are
from a height of 88 feet—three times
number of somersaults, twists, and entry.
Quarry and Burlington’s Red Rocks. The
just a group that likes to go out and have
the height of a standard Olympic diving
Even with the rigorous scoring system, the
video has earned 57,888 views since it was
fun,” says Derek.
platform. Divers are scored on the degree of
traditional diving format still differs from
posted on YouTube two years ago. Mike
Every year, what Derek calls a “sendy
difficulty, based on factors such as takeoff,
the array of freestyle tricks that modern
Berritta, creator of Cliff Life Media, has
convention” of jumpers from the East Coast
competition where elite divers compete
24 VTSPORTS.COM | AUGUST 2018
and West Coast meet up in a new location
well as takeoff in both arenas. “If you are
for the event officially named East x West,
already off-balance or unaligned on your
which made its debut in 2012. Anyone who
take-off, this can make for a sloppy jump.”
is welcome. The 2017 East x West was held
He likes to think about jumping in three
in Barre.
parts, take off, airtime balance and your
As we talk, Derek pull up plane tickets
landing position. Jumpers should always
to a competition at the end of July called the
land feet first. Often, beginners forget to
Colorado Cliff Cruise. Billed as a gathering
untuck their knees and leave their arms
of “60 of the best cliff jumpers and divers,”
out to the side, a mistake that can lead to
the competition (held in California this
injury when jumping from high heights.
year) features a 40-foot jump and a 70-
A “pencil jump” can also lead to a loss
foot jump. Derek was thrilled to be invited.
of balance, resulting in landing on ones
“I’m very excited, but terrified at the same
back. Aerial awareness is an important
time,” he admitted.
component of a jump, since most jumpers
As he jumped more and more, Derek
spend airtime falling. “Practicing aerial
has become familiar with cliff jumpers
awareness is meant to help you in an
from Vermont. But as he watched videos
uncomfortable setting,” Labow says.
of the sport online, he was surprised to
I watched Derek try to perfect a gainer
discover how many people across the
cork 720, which is a move specific to the
country were as dedicated to jumping as
sport of cliff jumping. He said he had
he was. He began connecting with others
watched a video of the trick from another
on Instagram after watching their videos.
jumper and practiced it at a much smaller,
Soon his own Instagram feed became
safer height before he tried it for the first
dedicated to clips of him jumping.
time off the Quechee covered bridge as
“I wasn’t quite in the group yet. I knew
I watched. Flopping the jump the first
I wanted to hang out with these people
time from the smaller height, Derek knew
more, so I had to do something crazy,” says
that he wasn’t ready to take on the gainer
Derek. At some point, a light bulb went off
cork 720 from the very top of the bridge.
in his head: “I decided I had to light myself
The historic structure rests 50 feet above
on fire,” he said. To prove himself to his
the water below, making it a jump with
fellow jumpers, Derek (who volunteers as a
consequences for failure.
firefighter in Proctorsville) wore a wetsuit covered in Vaseline. He had someone ignite
JUMPS WITH CONSEQUENCES
the suit as he jumped off an 88-foot cliff
With the steady rise of cliff jumping and its
into the ocean in Acadia National Park,
growing presence in social media, people
Maine.
are increasingly copying tricks they see
Like many skiers, Derek grew up
from videos posted online. Jumpers who
training with trampolines, foam pits, and
know what they are doing won’t attempt
the occasional cliff jump. In the winter
a jump until they’re confident they will be
though, he spent most of his time at
able to safely perform it. That’s not always
Okemo’s terrain parks. His ACL tear sent
the case with those less experienced.
him into several months of recovery. “I’m
In 2015, at Red Rocks in Burlington,
the kind of person who can’t sit still. The
Michael Hansen, 41, of Shelburne jumped
first couple of days I was like ‘Wow, this
from a 70-foot cliff and died on impact.
is great, people are waiting on me.’ Then
In July 2017, William Caulkins of Cohoes,
a week passed and I was going crazy,”
NY, jumped from a 100-foot-high ledge in
Derek says. When he came back from his
the Barre granite quarries — a place where
long, drawn-out period of recovery, it was
swimming and diving are prohibited —
summer. He missed the thrill of flipping
and had to be airlifted to the intensive care
through the air on skis, so he decided to
unit at Dartmouth Hitchcock hospital. In
get serious about cliff jumping. “I was
early July of this year, Ryan Syszmanski,
basically jumping with an immobile leg. I
22, an experienced cliff diver, former
would wrap and compress my healing knee
gymnast and free runner, was filmed
with anything I could before I jumped.”
jumping off a similarly high ledge in
Derek was so eager to get back in the air
Barre. He tore every ligament in his knee.
that any fears he had about reinjuring his knee were thrown aside.
The video of his jump went viral and was Zeke Neubauer, ready to make a splash in the Dorset Quarry.
Photo by Ali Kaukas
Derek acknowledges the similarity
picked up by news outlets such as Inside Edition. “Even though I’m watching from
between freestyle skiing and cliff jumping.
requires that participants stay active to
Most serious cliff jumpers got their start
avoid injury. “Since cliff jumping is such a
University of Vermont freeskiing coach
that this sport is continuing to grow like
in another sport, whether that be skiing,
new sport, we’re all still learning… We take
Noah Labow says that the “cliff jumping
it is— with people like @clifflifemedia and
gymnastics, or diving. He says that like
tricks from sports like skiing and we add
game” involves maneuvers that are very
@jakeofalltrades808 leading the charge,”
skiing, cliff diving takes a lot of training
something new to them, and we rename
similar to freestyle skiing tricks. The sports
Syszmanski posted on Instagram.
and practice at something he calls “aerial
them… The people who thrive the most in
involve similar training and Noah stresses
All summer around Vermont, you
awareness.” He also says that the sport
this sport are the people who come from
the importance of aerial awareness as
can see people jumping off cliffs into
some kind of other sport background…”
the outside now, I’m absolutely thrilled
AUGUST 2018 | VTSPORTS.COM 25
swimming holes. Popular spots include Dorset Quarry, Quechee Gorge, Red Rocks, Bingham Falls and various quarries. Stowe Mountain Rescue’s Doug Veliko says that in the summer about 20 percent of calls to the rescue team are swimming hole-related, whether that be Bingham Falls, Glen Moss Falls, or other places near Stowe. They aren’t all necessarily jumpingrelated, but often steep cliffs lead to slips that end in injury. Veliko says most of the calls he gets are from 19- to 22-yearold males, many of whom are under the influence of drugs or alcohol. He believes that people take little to no precautions when preparing for a jump. “People get misled. They think ‘Oh I’ve been swimming here for 20 years,’ but things change,” Veliko said. Veliko suggests that people scout out pools, launch sites, and look for wet rocks before attempting a jump, even in a place they are familiar with. He also advises that no one consume alcohol or drugs. This year, with the lack of rain, water levels are low. As a benchmark, Lake Champlain's water level was at 98 feet at the King Street Ferry Dock in Burlington in May. As of late July, it had dropped four feet. Another problem with cliff jumping is that access to many swimming holes requires
crossing
private
land.
McNamara sends a back full from the covered bridge at the Quechee Gorge.
