This is the third year of the Summer Six Pack series, which drew its inspiration for the open-start format from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The heaviness of Burlington’s hot and humid summer days wasn’t enough to deter 92 runners and walkers from the joy of reaching for a post-race beer.
They had turned out for a Foam Brewers–hosted event on July 24, the fourth installment of RunVermont’s Summer Six Pack 5K series, held biweekly from the end of June through the beginning of September in partnership with breweries around Burlington, Stowe and Montpelier. Runners and walkers can show up at the start line at any time between 4:45 and 6 p.m. and get a chip time on an officially measured 5K course, said RunVermont executive director Joe Connelly.
They also get a discount to each partner brewery after, a necessary incentive for runners like Danielle Brizzolara of Williston. “I run for the beer,” she said at the Foam event in July.
People flocked to the waterfront brewery by 5:30 p.m. that day. A throng of happy hour-goers gathered on the patio, and teens flashed through the parking lot filming edits for a car show the venue also hosted. Finishers gathered under a tent next to the start (and finish) line, chatting with their fellow racers and sipping on Chug Water, a sustainability-focused spring water company started by running enthusiast Linnae Horan of Waterbury and her brother.
After scorching through the course with a time of 20:21, becoming the seventh overall finisher and fourth female, Horan distributed cans of her company’s water and encouraged racers coming to the line. Her motivation for racing, she said, is to get back as fast as possible to hand out cans.
Horan met Connelly last winter and asked how to get involved, impressed by the RunVermont community. “(It’s) so fun to get people out here,” she said. “(It’s) a way for us to work with the community and share values of being outside and sustainable.”
Beer enthusiast Brizzolara was joined at the finish by her friends Sarah Alexander and Becky Zopf, both of whom set personal bests at the event. The “friends who run,” as they refer to themselves, are veterans of the race series.
They praised RunVermont for instilling a sense of community at their races. The group, Alexander said, recognizes a lot of familiar faces from race to race. “Even though we don’t know each other, we know each other,” she said.
This is the third year of the Summer Six Pack series, which drew its inspiration for the open-start format from the Covid-19 pandemic. With restrictions on gathering in large groups, race directors were forced to get creative with how they constructed the events, Connelly said. Part of the solution involved virtual races, where competitors could complete the challenge and input their time at any point in a day, and as restrictions relaxed, the opportunity for the open start line presented itself.
Connelly hails from a cross country skiing background. When he was growing up, all those races were individual starts, he said, with skiers going every 30 seconds or so. That format was easy to implement in running. It’s beginner-friendly, Connelly said, and draws a wide variety of participants, from fast finishers in the mid-17:00 range to walkers enjoying the evening sunshine.
“Running is a lifelong activity for people,” he said.
The event is just one of about sixteen races RunVermont puts on each year, with the biggest by far being the Vermont City Marathon, which had nearly 5,000 runners this May, according to coverage from WPTZ.
“If you haven’t come out to try one, just come out and do it,” Brizzolara said of the Summer Six Pack series. Said Zopf: “(There’s) no pressure, just fun.”
Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship.