Goshen, Vermont "Heavy Half" Trail Run (aka Moosalamoo Ultra Half Marathon)

We ran the 14.7-mile Moosalamoo trail run in Goshen, Vermont yesterday. Goshen is only about an hour from where we live in South Burlington, Vermont, and yet this might have been my first time there. It's a rural town up in the mountains that isn't too far away from the Champlain Valley. It's basically the Middlebury area, and Middlebury is up there with Richmond and Stowe, mentioned previously, as one of my favorite Vermont towns.

Goshen includes the Moosalamoo National Recreation Area plus some nice, rural, Vermont mountain neighborhoods, similar to Middlesex, Vermont where I lived from 2006 to 2022. I was sold on Goshen right away, especially with the Moosalamoo area, which did seem worthy of being one of 41 "National Recreation Areas" in the United States. 

The weather and trail conditions were fantastic. I finished in around 3 hours and 50 minutes (3:50). That included large sections of walking. My Adidas Agravic SL trail running shoes gave me blisters in the same spots again. I'm hoping I can get past the blistering and persist with the shoes. 

I would love to be able to run most of that course. I was ok for about 4 miles. And then it was mostly walking. I would love to get that time down to three hours. The race we ran is called a heavy half marathon because it was a little more than 13.1 miles. There was also a 36-mile run. I'm nowhere close to being able to do a 36-mile trail run. So the "Ultra" in this case was the half-marathon variety. I'm not sure if I have it in me to claim that I've run an ultra, though, given that I've never run as far as 20 miles. 

My right thigh injury came and went during the run. It's just about healed now, I think. I can't imagine it being detectable in another week or two. Which means I could be entering an injury-free phase.

There is a 4th and final trail run in this series, but this will only be 11 miles, for me, in Jay, Vermont. That should be better. That's in September, and then it's back to road racing and the Toronto Half Marathon in October. I'm excited for that because in two previous trips to Toronto I have loved it. I list it as a top-five favorite city along with New York City, Pittsburgh, London, and Paris.

I hope the trail running helps my road running. I doubt I'll be able to run for several days. As long as I stay injury free, I'll be happy. Part of me would love to train to try to run Toronto in 1:45, but I'm constantly on the edge of injury and experience tells me I have to rest and not risk training when I'm sore. The races are coming so thick and fast, my only real goal at this point is to make it to the start line in decent shape.

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