Photo by Ali Kaukas
Most
Serious cliff jumpers always check launch
He acknowledges the big steps that Red Bull
freestyle skiing at Green Mountain
often, encounters between jumpers and
sites for slippery rocks, landing pools for
and Volcom have already taken to reinvent
Academy, says that cliff jumping, as well
police are due to trespassing complaints.
debris and depth, and never try a jump
the sport. Because of cliff jumping, Derek
as many other freestyle sports, have
Owners of the property can be held liable
they aren’t ready or practiced for.
has his own bucket list of spots he hopes
made their name only recently. “I slowly
for injuries, or even worse, fatalities that happen on their land. Chief William Dodge of the Barre
jumping will take him, among them; New
worked my way up,” he says of the jumps
sport and says he could see himself
Derek sees cliff jumping as a serious
Zealand, Australia, and Thailand.
he did as a freestyle skier in his early 20s.
coaching younger children in it someday.
Noah Labow, who now coaches
“The modern era of cliff jumping is pretty
Town Police Department says that during
extreme… I consider a fall fatal at 55 feet.
the summer of 2017 there were only an
These guys are jumping off of 80+ foot
estimated three or four calls specifically involving
cliff
jumping
incidents—
although there are many other complaints at the quarries involving trespassing. “I don’t know of any regulations specifically regarding cliff jumping, but in our case the entire property is posted, therefore people
DIVING IN You can find swimming holes all over Vermont but a few places, such as Dorset Quarry, Bingham Falls, Warren Falls and Red Rocks are known for cliff diving. Always check the depth of the entire pool, especially as water is very low this year, due to droughts. Don't trespass, know the conditions, your skills and be prepared.
Derek says that as long as you respect the police, leave when you are asked, and stay honest with them, little trouble comes
rule. He won’t jump anything over that height, because of the massive amount of impact. After interviewing Derek, I tagged along to watch him jump from the Quechee covered bridge into the Ottauquechee
who cliff dive are trespassing,” says Chief Dodge.
cliffs.” Noah also has a 50- to -60-foot
River. Derek was prepared to jump from Aerial Awareness: Mastering midair control. Aerial Awareness is practiced on
over 50 feet, off of the covered bridge above
trampolines and into foam pits to help master a trick.
me.
A Double: Two flips.
As I sat there waiting for him to jump,
Gainer Cork 720: A moving forward back flip where you are running at the cliff, with a
I was more nervous than he was. Before
twisting fall backwards.
he jumped, he rolled his shoulders, took
cooperate with authorities and leave no
Double Back: A double backflip.
a deep breath and dove from the bridge,
trace, often due to fear that their favorite
Triple Half: A flip with a half twist (180 degrees) done three times.
doing a single flip. He fell in slow motion
jumping spots will be shut down.
Front 540 (Misty): Spinning forward into a rotation leaning forward.
and straightened out before piercing the
Gainer: A backwards somersault while still moving forward.
surface of the water far below. I didn’t let
to is to make sure there are people in the
Double 10: Three rotations on axis combined with two flips off axis.
myself relax until I saw his head break the
water when a person is jumping. “One, it’s
Cork (Cab) 7: Two full rotations (360 degrees twice) of an off axis or inverted horizontal
surface.
fun to fist-bump someone after you stomp
rotation.
a jump, but also we take into consideration
Dub Lay: Straight body, layed out backflip.
that things go wrong… humans are
Back Full: A backflip with a 360.
humans,” he says. He also takes time to
Double Gainer: A backwards somersault where the person flips twice, instead of just
swim at depth to make sure a pool is deep
once.
out of these encounters. Serious jumpers
Another rule of thumb Derek adheres
enough for the jump he plans to attempt.
26 VTSPORTS.COM | AUGUST 2018
As Derek gracefully dived and flipped with ease, capturing the attention of many, I hesitantly climbed a 25-foot cliff. Then, with a series of shrieks (confirming that I was definitely not meant for the sport), I jumped. Cliff jumping, I decided, takes so much more than the courage to huck yourself off a ledge.
NEWS BRIEFS
CAN WEED HELP YOU WIN?
Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and Cannabidiol (CBD) are the two most prevalent compounds in cannabis plants. THC is psychoactive, and CBD is not. THC's chemical qualities are fairly wellunderstood, but little is known about how CBD interacts with the body.
SOME ATHLETES CLAIM MARIJUANA HELPS THEM. WE LOOK AT THE THE SCIENCE BEHIND THIS NEWLY-LEGALIZED SUBSTANCE AND HOW IT CAN IMPACT PERFORMANCE, FOR BETTER OR WORSE. BY ABAGAEL GILES
T
his past May, Prem Linskey finished fourth in The Endurance Society’s Infinitus 250-miler– a rugged multi-day trail race through the Moosalamoo National Recreation Area. Linskey has also competed in a handful of other ultra distance trail races around the state. One of his training secrets? Linskey uses cannabis. “It helps me deal with pain, inflammation and nausea and helps me eat,” he says. The 29-year-old from Huntington, has also raced in the Catamount 50K and the Jay Peak Trail Running Festival 50K. “Sometimes it helps me get in the groove of a run, [and] sometimes it makes it harder,” he says. Linskey tries not to use cannabis during races unless he gets sick (after a bout with food poisoning, a few puffs from a vape pen helped him recover his appetite during the 250-miler). Linskey takes small doses so he doesn’t get high when he exercises. “I smoke a vape pen or use edibles. When I take CBD, I take it in capsules,” he says. He doesn’t consider it to be performance-enhancing. “It’s medicine, like I would take ginger for a stomach ache, or turmeric for inflammation.” Another local athlete, who is a prominent part of Vermont’s
“According to a 2016 study... marijuana is the second most widely used drug among athletes in the United States– after alcohol.” backcountry ski scene uses cannabis three to four days a week. In his early forties, he describes himself as a former competitive cross-country mountain bike racer who goes on hard rides three to four days a week in the summer and ski tours just as frequently in the winter. He’s smoked pot regularly for 20 years. “I use it after I exercise, along with CBD oil for inflammation,” he says. He says he wouldn’t smoke before a race, but that 9 of the 10 people he backcountry skis with smoke cannabis when they ski tour. Another local athlete and competitive mountain bike racer, who also asked to remain anonymous, used to smoke pot before racing to calm his
nerves. “I would wait and get warmed up sober to remind my muscles what we are about to do, then have a couple of hits before my race to calm my fears and focus,” he says. “I found it way easier to focus on my line, body position and what was ahead.” When asked if he thought cannabis was a performance-enhancing drug, he said, “I’m not really sure it was an advantage because I think three quarters of the field was doing the same thing.”
HIGH PERFORMANCE? As of July first, cannabis is legal in Vermont. You can smoke it (in private), you can possess it (up to one ounce), you can grow it (up to two mature female plants per dwelling), but you can’t buy it, unless you have a medical card. According to a 2016 study from The American Journal of Addictions, marijuana is the second most widelyused drug among athletes in the United States—after alcohol. Some athletes, such as professional ultra-runner Avery Collins and world-class agegroup triathlete and personal trainer Clifford Drusinsky, have talked openly about using cannabis edibles to train for endurance events in interviews with Men’s Journal and The New York Times.
In a 2017 guest editorial for The LA Times, former National Football League tight end Nate Jackson wrote: “The truth is that NFL players have been proving the viability of cannabis as a pain medication for decades,” touting it as a safer alternative to opioids in treating both chronic and short-term pain. For better or worse, the World Anti-Doping Agency bans the use of natural and synthetic cannabinoids in competition. The agency decided to allow CBD, the non-psychoactive compound in cannabis, in 2018. WADA's reasoning for banning marijuana includes cannabis’ illegal status in most countries, the potential for smoking to negatively affect respiratory, cardiac and mental health and its potential to enhance performance. The agency’s website reads “a common misconception of marijuana is that its use impairs physical activity, including exercise performance… there are… effects that than can be performanceenhancing for some athletes.” WADA lists the substance’s potential to reduce anxiety and muscle tension and increase focus and risk-taking behaviors as performance-enhancing qualities. There’s also evidence that runner’s high, the euphoria associated with
AUGUST 2018 | VTSPORTS.COM 27
endurance running, is caused by the same system of chemical interactions as the high from smoking or ingesting cannabis products. In 2015, a group of German researchers discovered that mice who ran on wheels had higher levels of naturally-occurring endocannabinoids in their blood stream, which appeared to reduce their anxiety and sensation of pain. The study they published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that the endocannabinoid system plays a “crucial role in runner’s high.”
