From Running Director Heidi Caldwell

This past Saturday we put together a low key, unofficial marathon for a group of athletes in our virtual running program. With marathons still being cancelled or postponed, many of these runners were left without a race to work towards this Winter and Spring. After months of training progress, another season without races was a frustrating prospect. And so they asked, “Why don’t we just make it happen together?” A few weeks of collective brainstorming and scheming later, the NEK Resilience Run was born. 

As our group is spread across the country, we put together both Craftsbury-based and virtual events, complete with full, half, and marathon relay options. We had relay runners virtually “tagging off” from Maine to Brooklyn to Texas and back via text or FaceTime. Here in Craftsbury, with all participants vaccinated, we were psyched to be able to gather in person after a year spent coaching and chatting over Zoom. We wondered if it might be strange to meet people we’d spent hours talking to - and being open and vulnerable with - through a screen. But somehow it wasn’t, and we quickly fell into a familiar rhythm of pre-run prep and chatter. 

The Craftsbury course served up a whopping 2,400 feet of elevation gain, all dirt roads, and scenic vista after scenic vista. The run set off from the top of Holiday Hill at Hosmer Point Camp at 7:04am, with six full marathoners and three first-leg relay runners. The route then ran South on Lost Nation Road, past the Center and the groggy cheers from folks milling about campus. From there, the runners descended down to Craftsbury Village before turning North for a long, steady climb through South Albany, by Hartwell Pond, and into Glover. Reaching the halfway mark on Andersonville Road, the first-leg relay runners tagged off the second leggers and sent them off towards Daniels Pond. From Daniels Pond the runners made the long descent down Mud Island Road and Allen Hill to return to Seaver Brook Road, this time running up Seaver Brook’s long steep climb at the 21 mile mark. Back on Creek Road, runners covered the final five miles by running our camp classic ‘Ridge Run’ route in reverse. A series of toilet paper finish lines and hearty cheering awaited each runner back at the Center. 

The NEK Resilience Run was a beautiful way to celebrate every runner in our virtual Craftsbury Running community. It takes grit and commitment to stay motivated and to train through months of uncertainty. These runners managed to not only grow as individuals, but to also build a community. The Resilience Run was a way to honor that intentionality; the energy each person put into finding the community and the accountability we were all suddenly missing when COVID hit. What began as a program meant to fill the void left by cancelled summer camps quickly grew into much more. This foray into the virtual world brought a lot of unknowns, mainly: Can we really form meaningful connections and find inspiration over Zoom? The NEK Resilience Run showed that, yes, we can.