Endurathon run section

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[Just a preface that this is very long! But wanted to take the opportunity to share several things. Also, this specific part of the LVRT is not yet an official FKT, but should be soon since I did not really do my prep properly :) ]

Lamoille Valley Rail Trail section 1B runs between Morrisville and Cambridge Vermont and was completed in 2015. The entire trail runs from 93 miles St. Johnsbury to Swanton, with another 16 mile section complete between Danville and St. Johnsbury. While the trail was not surfaced for running or biking when I was in high school, I did occasionally ski the 4 miles to school on it in the winter. As the Lamoille Valley in general, particularly this section, lies in a sort of lost part of Vermont not quite in the Northeast Kingdom nor in the Burlington area, I've always been surprised and excited that this section was one of the first to be completed. It was a treat to see all the ways that Morrisville, Hyde Park, Johnson, and Jeffersonville villages have all used the rail trail as a way to build community, as well as to revisit so many places I have fond memories of growing up. 

Particularly during this pandemic, I wanted to find a way to honor this place that raised me and that I am deeply attached to. Growing up in a rural area like this part of Vermont afforded me so many opportunities to connect with the outdoors and to appreciate the simple beauty in the world around me. Having now spent time away from Vermont in the Boston area and Washington DC, I have a deeper appreciation for this place while also realizing the many ways that rural areas are at the same time overlooked socially and economically and associated with the narrative that leaving is the only way to succeed. Being able to spend more time here during both COVID and the ongoing reckoning with racism has been a cause for additional reflection on Lamoille County as a place of refuge and racism. In particular, I’ve continued to think about the ways that land and agriculture land ownership, use, and labor hold so much power and have so many opportunities for change. 

With this run, I want to honor the Abenaki, the original inhabitants and cultivators of this land, whom the state of Vermont only officially recognized in 2011. I am committing to learning more about Abenaki history and culture as well as how I can work towards material rather than simply metaphorical colonization. This run is also for the hundreds of migrant workers, many from Mexico, on Vermont’s farms. Governor Phil Scott recently proposed to allocate $2 million to the Immigrant Families Coronavirus Relief Fund. This is definitely admirable and much further than the federal government has historically gone to support those that grow our food. I support Migrant Justice’s call for the legislature to provide $5 million for the fund. It is a vastly unjust that food workers across the supply chain are exempt from critical labor laws and continually denied land and business ownership opportunities as a result of racist federal policies like the New Deal and USDA lending. So this run is also for Black people that have made their way farming and feeding this and other land and people, and for those that have not been afforded the opportunity to grow and be connected to food in Vermont and across the US. I am also committing to learning more about and taking action to root racism out of and build back a better food system. As a start, I will split a donation to Abenaki Helping Abenaki, Migrant Justice, and the Lazuli Residency, a farm and artist residency in Corinth, Vermont, who I was introduced to through the Northeast Farmer’s of Color Land Trust’s reparations map.

Finally, with FKTs you have the option to do unsupported, self-supported, or supported. I opted to do this run supported so that friends could join me, and because now more than ever it feels important to acknowledge and savor the support of friends! So here’s to Sonya for biking most of the way with me, and Eva and Sara for running the last 4 or 5 miles. And of course to my mom for the rides and not questioning my need to run 17 miles on a random rainy Saturday. It was a tough run, but also the longest and fastest I’ve run since before the pandemic, and actually less painful than some of the shorter hillier long runs I did this summer. It’s not quite where I’d like to be or where I know I can be, but here’s to a mindset of growth and grace!


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Clare S

Lamoille Valley Rail Trail Section 1B FKT: Honoring the Land and People that Feed Us

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Endurathon run section

Lunch Run

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