Vermont Priorities

Good morning from Vermont!

It’s amazing how things can change over the years. We’ve been coming up to Vermont for 10 years and the Manchester Center Outlets used to be the highlight of my trip. We’d spend at least a day shopping through all the stores and leave feeling as if we’d accomplished a great deal by securing some amazing deals and a new season worth of clothing.

These days, our trips revolve around the outdoors. Since I arrived Thursday night we’ve spent more time outdoors than indoors and it has clearly become not only my priority but also my family’s. I’ve fallen back in love with this area so much that I’ve cancelled a Fall trip so I can come back up here to experience the fresh air, mountain hikes, late night fires, family, bike rides, and delicious wine and food.

Since I’ve taken the weekend off to spend time with everyone, I’ll step back a bit and give you a few separate recaps, beginning with this weekend’s long run.

Since I didn’t have to fight the heat up here in Vermont I was able to sleep until 6:30 on Friday. After enjoying a half cup of coffee and peanut butter toast I headed down to the Manchester Center Post Office, my starting point for the run.

My uncle who is an avid cyclist, was able to give me a great route which was exactly the right distance and included a few challenging hills. Starting at the post office gave me a safe starting point that could also easily be looked up on Google Maps in case I got lost.

Per Gia’s advice I did my best not to stress out about the run and instead focused on enjoying the gorgeous scenery, keeping my pace slow and steady, fueling appropriately, and enjoying myself. The two roads, River and Ridgeville Roads, where I ran were new to me which made the route even more fun as it felt like a bit of an adventure.

I was able to successfully finish 13.1 miles in 2:15:22 with only 2 picture/fuel breaks which were each under one minute long!