Runners cruise along the Vermont gravel roads as the sun sets. Ben Kimball On a relatively cool mid-July morning in Vermont, 438 runners and nearly 50 horses started this year’s Vermont 100 Endurance Race. The race, whi...
Articles by Amy Rusiecki
A guide helps their runner during the 2025 Vermont 100. Ben Kimball For nearly a decade, I’ve had a special Vermont 100 tradition. Many of my traditions are well known – as the race director, I wear many hats on race we...
I’m tackling technical terrain nearly every time I leave the pavement. Since the obstacles are constant, it’s hard to even remember how I first learned to dance on the rocks or pick out the best line amid a spider web of roots – it’s simply something I’ve learned over years and miles on the trails.
Throughout my running career, I’ve had amazing adventures, opportunities to test my limits and travel all over the country for races, gained friends and made stronger connections. I even met my husband through trail running. More importantly, the trails and the community who shares them, have been my emotional support for years and helped me through many tough times.
What is your relationship with the trails you run? Are you someone who passes over them and enjoys the beautiful views along the way? Or, are you someone who actively maintains the trails, picks up litter when you see it, moves a fallen branch out of the way or participates in trail work days when you can?
What is your relationship with the trails you run? Are you someone who passes over them and enjoys the beautiful views along the way? Or, are you someone who actively maintains the trails, picks up litter when you see it...
A year ago, I was running a 70-mile race and around 45 miles in, a female runner was passing me and said, “I might sound crazy, but are you Amy?” Turns out, she was a runner that I had run many races with over the years,...
The role of race director has many parallels to training for an ultra. Directing a race can be a time consuming and frustrating process and at times, it can test your patience and passion. I find that I often need to employ the same psychological tricks and techniques that I would for training and racing an ultra to race directing.
While most of the strength I built during CrossFit has long since been forgotten, there’s a term that stuck with me. CrossFit uses the term “goat” to define a movement that challenges you. Given my abilities, that meant...
When I think about the ultrarunning community, there are a few common themes that come to mind. Ultrarunners show up for each other. The community welcomes and supports everyone. And for me, the Vermont 100 (VT100) alway...
The author hugs Wes Judd, winner of the Vermont 100k in 2019. Photo: courtesy author I’ve been in the sport of ultrarunning for over 15 years. I started when I was in my late 20s, a plucky an...
The role of race director has many parallels to training for an ultra. Directing a race can be a time consuming and frustrating process and at times, it can test your patience and passion. I find that I often need to emp...
At this year’s Vermont 100 (VT100), I would yell, “Let’s hear it for the volunteers!” just before leaving each aid station and allow the crews (eagerly awaiting their runners) to do what I couldn’t appropriatel...
Seven Sisters Trail Race female podium (L-R, Bonnie Lathrop in second, Colleen Chase in third and Carmen Bango in first). Rebecca_González-Kreisberg For the past several years, I have directed the Seven S...
I’ve been a runner for about 30 years now, and an ultrarunner for nearly 15 years. Over the years and miles, I’ve learned a lot of lessons—often the hard way. I was asked to speak to a local running club about my expe...
If you peek behind the curtain of any race, you might (or might not) be surprised by how on the verge of chaos things can be. After many years of race directing, I’ve actually started getting more nervous when things aren’t going wrong or when there isn’t an issue to resolve. My goal is always to remain duck-like through the process: calm above the water no matter how desperately the legs are working below the surface.
On a Saturday morning in April, 17-year-old Will Draxler set off up the trail to begin his “design your own” 100-mile journey through the Hilltowns of Western Massachusetts. Will was a senior at the local Academy at Char...
Winter in New England is always full of cross-training, as it’s hard to maintain regular running without a bit of flexibility and creativity. Snow-covered trails, slick roadways and sub-Arctic temperatures often force...
I sit in my backyard, completely comfortable in the old camp chair. My shower and bed (and kitty cats) are mere feet away inside my house, and the temptation to give into these creature comforts is intense. I have run 10...
In this crazy year, I’ve found it hard to find inspiration. I think that I just wasn’t invested in anything enough to capture my imagination. Particularly, there was the struggle of trying to navigate the immense work st...
I’ll admit it. My mental game can be weak. Of all the muscles in my body that I train to prepare for an ultra, my brain is the most neglected and undertrained. And, in those late miles of an ultra, it’s a critical compon...
On Monday, April 20, I ran 26.2 miles around my community. I was supposed to be running from Hopkinton to Boston, but COVID-19 changed that. Still, I couldn’t allow Marathon Monday to pass without celebrating the best wa...
Just 90 minutes outside of Washington, DC, hides a gem of a trail in the George Washington Forest – a perfect ring of mountains just begging to be run. The Massanutten Mountain Trail circumnavigates this 71-mile mountain...
For 40-50 hours per week, I work as an environmental engineer organizing the logistics and operations of a municipal public works department. My entire involvement with running, including training, coaching and race dire...
Somewhere between winter and spring, lies the frustration of ice and mud season in the Northeast. This time of treacherous running can last anywhere from a week to a month, but the most challenging conditions are when bo...
Years ago, someone once told me that “snowshoeing made the winter bearable.” I would go farther than that and say snowshoeing makes the winter fun. I actually think it’s the secret training weapon of those ultrarunners w...
Over the past few years, runners like Kyle Robidoux have made the ultrarunning news for their participation in races. Kyle is a well-known fixture in the New England running scene, having completed races such as the Verm...
There has been a lot of discussion recently regarding the wide categorization of gender in ultrarunning. Conversations, policies and debates have centered around male versus female topics including where transgender athl...
Anyone who’s directed a race likely has some crazy stories of the unexpected, humorous and stressful things that can happen behind the scenes. And anyone who’s directed an ultra has many more stories – as things only get...
Like many in the ultrarunning community, I crave adventure. This has pushed me to enter 100-mile races and run a few epic routes “just because.” However, I don’t always have time to travel to a race, or even carve out a...
I’m an engineer with a Type A personality. If there was such a thing as being Type A+ that would be me. I like organization and anyone who has done one of my races has received race announcements that include bullet poin...
While most of us will never hold an FKT, simply perusing the list of FKT routes will fill up any ultrarunner’s bucket list. The Beast Coast offers plenty of such routes – one of the most popular being the Presidential Tr...
A small ultrarunning community in Western Massachusetts has been doing amazing things under the radar. Their name says it all – the BURCS (Berkshire Ultra Running Community for Service). These awesome ultrarunners focus...
Over the past 20 years, I have coached numerous high school and college teams. For the past five years, I have provided personal coaching for ultrarunners working towards their next races. While I am embarrassed to admit...
When I first started running ultras I remember reading about the Hellgate 100K, and was immediately intrigued. The race is in mid-December, starts one minute past midnight, and is a challenging mountain race (it’s also actually longer than 100k)
When I first started running ultras I remember reading about the Hellgate 100K, and was immediately intrigued. The race is in mid-December, starts one minute past midnight, and is a challenging mountain race (it’s also a...
There’s a joke between me and Brian about his training habits. If it’s a Saturday, he’s probably running the Seven Sisters. If it’s a Sunday, he’s probably running the Seven Sisters. If it’s a holiday, day off from work or even one of his every-other Fridays off, he’s probably running the Seven Sisters.