THC VS. CBD Dr. Karen Lounsbury is a professor of pharmacology at the University of Vermont College of Medicine who teaches courses on cannabis and studies the way that cells use chemicals to communicate within the body. The two most prominent compounds in female marijuana plants are THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, and CBD, cannabidiol. The former gets you high and the latter doesn’t. As Dr. Lounsbury explains, THC affects the body by binding to cannabinoid receptors that are located in nerve cells that regulate pain, and in cells in the brain that regulate higher processing like hunger and decision-making. When it binds to the cannabinoid receptors, it has the effect of “shutting off” pain. By the same mechanism, it also changes the way we experience hunger, nausea and executive decision making. According to a 2006 study published by the National Institutes of Health, THC essentially functions as an off switch for pain, by mimicking the naturally occurring substance anandamide, an endocannabinoid which tells your neurons to stop telling your brain you’re in pain. The same study found that CBD does not bind to these same receptors, and little is known about its chemical behavior within the body. Additionally, a 1991 study in Planta Medica reported that THC has 20 times the anti-inflammatory power of aspirin and twice that of hydrocortisone. Similarly, a study published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 1998 concluded that CBD is a more powerful antioxidant than vitamin C or vitamin E, and a 2006 study published in by the National Academy of Sciences found that CBD also exhibits anti-inflammatory properties.
28 VTSPORTS.COM | AUGUST 2018
“There's... evidence that runner's high... is caused by the same system of chemical interactions.” Still, those studies are few and far between since marijuana’s status as a schedule 1 drug under federal law makes it difficult for researchers to secure funding to study it. A 2017 review in The Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport found only 15 published studies that looked at the effects of THC on exercise performance. For CBD, there are so few studies that no one knows for sure how the chemical affects the body. “CBD doesn’t seem to bind to the cannabinoid receptors, and yet it has similar effects as THC on pain signaling and nausea,” says Dr. Lounsbury. “What gets people excited about CBD is that it seems to give you the same benefits as THC without getting you high.” According to Shayne Lynn, Executive Director of Burlington-based Champlain Valley Dispensary and Southern Vermont Wellness, most of the people who frequent his businesses to use cannabis for health reasons don’t want to feel stoned. “CBD could be a larger market across the board than THC,” predicts Lynn. He sees a growing market for CBD oil that does not contain THC, which athletes concerned about a drug test could use. Another perk of CBD? Dr. Lounsbury says it seems to reduce anxiety and counteract the high created by THC. However, she cautions: “At this point, there just aren’t enough studies to say clinically that we know what it is doing in your body.”
SMOKING, VAPING AND EDIBLES The way you ingest cannabis also changes the way it affects your body. “When you smoke cannabis, it gets into the brain very quickly, so that the effects of the drug in your brain set in really fast and are intense,” says Dr. Lounsbury. “If getting high is the goal, smoking is the fastest way to do it.” Both Collins and Drusinsky reported that eating edibles before setting out on a long run helped them maintain focus and push through pain. “If your goal is to treat pain, you might be better off
taking an edible because the effects will last longer, be less intense and take longer to kick in,” Dr. Lounsbury says. Edibles also allow users to bypass smoking the plant. “To be clear, there are carcinogens in joint smoke, and there are many fewer in the vapor from vaping cannabis,” she continues. “Cannabis is volatile, so they don’t have to put additive chemicals in the cartridges like they do for nicotine.” A 2014 review of studies about cannabis and health risks published in Current Pharmaceutical Design states that there is no conclusive evidence to suggest that cannabis is carcinogenic when smoked. However, “all the right pieces are there to suggest that if you smoked enough, it could contribute to you being at a higher risk for cancer,” says Dr. Lounsbury. A 2014 study in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research found that vapor from certain e-cigarettes contains formaldehyde, a known carcinogen. No comparably conclusive study has been carried out with the cartridges associated with cannabis vaping. Lynn, who is not a medical professional, said that his staff recommend that those looking to try cannabis should start with small doses, whether experimenting with CBD or with THC. He and Dr. Lounsbury both warned that taking too much of the substances can cause the drug to have the opposite of its intended effect. Too much THC can make a person anxious, and it seems that large doses of CBD can be less effective at treating pain than smaller doses.
MEMORY LOSS, ADDICTION AND OTHER RISKS Cannabis appears to be less addictive than alcohol. However, according to a study published in the medical journal Lancet in 2009, one in six people who start using marijuana as teenagers will become addicted, as opposed to about one in ten who start using as adults. The same study reported that 25 to 50 percent of people (adult or otherwise) who use marijuana daily will become addicted. A study published in 2014 in The New England Journal of Medicine drove this home: “There is… a bona fide cannabis withdrawal syndrome (with symptoms that include irritability, sleeping difficulties, dysphoria, craving and anxiety) which makes cessation difficult,” wrote the authors, researchers from the National Institutes of Health and National Institute on Drug Abuse.
However, unlike withdrawal from alcohol or other drugs, withdrawal from cannabis won’t kill you. Since doctors aren’t allowed to prescribe cannabis, they don’t have the chance to cater dosage to a patient’s metabolism and other drug regimen like they would any other prescription drug. “In high doses, THC and CBD do have the potential to interact with other drugs, and the research isn’t there yet to know for certain what that would look like,” Dr. Lounsbury warns. All parties interviewed said kids and adolescents should not be smoking or ingesting pot. A 2012 study from Brain: A Journal of Neurology found that adults who smoked marijuana regularly during adolescence (up to age 21) had fewer axonal fibers, structures that facilitate communication between different parts of the brain, than nonpot-smokers. The areas of the brain that were most affected were those responsible for tasks that require alertness, selfawareness, memory, learning and inhibition. The study said it is possible that the damage could be reversed once a person stops using cannabis, but that further research is needed to determine if this is the case. According to Dr. Lounsbury and a 1975 study published in Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, THC has also been proven to suppress a person’s rapid eye-movement, or deep sleep cycle. “It makes you sleepy, which is great if you’re an athlete, but you don’t actually get a full night’s sleep,” she said. It also inhibits dreaming. And if you’re worried about a drug test, keep in mind THC typically stays in the brain for about a half hour to an hour when smoked, and two to four hours when ingested. At that point, the liver starts to metabolize it with special cannabinoid-eating enzymes. A standard drug test that uses urine or a blood sample tests for the presence of those enzymes. A standard anti-doping drug test will not detect CBD. However, there is no strict rule about how long cannabis stays in the body. “For someone who has smoked once in a month or a week, it will probably leave the body in a couple of days,” she says. “If you’re a regular user? Like every day? That metabolite starts to build up and it could take up to two weeks to leave your system.” So if you’re planning on going pro, you might think twice before lighting up.
