“Disclaimer: I received free entry to Vermont City Marathon as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews!”

Yes, I’ve been really quiet lately.  I finished spring semester first week in May, had one week to catch up on other work, and then went into a 2 week May-mester course in Data Law and Ethics. A full semester course in 2 weeks forces the blinders on to the rest of your life for sure.  I submitted my final project yesterday a day early so I could fly off on my Vermont City Marathon adventure this morning. I’m now on a 2 day layover in NY visiting my grandmother and maybe playing in the city for a day. I’ve had my first authentic NY chocolate egg creme in a long time so I’m counting this long layover as a resounding success already.

I’m heading to Burlington on Saturday morning and really excited. I’ll be doing a home-stay with a local who’s run the race a few times and has happily offered to pick me up at the airport and take me straight to the expo. Vermont City offers a lot of great housing options around town that make this a super affordable experience. Plus, isn’t it best when you get to visit a town with locals?? I should be at the expo by 1 on Saturday and hoping Meb is one of the first people I run into. We ran into him first a couple years ago in NYC and I had a fantastic race weekend after that, so Meb is now my lucky marathon guy. 🙂

I’m planning to run with the 5 hour pace team (sponsored by SKIRACK) with the goal to PR and go sub-5 hour. Honestly, my training since pacing Publix Marathon in mid-March has been sub-par due to hectic school schedule but I’m still feeling strong going into this race. Weather looks nice and mild and the New England air always feels GREAT compared to running in the south. Overall, I’m just really excited to just follow a pace team and turn off my brain a for once; I’m normally the one in charge of being a slave to the watch.

Speaking of watches, I’ve been testing the awesome, brand spanking new multisport Coros Pace M1 watch the last couple weeks. The cadence metronome feature has helped improve my average cadence by leaps and bounds and I think that will go a long way to running efficiently on Sunday.  I’ll write more about the Coros after the race but I’m really loving the features and it’s gone a long way to keep me motivated and reinvigorate my running and swimming activities over the last few insane work weeks.

As I continue my travels, I’ll post all the updates from Burlington, expo, race day, etc. on Instagram and Twitter. I’m definitely excited to meet fellow BibRave Pros Vanessa and Sam!