Brian Rusiecki and Kathleen Cusick won this weekend’s edition of the Vermont 100. Rusiecki, of Westfield, MA, won in 14:54:05. His time was just 54 seconds shy of matching Leigh Schmitt’s record from 2004. Rod Bien of Bend, OR was second, finishing about 58 minutes back in 15:52:40. Hailing from Cairns, in northeast Australia, Mike Le Roux came third in 16:11:10. Mickael Arnstein, last year’s winner, finished in 13th place in 18:46:23.
Cusick, of Knoxville, TN, won the women’s race in 18:51:38. Just two minutes behind, Westfield, MA’s Amy Lane was second overall woman in 18:53:38. Debbie Livingston of Bolton CT was third in 19:20:27.
Perhaps due to the weekend’s hot weather, eighty-eight people DNF’ed or finished outside the 30-hour cutoff.
Having paced a friend twice in the VT100 (he dropped around mile 88 the first time, finished strong the second time), I know first-hand: (1) anyone finishing a hundred miler is an amazing endurance athlete, and (2) it’s not for me!
The 100 is an extremely attractive distance, but the way life is at present, it’s long odds that I’ll ever be able to run one. I considered volunteering to pace at this year’s VT 100, but I’m not quite ready even to run 20 miles. Been riding a lot.