30 VTSPORTS.COM | AUGUST 2018
mountain bike racing and skateboarding. I threw discus and shotput and thought the one-mile warmup run I had to do every day at practice was the worst thing ever. Then, in 2012, I was diagnosed with Celiac disease. At that time, I weighed 235 pounds and had smoked cigarettes for some time. My doctor told me I needed to lose weight. I figured running would be the best way to do it because that’s what everybody else does, right? So I signed up for the Essex Half Marathon and told my wife I was going to do it.
FEATURED ATHLETE
THE BEARDED LONG TRAIL RUNNER Name: Phil LaCroix Family: Wife, Morgen LaCroix; son, James (8); daughter, Hazel (3); cat, Zack Age: 35 From: Bolton Occupation: Auto Mechanic Primary: Running, Skateboarding, Mountain Biking
A
fter losing seven friends in the last three years to opiate overdoses, Phil LaCroix decided to do one thing he knew how to do to bring change: run. Starting August 24, the auto mechanic from Bolton sets out to run the Long Trail in ten days. The trail is 273 miles long. His goal is to raise $50,000 in support of Vermont Foundation of Recovery and the Vermont Recovery Network through his Enough is Enough VT initiative. You can contribute to his campaign at: www.gofundme.com/vfyef-enough-isenough
How would you describe yourself as a runner? I like to call myself an elite mid-packer. I love telling people that. They think ultra-marathoners are all fast. I’m not. I think I have the potential to be faster, but that’s ok. I’m a dad. For example, I was planning to run home to West Bolton after running the Catamount Ultra 50K. But my wife and kids surprised me at the finish line. They’d never seen me finish a race before, and when my three-year-old daughter ran out to meet me for the final stretch, I decided I’d rather go home with them. Why did you choose to run the Long Trail for opiate addiction? My wife and I have lost seven friends over the last three years to opiate addiction. The people we lost were Vermonters, and all of them had been through treatment and rehab. They didn’t have a clean place to go afterwards. When I was growing up in Essex, you never heard of anybody going through this. My wife and I thought, we’ve got to do something to let people know how big of a problem
Phil LaCroix one marathon into the 2017 Infinitus 88K, with one left to go.
this is. This was the only thing I could think of to do to raise some money. I think it will draw attention to the issue because not a lot of people are crazy enough to try to run the Long Trail in a week and a half. Have you ever done anything like this before? I have never done anything like this— 274 miles is a long, long way. I was supposed to run my first 100-mile race this summer, but it didn’t work out. The longest single day run I have ever done was 45 miles during the Vermont 50. For this trip, I’ll be running about 27 miles per day for 10 days. How did you choose Vermont Recovery Network and the Vermont Foundation of Recovery? I came up with the idea after my friend overdosed in 2016. He’d gone to rehab
Photo courtesy Phil LaCroix
a few times, but kept getting right back into the same group of people he’d been using with. He didn’t have a clean group of people to support him, or a place where he could live and count on there being no drugs and alcohol. In each case with our friends, transitional housing could have helped them. A lot of insurance only covers a few days of treatment. The big thing is that people struggling with addiction don’t need to be locked up– they need a house to go to that feels normal and safe. The funds raised will be split evenly between the two organizations. I picked $50,000 because that’s roughly the cost of setting up a sober living home for four to five people through Vermont Foundation of Recovery. How did you get into running? I was never a runner until after high school, but I’d done a lot of cross country
How did you transition from being a runner to being an ultra runner? It took about three years for me to go from not running at all in my adult life to running ultra distances. I would have been content with half marathons, but in 2013, my good friend Andy “A-Dog” Williams was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. When he got sick, I decided I would run the Vermont City Marathon in 2014 for Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training. I raised a good bit of money for research. He died the day after Christmas in 2013 and never got to see me finish. I like to tell people he was the kind of guy whom you could call and he would come anytime and anywhere to give you ten bucks to put in your car for gas if you were stuck somewhere. He went through a couple of bone marrow transplants. Watching how hard he fought for so long, I was inspired to see how far I could go with running. I thought, what can I do with my body to be better? Now every race I run is for him. I ran the 2015 Vermont City Marathon and my first Catamount 50K in 2015. That sounds like a big step, but it’s really not that much longer than a marathon. I ran my first 50-miler as part of the 100on-100 Relay in 2016. I started running for Andy, and I keep running for him. What do you love about ultrarunning? My family and I live about two miles off of the Long Trail in Bolton. I love running on trails. The surface is forgiving. Unlike in road races, nobody looks at you any differently for walking up hills. You run the downhills, jog the flats. I like that people help each other out, where in road races, it feels like everybody is in it
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LaCroix says Vermont's opiate problem is a crisis. He's running the Long Trail this month to say "Enough is Enough.". Photo courtesy Phil LaCroix
WHAT’S IN HIS PACK? LaCroix plans to run light and meet people along the trail every day for food if possible. He’s using Orange Mudd’s 20L Adventure Pack, which holds a two-liter bladder for water s. He plans to get daytime calories from liquids mixed with Tailwind powder or from Drinkmaple maple water. For water treatment, his Katadyn BeFree collapsible water filter and flask, together weigh just 2.3-ounces and compress down to the size of a tennis ball. For sleeping, he’ll use a light-weight inflatable sleeping pad and a combination bivy sac-sleeping bag with a hammock. Other gear includes: ENO JungleNest Hammock ENO Guardian DX Bug Net (for hammock) Orange Mud 20L Adventure Pack Leki Micro Vario PAS Collapsible Trekking Poles Hoka One One Torrent Men’s Running Shoe Topo Athletic Runventure 2 Running Shoe Katadyn BeFree Collapsible 1L Flask and Microfilter Petzl NAO+ 750-lumen Headlamp Squirrel’s Nut Butter Anti-Chafe Salve 1 pair Salomon S-Lab shorts Salomon Bonatti Pro Waterproof Jacket Lots of Darn Tough Socks Delorme inReach GPS locator with tracking Survive Outdoors Longer Escape Bivvy Jetboil Flash stove Tailwind Nutrition Endurance Fuel
for themselves. I also love being surrounded by nature. When you’re out in the woods, it doesn’t matter if you’re slow or fast. You learn that you can get through just about anything for four or five miles with enough water and calories. What have you learned or been surprised by since starting Enough is Enough VT? You’d be surprised what some people tell their mechanic when they get comfortable with them. It’s probably kind of like a barber shop. Since I’ve been talking about opiate addiction and
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how it’s affected people in my life, I’ve had customers come to my shop and share their own addiction stories with me, or stories about people they know and love. I had one customer break down in tears the other day. It reinforces my belief that this is a really important topic and we need to do something as a state about opiate addiction. Do you think you’re addicted to running? I’m too busy! I’ve got two kids and a wife. I’m a mechanic. I have a lot of things that I do, but I do like running. —Abagael Giles
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GEAR & BEER
SUMMER FUN
Yeti Panga 28 Backpack
SUMMER’S THE TIME FOR SUNSCREEN, MOSQUITO REPELLENT, A CRUISE ON THE SUP AND... PINK BEER? A WATERPROOF PACK Yeti has become synonymous with keeping things cold. Now, the Yeti Panga 28 Backpack ($299, 28 liters) is promising to keep things equally dry. Measuring in at 20” x 12.5” x 7”, it’s shaped like a back-to-school pack that might carry a small laptop. And it might. We tested it and it kept four rolls of toilet paper dry when submerged, thanks to the HydroLok zipper and U-Dock handle cover. Made of a durable laminated nylon, it’s a heavy duty pack that can withstand a beating. And with shoulder straps and plenty of places to hook on water bottles or other gear, it’s the perfect pack to take on a downwind SUP adventure, a trek to go cliff diving or a kayak trip.
