Champlain Islands Marathon

The Green Mountain Athletic Association has put this on for more than half a century, most of that under the Green Mountain Marathon name. It has stayed a club race in every sense: members work the water stops, packet pickup runs out of a Burlington ski shop and then a school gym, and the entire field across the marathon and half is held to 500. The entry terms are just as plain. No refunds, no deferrals, no wait list, no bib transfers. Recent editions have sold out, which makes the cap the real deadline rather than any published closing date. Runners must be 16 or older.

Both distances start in front of Folsom Elementary in South Hero, a short walk from the house Clarence DeMar lived in after winning Boston seven times. The half traces the west shore of South Hero and Grand Isle, out to a turnaround and back past dairy farms, apple orchards and summer cottages, and the marathon covers that loop twice. It is paved throughout and the elevation band is genuinely small: the whole route stays between 100 and 210 feet, the two high points fall at mile 1 and mile 25, and Lake Champlain sits only five feet below the lowest ground on the course. Mile markers run to 13 and then start over, so the second lap is read off the first. Roads stay open to traffic, twelve aid stations cover mile 2 through mile 24, sweep vehicles work behind the field, and the marathon closes at six hours. Anyone who decides one lap was enough can be moved into the half results afterward.

Foliage weekend on the islands is usually cool rather than cold, with highs in the middle 50s and mornings closer to 40. Lake Champlain takes the edge off both ends. Wind is the thing that actually shapes the day, because the west shore road has nothing between it and open water, and two out-and-back laps mean you run into it twice and get pushed by it twice no matter which way it sets up. Rain and an early cold snap are both in range for mid-October here, and the exposed miles feel far colder than the thermometer reads when either turns up.