TWO-WAY SKIN PROTECTION Tired of carrying around a full Dopp kit of skin products to races? Body Glide SPF 30+ SUN (1.5 oz. $9.99) is an advanced formula that not only protects against chafing but doubles as an SPF 30. It bills itself as “never greasy and never wet” and we became confident enough in that fact to throw the pushcap container into our gym bag without the cap. Of course, you don’t necessarily want Body Glide all over your body (and it’s expensive) so you will still want a second sunscreen, but this is good for those transition areas where straps (or waist-bands or the elastic of bike shorts) meet the skin.
A SWEET-SMELLING REPELLENT We love the idea of natural bug repellents and the notion that anything that smells this good to us, smells bad to mosquitos. Packed with ingredients like organic white vinegar, clove and lemongrass and totally gluten free, vegan and citronellafree, Brittanie’s Thyme Organic Bug Spray (4 oz, $8.95) is a pleasure to the senses. But will it keep the bugs off? Meh….not so much. We cross-tested our findings with Consumer Reports. After extensively testing a variety of repellents, CR concluded that in the
“natural” category, only “two of the three active ingredients that have regularly earned recommended status in our insect repellent ratings—picaridin and oil of lemon eucalyptus, or OLE—are derived from plants. But several other plant-based chemicals, including lemon grass and soybean oil, typically end up at the very bottom of our ratings.” Oh well...
PINK LOCAL BEER? If you’re headed to St. Albans to go kiteboarding with KiteNPaddle or to ride the Mississquoi Valley Rail Trail, be sure stop by 14th Star Brewing Co. This summer they’ll be serving up a handful of beers that are only available at their Main Street tasting room and beer garden. New this summer, 14th Star’s Raspberry Vermonter Weiss is so good it’s popular with people who don’t even like beer. The dry, crisp sour is modeled after a Berlin Weiss, a balanced, low-alcohol beer that is neither vinegary nor sweet. Every ingredient from the malt to the hops was grown in Vermont. It’s also brewed with local raspberries, picked fresh from Spirit Ledge Farms in Georgia, Vt. Did we mention it’s pink? Seriously–this beer somehow manages to satisfy people who don’t like sours, don’t like fruity beer and people who prefer cider and wine. If you don’t like summer, you’re probably out of luck. Then there is 14th Star’s most requested beer: The 1493. This tangy, hoppy American Pale Ale is brewed with fresh citrus zest and coriander. The brewery has decided to keep it as a draft special to spare its brewers from handzesting any more grapefruits, oranges and lemons than they have to. On July 26, 14th Star announced it will donate one penny from every draft, can or keg of its Recruit Golden Ale sold to Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sports. The beer pairs well with the taproom’s Grazers farm-to-table burgers, local greens and creative pub fare. Burgers range from $11.75 to $14.
Body Glide SPF 30+ SUN
Brittanie’s Thyme Organic Bug Spray
14th Star's Raspberry Vermonter Weiss (above left) and the 1493 (above right).
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VERMONT
SPORTS
RACE & EVENT GUIDE
LISTING YOUR EVENT IN THIS CALENDAR IS FREE AND EASY. VISIT VTSPORTS.COM/ SUBMIT-AN-EVENT OR E-MAIL EDITOR@ VTSPORTS.COM. ALL AREA CODES ARE 802. ALL LOCATIONS ARE IN VERMONT, UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED. FEATURED EVENTS, IN YELLOW, PAY A NOMINAL FEE.
RUNNING & HIKING AUGUST 4 | Moosalamoo Ultra, Goshen Try these 14- and 36-mile trail races, primarily in the Green Mountain National Forest. moosalamooultra.com 3-4 | Ragnar Trail Vermont, Ascutney Mountain Teams of 8 (or 4 ultra runners) will conquer a series of three trails that start and end at “Ragnar Village.” runragnar.com 11-12 | Mountain Race and Vertical Challenge, Smugglers’ Notch Test yourself against the rugged Madonna Mountain in the Vertical challenge and 25K Smuggs Mountain Race. Both races summit the peaks. ironwoodadventureworks.com 11 | Kingdom Run, Irasburg This 10K or 5K run is an out-and-back race on scenic dirt roads in the NEK. All runners get a complimentary brunch and blueberry sundaes. Kingdomrun.org
18 | 100 on 100 Relay, Stowe Teams of runners complete a 100-mile relay on Vermont Route 100 from the Trapp Family Lodge to Okemo Resort. 100on100.org 25 | Under Armour Mountain Marathon, Killington Run between Killington’s and Pico’s peaks. Marathon, half marathon, relay, vertical mile and distances down to a 5K. killington.com 25 | Sky Run, Mad River Glen The Endurance Society’s Sky Run features a series of climbs to the summit. The 5K features over 2,000 feet of vertical climbing and the 10K, 3,700 feet. madriverglen. com 25 | Best Dam Run & Walk In Vermont, Whitingham This out-and-back half-marathon starts out at the 215-foothigh, 1250-foot-long Harriman dam. bestdamwalk.com 26 | Race To The Top Of Vermont, Stowe Catamount Trail Association challenges runners and mountain bikers to race up Stowe’s Toll Road, gaining 2,564 vertical feet over 4.3 miles. catamounttrail.org 26 | Howard Center’s Zoe’s Race, Burlington Support local children and families in this 1K fun run and 5K walk/run. Proceeds support making local homes accessible. zoesrace.org
SEPTEMBER
11 | Long Trail Day Celebrate the Long Trail and register to hike a section of the trail and enjoy local brews along the way. greenmountainclub.org
1 | 3rd Annual Mount Ascutney Rainbow Run, Mount Ascutney Run, walk or hike the Ascutney Trails during peak foliage for this 5K or 10K outing for all ages. ascutneyoutdoors.org.
16 | Berlin Pond 5-Miler, Berlin Run this certified 5-mile loop course counter-clockwise around Berlin Pond on dirt roads. cvrunners.org
2 | 50th Archie Post 5-Miler, Burlington This certified point-to-point course follows the South
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Burlington Bike Path which offers sweeping views of the Green Mountains and finishes at Gutterson Field House. cvrunners.org 1-2 | 7th Annual Trail Running Festival, Jay Peak Resort From 5Ks to 53.1Ks, this day of trail running has a distance for everyone. jaypeakresort.com 8 | Maple Leaf Half Marathon & Kotler 5K, Stratton Run from downtown Manchester through picturesque village on country roads during the early stages of fall color in southern Vermont. manchestervtmapleleaf.com 8 | Groton Forest Trail Run, Groton Choose between a 26.2-mile course and a 15.2-mile course on Groton State Forest’s technical singletrack and multiuse hiking trails. runvermont.org 8 | Charlotte Covered Bridge 5K/10K/Half Marathon, Charlotte All race routes begin and end at Shelburne Beach. Run past lakefront orchards on dirt roads before returning to Shelburne Beach. racevermont.com 12 | Sodom Pond 4-Miler, Calais A rolling 4-mile dirt road course looping around Sodom Pond on dirt roads with hills. runvermont.org 15 | Common to Common 30K, Essex This 30K winds through scenic farm country between Essex Center and Westford Common. gmaa.net 16 | 7th Annual Chris Ludington Memorial Run, Stowe Choose between a challenging 5K out-and-back run or a 10K on the trails of Trapp Family Lodge. trappfamily.com
15 | 24 Hours of the Northeast Kingdom, East Charlestown Starting at Northwoods Stewardship Center, this course has a beautiful and rugged setting. ultrasignup.com 16 | TAM Trek, Middlebury The TAM Trek is a trail race and fun run to raise funds for the Trail Around Middlebury (TAM). Events include 19mile and 10K runs and a 2-mile family fun run. maltvt.org 22-23 | Adirondack Marathon Distance Festival, Schroon Lake Choose between a marathon, a half marathon, a 5K, 10K, or a 1K kids fun run and relays for this weekend of running in the beautiful Adirondacks. adirondackmarathon.org 23 | Vermont Sun Half Marathon, Branbury State Park This beautiful trail run winds around streams and lakes in the Green Mountains and offers 5K, 10K, and half marathon courses. vermontsuntriathlonseries.com 23 | Trapp Cabin Trail Race, Stowe Choose between a 5K, 10K, and half-marathon distances. All races start and end at the Trapp Family Lodge meadow and wind through 800 vertical feet of forest on dirt roads and doubletrack cross country ski trails. active.com 23 | 5th Annual Island Vines 10K, South Hero Entry in this annual 10K foot race earns you two wine samples from Snow Farm Vineyard post-race. Enjoy pastoral scenery at Snow Farm Vineyard while you run. runvermont.org 29 | Miles for Migraine Run, South Burlington A 2-mile walk, 5K and 10K runs at Veterans Memorial Park. Fundraiser for migraine advocacy. raceroster.com/17654 30 | Vermont Craft Beer Half Marathon, St. Albans This half marathon through St. Albans follows the Missisquoi Valley Rail Trail. Don't miss the post-race harvest festival and craft beer tasting. runvermont.org 30 | Leaf Peepers Half Marathon, Waterbury Both courses run through Waterbury and up Perry Hill for
spectacular views of fall foliage and occasional forays on dirt trails. leafpeepershalfmarathon.org
BIKING
30 | Vermont 50, Mount Ascutney This race benefits Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sports and offers a 50-mile mountain bike race, a 50-mile ultra run, a team relay, and a kids fun run. vermont50.com
AUGUST
OCTOBER 13 | Westmore Mountain Challenge, Westmore This mountain marathon takes hikers 26 miles and over 5 mountains through beautiful scenery of the Northeast Kingdom. This event supports Northwoods’ Stewardship Center's environmental conservation and education programs. northwoodscenter.org 13 | Trapp Lodge Mountain Marathon, Stowe This annual race can be either a half or full marathon. The Trapp Lodge trail system takes runners through colorful fall foliage. trappmountainmarathon.com 14 | Green Mountain Marathon and Half Marathon, South Hero A marathon or half marathon that runs along the shores of Lake Champlain. A run full of foliage, cottages and orchards. cvrunners.org 13 | The CircumBurke: Marathon Trail Run and MTB Challenge, Burke An annual mountain bike or trail running marathon hosted by Kingdom Trails, Burke Mountain, and Victory Hill. This is a difficult and scenic 27-mile circuit on logging roads. circumburke.org 13 | Shelburne Farms 5K, Shelburne Farms This 5K takes you past Lake Champlain and through farms, trails, and fields. A classic race that proves to be one of the most popular and scenic in the region. racevermont.com
NOVEMBER 4 | Fall 5K/10K and Half Marathon, Shelburne Choose from a 5K, 10K or half marathon for this route, which was recognized in 2014 by active.com as one of the nine most scenic fall half marathon courses in New England. Walkers are welcome at the 5K. Racevermont.com
1-5 | Fox Mountain Biking US Open, Killington Resort Pros and amateurs race in downhill, enduro, best whip, the US kids’ open classes and more. The Open features a pro/am style format and offers the most challenging and competitive racing in the nation. Don’t miss the classic Killington after-party with Long Trail Brewing and a free concert. killington.com 4 | Tour de Slate, Middletown Springs Choose between a 63.4-mile ride, a 36-mile ride and a 22-mile ride or a family ride off the road. Don’t miss the chicken curry, served hot on the green after the race. Ride to support addiction resources at Teen Challenge, VT. tourdeslate.org 4 | Annual Mt. Ascutney Bicycle Hill Climb, Windsor This fun but competitive cycling event ran annually from 1999 to 2014 and is now back. The course features a 3.7mile road climb with a 12 percent average grade. It’s an excellent warm-up for the Mt. Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb, which has the same sustained grade for twice the distance. ascutneyhillclimb.com 10-12| The VT3, Craftsbury Common This three-day mountain bike stage race showcases some of the most fun riding that the NEK has to offer. From the rocky, granite slopes of Hardwick to the sculpted enduro tracks of Victory, the VT3 promises fun courses, time trials, fast racing and camaraderie. thevt3.com 10-12 | The Victory Hill Enduro, Victory Top East Coast riders challenge the trails and each other, hoping for a berth in the the Enduro World Series NorAm Continental Finals, to be held in Victory and Burke one month later. easternstatescup.com/victoryhill 11 | VSECU Point-to-Point, Ascutney Tackle 100, 50 or 25 miles on the road, do a 10- or 20-mile trail ride or run a half marathon at Ascutney. Food trucks, live music and beer after the race. Thepointtopoint.org
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11 | Bike ’N Brew, Burke Mountain Resort Listen to live music, ride Burke’s mountain bike park and sample local brews. skiburke.com 18 | Peak Woodsplitter Mountain Bike Race, Pittsfield See how many times you can complete a 10-mile marked loop within a 6-hour time limit on the Green Mountain Trails. Compete on flowy single track with some rooty, rocky stuff in the mix. gmtrails.org 18 | 5th Annual Pedal Power to the People, Tunbridge Put on by Royalton Community Radio, this ride starts and ends at the Tunbridge Fairgrounds and has two routes: the Beer Run (25 miles) and the Milk Run (10 miles). wfvrppp.com 16-19 | The Vermont Challenge, Stratton Cyclists hit the road for four days of riding through central and southern Vermont. Sunday’s ride ends at the summit of Mount Equinox. Do all four days or sign up for Saturday’s century ride. vtchallenge.com 18 | 46th Annual Mt. Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb, Gorham, NH This annual event features a 7.6-mile long course with some of the most epic scenery in the East. Cyclists climb a 12 percent grade for most of the road, which eventually reaches a 22 percent grade. mwarbh.org 18 | Deerfield Dirt Road Randonnee or D2R2, Franklin Co., Mass. This unmarked dirt road ride offers 180K, 160K, 115K, 100K courses. There will also be a 40-mile Green River Tour, a 12-mile family ride and a 125K (ish) Mystery Ride. Bring your GPS. franklinlandtrust.org 26 | 5th Annual Cycle 4 CMT, Charlotte Choose between 6.5-, 15-, 25- or 40-mile cycling routes through Charlotte and Hinesburg. All proceeds benefit research for Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. cycle4cmt.com 27 - 30 | The Vermont Overland, Reading An epic 45-mile dirt road bicycle race features 6,000-feet of climbing, eight sections of unmaintained ancient public roads, two sag stops, a scenic route and a party afterwards. Race proceeds support the Reading/West Windsor Food Shelf. vermontoverland.com Aug. 31-Sept 3 | Green Mountain Stage Race, Mad River Valley and Burlington Four days of challenging time trials, circuit races and criteriums. gmsr.info
SEPTEMBER 1 | Redemption Gravel Race, Brownington Choose between 100-mile and 50-mile race routes out rugged Vermont gravel roads. A self-supported race that cyclists navigate for themselves. Those who make it back earn a seat at the pig roast with plenty of cold beer and live music. rasputistagravel.com 7 | Grand Prix Cycliste de Quebec, Quebec The UCI WorldTour event attracts some of the greatest cyclists in the world, and runs through the heart of Quebec City over hilly terrain. Riders complete 16 laps with steep descents to finish with a big hill climb. The race is 201 km long. gpcqm.ca 8 | 13th Annual Kelly Brush Ride, Middlebury Register to ride 20, 50 or 100 miles through the scenic Champlain Valley. Registration and any fundraising done by participants in this event help people with spinal cord injuries afford adaptive athletic equipment. kellybrushfoundation.org 9 | Cabot Ride the Ridges, Cabot This fun and challenging mostly dirt gravel/road bike ride goes through the rugged but scenic hills of Cabot and Peacham. It offers fully supported 10K, 30K, 60K and 100K loops. The races are followed by lunch and Kingdom Creamery ice cream. ridetheridges.net 9 | Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal, Montreal This UCI WorldTour event attracts some of the greatest cyclists in the world, and runs through the heart o Montreal. This challenging course climbs Mount Royal and features a demanding hill climb as part of each lap. The race is a total of 205K long. gpcqm.ca 16 | 11th Annual Tour de Farms, Vergennes Eat your way around the Champlain Valley in this scenic farm tour and road ride event. The tour features a 30mile route and a 10-mile route, with 6 farm stops. Over 30 local farms, food businesses and restaurants will be participating. acornvt.org/tourdefarms 15-16 | Enduro World Series North American Finals, Burke Amateur mountain bikers can race with the nation’s top pros for a chance to qualify for the Worlds. Followed by a night of beer, barbecue, and music. skiburke.com 22 | Tardigrade 50, Bristol A 50-mile gravel ride over beautiful terrain in the rugged parts of Addison County during the Bristol Harvest Festival. bikereg.com 23 | West Hill Grinder, Putney These adventurous gravel rides wind from High Meadows Farm through Dummerston, Brookline and Westminster. Choose from a menu of moderate to very difficult rides, ranging from a 19-mile family route to a 46-mile 2-gap route that gains 4,600 feet of elevation. westhillshop.com 23 | 4th Annual Dam Wrightsville Cyclocross, Wrightsville All types of bikes are welcome in this spectator-friendly race whose course features “bunny-hop-able” barriers, sand and a “spiral of death.” There is also an introductory cyclocross clinic, a kids race, a singlespeed and fat bike open, and men’s and women’s events. bikereg.com
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21-23 | International Downhill Federation World Cup Tour, Killington The world’s fastest, high-speed skateboarders return to Killington to race. killington.com 24 | Central Vermont Cycling Tour, Montpelier This classic race and scenic fundraiser for Cross Vermont Trail boasts unbroken scenery, great food stops and three race options. Choose between a 13-mile family-friendly loop or a 59-mile loop with 6,000 feet of elevation gain. crossvermont.org 29 | Hungry Lion Bike Tour, Whitingham In this annual event, the Halifax-Whitingham Lions Club sponsors 5-, 35-, 50-, 75- mile road bike rides. This year, the organization will also offer a 25-mile gravel grinder. All rides are fully supported with sag wagons and water stops. The longer rides stick to pavement, and the shorter rides are primarily on dirt roads. Don’t miss the post-race barbecue and live music. hungrylionniketour.com 30 | Vermont 50, Mount Ascutney This race benefits Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sports and offers a 50-mile mountain bike race, a 50-mile ultra run, a team relay, and a kids fun run. vermont50.com
OCTOBER 6 | 3rd A Braintree 357 Gravel Enduro, Braintree Celebrate Central Vermont’s gravely goodness during peak foliage. This unique cloverleaf-shaped course tackles class 3 gravel roads. Fastest times earn the winners title of King or Queen of the Mountain. Rides range from 18 to 50 miles in length, with 2,700 to 8,000 feet of elevation gain. braintree357.com 13 | Peacham Fall Fondo, Peacham A Northeast Kingdom classic with 50-plus miles of gravel riding on mixed terrain through fall foliage in the mountains. Pro Cyclist Ian Boswell will lead the grind and share his favorite gravel and mixed terrain routes. peachamfallfondo.com 13 | CircumBurke Trail Challenge, East Burke Choose between 27- and 50-mile mountain bike routes in this Northeast Kingdom classic at Burke Mountain. This tough annual race moves through rugged forests and hills and includes an enduro component for competitors to test their downhill skills. circumburke.org 21 | Vermont Forest Fondo, Lincoln This challenging gravel grinder will leave you with mud on your face. The 45-mile route climbs class 4 roads to pass through Ripton with 6,400 feet of climbing. Mountain, cyclocross, gravel or fat bikes are recommended. vtforestfondo.com 27 | 3rd Annual Grafton Cheese Grater Gravel Ride, Grafton A challenging gravel grinder that departs from the Grafton Trails & Outdoor Center, then heads west to Windham for a cheese pit stop. Steep climbs are followed by scenic, equally steep downhill gravel descents. The race is a 36-mile ride. graftoninnvermont.com
WATERSPORTS
Harbor Resort. Limited to 150. Teams of 2 or 3 welcome. racevermont.com
AUGUST
SEPTEMBER
3-4 | 10th Annual Stand Up for the Lake, Burlington Get ready for a 6-mile, worldwide Paddle League-affiliated elite race, a 3-mile recreational race, and a kids race. Don’t miss the after-party at The Spot on The Dock. standupforthelake.com 4-5 | 16th Annual Fairpoint Lake Champlain Martin 16 Invitational Regatta, Colchester Northeast Disabled Athletic Association and the Malletts Bay Boat Club host the longest running regatta for sailors with disabilities in New England. disabledathletics.org 5 | Lake Champlain Dragon Boat Festival, Burlington Join 1,600 Vermonters in community teams racing 41-foot-long dragon boats on Lake Champlain to raise money for cancer research. No experience necessary. dragonheartvermont.org
TRIATHLON & MULTISPORT AUGUST 9 | Ethan Allen Biathlon, Jericho This running biathlon series is held on Thursday evenings through August 23. Races are open to anyone over age 14. eabiathlon.org 12 | Lake Dunmore Triathlon, Salisbury This race, the second in Vermont Sun’s two-part annual triathlon series, starts at Branbury State Park and includes a .9-mile swim, a 28-mile bike ride and a 6.2-mile run. vermontsuntriathlonseries.com 12 | Vermont Sun Triathlon, Salisbury The third and final Vermont Sun Triathlon for the season features a 600-yard swim, a 14-mile bike ride and a 5K run along the shores of Lake Dunmore. vermontsuntriathlonseries.com 18 | Basin Harbor Sprint Triathlon, Vergennes The second of two sprint triathlons features a 500yard swim, 12.2-mile bike and 5K run around Basin
15 | Metallak Race, Colebrook, NH An annual, multi-sport endurance race brings adventurers to the remote but rugged spaces of northern Coos County, NH. Choose from 8-hour or 4-hour divisions and mountain bike, trek and paddle a challenging course that is clearly marked. metallakrace.com 16 | Josh Billings Triathlon, Stockbridge, Mass. Teams and individuals complete a 27-mile bike ride, a 5-mile paddle, and 6-mile run through the Berkshires. There is also a kids race. joshbillings.com 23 | Winooski Pedal and Paddle, Winooski This new event hosted by the Friends of the Winooski River is a multi-sport affair. Participants drop their boats off in Winooski, head to the Ethan Allen Homestead where they will bike the 4 miles back to Winooski, hop in their boats, and paddle back to the homestead. Food and live music follow. winooskiriver.org
will be held at the Smugglers’ Notch Disc Golf Center. Events will take place on the Brewster Ridge and Fox Run Meadows courses during Smugglers’ Notch’s FallFest. smuggs.com 15-16 | Spartan Race, Killington Test your mettle with these legendary obstacle-laden running races at Killington. Run 30+, 12+, or 3+ miles through water, mud, and steep terrain. spartan.com 15-16 | NYSEF Rollerski Race Weekend, Lake Placid The weekend-long, multi-race event culminates in a 5-mile rollerski race up the Whiteface Memorial Highway. The race will climb 4,867 feet over an average 8 percent grade. nensa.net
OCTOBER 13 | NENSA Fall Rollerski Classic, Camp Ethan Allen Opt for either a 5K or a 10K loop in this fun fall event hosted by the Mt. Mansfield Nordic Club and Ethan Allen Biathlon Club. nensa.net
OBSTACLE COURSE & OTHER AUGUST 10-12 | 2018 North American OCR Championships, Stratton The best obstacle racers in the country come to Stratton to compete in the North American Obstacle Course Racing Championships. stratton.com 11 | 10th App Gap Challenge Rollerski Race, Fayston This will be the 10th year of this dual technique rollerski race up the east side of Appalachian Gap. Pros and amateurs alike race side by side in this fun, quirky event. There will be free rollerski gear demos available. nensa.net
SEPTEMBER 2-9 | PDGA Professional Disc Golf World Championship, Smugglers’ Notch The most prestigious competition in the sport of disc golf
AUGUST 2018 | VTSPORTS.COM 39
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AUGUST 2018 | VTSPORTS.COM 41
ENDGAME
RIDING THE WATERSHED
TIBETAN BUDDHISTS MAKE RITUAL CIRCUMAMBULATIONS OF HOLY MOUNTAINS. VERMONTERS RITUALLY RIDE THE INFINITE ROUTES AROUND LAKE CHAMPLAIN
M
y first outing, on a muggy
BY LEATH TONINO
summer morning, takes me south along Addison County’s
mostly straight, flat roads. I cross Little Otter Creek where it rushes and froths through a gorge and beneath a bridge. I pass an osprey’s bulky stick-nest set atop a telephone pole, twisting on my seat to glimpse wings lifting, the bird curving away through a cloud-mottled sky. The blacktop is smooth, then rough, then smooth, sometimes patterned by muddy tractor tires, sometimes clean. I weave through traffic in downtown Vergennes, traverse vast hayfields, sing howdies to chomping cows, wipe sweat from my eyes with the back of a hand. Green-and-white signs depicting a bicycle lead me on: more fields, a sleepy village, a red barn fading to gray. Somewhere nearby but out of sight, the valley’s low wet heart beats and beats. Five days later—days of work and driving and computers and not enough outdoors—I’m on it again, this time up north. My pal Sean meets me at Oakledge Park in Burlington and off we go, chitchatting, swerving, and joking. The bike path is crowded but pleasant, a slalom course of dogs and joggers and other riders, some on mountain bikes, some on road bikes, some on cruisers. Streets and brick buildings spill
Exploring one stretch of the 363-miles of Champlain Bikeways. You can download free maps of more than 35 routes at champlainbikeways.org Photo by David Goodman
down the hill to the waterfront. Sailboats in the harbor rock on their moorings, their
The 363-mile bikeway marks an oval
folks spend a single afternoon exploring,
drinking water for some 200,000 people.
rigging tinkling. The path becomes the
around Lake Champlain and makes me
while others bike from B&B to B&B as
Whether riders on the bikeway think of it
Causeway, an old raised railroad bed arcing
think of the Ouroboros, the mythological
part of an organized tour, a hired van
this way or not, to circumcycle the lake is to
across the mouth of the Inland Sea to dead-
snake that eats its own tail, symbol of
shuttling clean clothes and toiletries to each
wrap oneself around the low wet center, to
end at the Cut, a gap just shy of South Hero
eternal renewal. A journey commences
night’s destination. Ferries cross the lake
hug that softly beating heart.
that allows boat passage to the broad lake.
in Shelburne, Vt., or Crown Point, N.Y.,
at Shoreham, Charlotte, Burlington, and
Another week, another outing, another
From mid-June through Columbus Day a
or Sabrevois, Quebec, or Panton, Vt., or
Grand Isle, lending even greater flexibility
bikeway. Here I am, alone, riding into haze
pontoon barge known as the “bike ferry”
Ausable, N.Y., or anywhere between. You
to route design.
and humidity, my ears full with the drone
motors riders across the Cut for a nominal
can bike to Whitehall, where Wood Creek
I can imagine living in a different
of insects in tall grass and the whir of tires
fee. Not Sean and I, not today. A light rain
flows in from the south, or you can bike
time and a different culture, one where it
against the road. What began as an easy
comes and goes, falling in screens, and we
to Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, where the
would be unremarkable to speak of Lake
meander has become a hunched, huffing
turn around.
Richelieu River flows northward to the St.
Champlain as a god or deity. One hundred
grind—the pleasure of the pain of pushing
Another week, another ride, another
Lawrence. As with the snake, neither of
twenty miles long, 12 miles wide, 580 miles
hard. Fence posts blur. An osprey cuts a
20, 30, 40 or 50 miles. I’m more of a walker,
these are true beginnings or endings. The
of crinkled coast—the lake is big, powerful
cloud. The lake, ah, the lake is only a mile
really, more comfortable bushwhacking
lake eats its own tail, pulling water from the
to behold; it shapes the earth and the lives
or two away; I can practically taste it, smell
in boots than rolling on rims, but when
hills that pull water from the sky, returning
of those who dwell in its basin. Eighty-one
it, feel it around me. My bike leaned against
summer rises out of mud season’s slop
it to the oceans and the air only to be filled
fish species slip through dark depths and
a tree or laid on smooth blue stones at the
and squishy weather, rises vibrant and
with it again. Picture a wheel endlessly
sun-shot shallows. Three hundred eighteen
water’s edge, I’ll swim a hundred strokes,
inviting, I do find myself drawn back to the
rotating. Water cycle. Bicycle. Lots of cycles
species of birds hunt liquid surfaces, roost
another hundred, a hundred more. I don’t
Champlain Bikeway. The route is like a line
here.
on overhanging trees, nest in marshes, visit
wear Spandex shorts when I ride—I wear a
during migration.
bathing suit. If you ask me, it’s eminently
of music, a melody played over and over
I haven’t pedaled the entire bikeway;
again by different instruments. A swim, a
I haven’t even come close. Champlain
The Tibetan Buddhists make ritual
maple cremee, a fox in a vegetable garden,
Bikeways has 35 subloops, each with a
circumambulations of holy mountains:
a short steep hill, a quart of fresh-picked
name and character all its own, veer from
Kailash,
To
Leath Tonino is a writer from Ferrisburgh.
strawberries, a Revolutionary War fort,
the principal route to form a thousand-mile
circumcycle Lake Champlain is to cross
This piece is excerpted from The Animal
a paved road, a dirt road, a family of four
network. "Rebel’s Retreat" sets working
31 major tributaries and dozens of smaller
One Thousand Miles Long, a collection
riding straight at me, helmets shiny—the
farms against an Adirondack backdrop.
streams draining an 8,234-square-mile
of his outdoorsy essays, due out this
variations are endless, the textures always
"A Trail to Two Beaches" inscribes a figure
watershed. It’s to become the ring on
September.
eight with a state park at either end. Some
a
changing.
42 VTSPORTS.COM AUGUST 2018
Lapchi,
Kawa
6.8-trillion-gallon
Karpo.
bathtub
holding
sensible.