October 5-17

So much is happening that I had to delay putting this newsletter out by a day because I didn’t have the energy to finish it after my own eventful weekend! Congrats to all Leaf Peepers participants and finishers – it may have been a bit warmer than everyone expected but a beautiful morning to be out racing. In other regional race news, CVR members Tim Noonan and Anne Treadwell were racing up in the Maine Marathon, where Tim clinched his age group and Anne came in second in hers. What a race season for all! 

Below there is a lot of information but most importantly if you have a few moments please read through Cheryl’s fantastic meeting minutes from our September 22 gathering, and see the call for volunteers for a few committees we are forming to cover a lot of club needs. Additionally, if you are interested in serving as a member of the CVR board starting next spring, or want to help us identify board members, we want to hear from you! Expressing interest in any of our opportunities is as easy as clicking “reply” to this email. Thank you for all that you do for this club!

And your full skim of this newsletter should be rewarded when you reach the classifieds, Sal Acosta has an item up for grabs that may be of interest!

Happy running,
Heather

Newsletter Highlights and Contents – Oct 5-17

• New singlets- If you ordered a singlet, and Jackie has not gotten ahold of you, please email her at JackieMS08@yahoo.com to receive it. She was kind enough to do a big distribution at Sodom Pond – the singlets are gorgeous! More soon on another batch of merch we’re thinking about for the colder months!
•  CVR’s Official Trail Run Season is over –But check out Matt Dugan’s season recap and report out on the Trapp trail event last weekend, and more info on the CircumVictory Trail run November 1, plus a few other regional trail events!
• Meeting minutes from the September 22 meeting are on the website here, see below for an overview and call for committee members for various club activities!

Newsletter Contents:

Race Updates and Volunteer Needs

CVR Fall Meeting Overview and Call for Committee Volunteers

CVR Summer Trail Series Crosses Finish Line into Fall by Matt Dugan

CVR/ORO Race Series Standings

Trail Runs – Other Regional Races

Fun Run – DoL Tailgate on October 7

Other News, Opportunities, and Classifieds

CVR Birthdays

Race Updates and Volunteer Needs

October Events:

• Unbelievably, with Leaf Peepers over yesterday (whew!), CVR doesn’t anything else official planned this month so join Fun Runs! Check out the other regional events going on in October (including ORO’s, below)!
• October 26 – ORO’s Autumn Onion is back! Check out our sponsor ORO’s fall race – and wear a costume, there will be prizes!

On deck for November/December:

• November 1st, 8th, and 15th – Fallen Leaves 5K Series – keep these fun and fast (but casual) races in mind as you head into the fall season, happening at Montpelier High School every Saturday in November before Thanksgiving. No pre-registration, just show up with cash or check and see how you go! And also, if by the time November rolls around and you STILL haven’t volunteered yet (really??), these are your last chances to do so and still remain eligible for a race series award!
• December 31st – New Year’s Eve 5K – your favorite end of year race is still a few months out, but it’s never too late to start getting your cold weather race outfit planned OR thinking about getting a jump start on a volunteer role at the VERY beginning of the new race season (that’s right, this restarts the clock on the race series and counts toward 2026 race series standings!). 

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CVR cannot put on races without volunteer support, and your help is always needed. Please volunteer now to help the race directors fill necessary jobs and plan for full race day support. Volunteer now online using the Volunteer link on the CVR website homepage at https://cvrunners.org OR by email to the race directors above.

CVR Fall Meeting Overview and Committee Volunteer Call

Thank you to all who attended our meeting in Adamant on September 22, both in person and virtually, we had more than a quorum to get some things done. Please find the meeting minutes here. Our final meeting of 2025 will be held November 16, location TBD. This meeting will include discussions on accepting the 2026 race and CVR/ORO series schedules and ongoing ways to manage liabilities. If you have other agenda items to suggest please reach out! We will share the agenda ahead of the meeting as always.

Key Takeaways:

• 13 Youth Running Grants were awarded to area schools and running clubs at $300 per club/team. Thank you all and thank you to Ann Bushey for being our youth grants coordinator for many years. She is stepping down and we are looking for someone to take this responsibility on starting with the Spring grants. Please reach out to me if you’re interested!
• The new CVR singlets with the updated logo have been a hit and we are looking to get additional merchandise available over the next few months – see below if you’re interested in shaping this further and join our committee!
• CVR’s Application for a 2026 Boston Marathon Entry was submitted, but we still need your help to determine how we award this entry to a lucky club member. See below to express interest in being in this committee. However if you’re just interested in how you can be eligible for consideration for the entry, stay patient as the committee needs to form and then set up the criteria. More information will be coming in the next months!
• Interested in coordinating Winter Group Runs? Reach out to find out more – we will kick these off after Thanksgiving!

Committee Needs:

Boston Marathon Entry Selection Committee – join Anne Treadwell to determine how CVR will select the recipient of our club entry to the 2026 Boston Marathon! Open to ideas on this process, including a lottery/raffle or other options. 

CVR Board Officer Recruit Committee – join Dot H. and Heather to identify a new slate of officers to be elected at the Spring Annual Meeting – this is an important responsibility, please reach out if you’d like to work with us on this activity! Also looking for expressions of interest from members who want to be considered for board roles, or to nominate someone!

2026 CVR Race Schedule and CVR/ORO Series Committee – join Joe, Tim, Donna, Heather, Darrel, Fab, and Gordon to coordinate with the Race Directors to set these schedules, which we will finalize to present for discussion and acceptance at the November 16 meeting.

Annual Club Dinner Planning Committee – join Jess, Merill, and Joe to support in making this event a fun and festive occasion! 

Merchandise Committee – help Jackie, Merill, Fab, and Nick to expand our merch offerings to the club.

Summer Trail Running Series Crosses Fall Finish Line

The starting line for the 2025 CVR Saturday trail series was at Perry Hill in Waterbury for a watery May run. As spring turned to summer, the trail passed through East Montpelier, Shelburne, Little River State Park, Groton State Forest, Calais, Cotton Brook, Barre, Hardwick, Richmond, and Barre again. And as summer yielded to fall, the journey concluded at the bier hall at the Trapp Family Lodge on a golden late September day where (almost) no one was tempted to sing about the hills being alive and such.

Along the way, favorite trails were run, the joys of trail running were shared, paces and distances were accommodated, Vermont history was learned, group pictures were snapped as various runners attempted to emulate Darrel’s selfie mastery, and waters were sampled by a certain four-legged Shadowy canine companion (tip from Shadow: always drink from the pool you’re standing in).

Shadow, the (un)official CVR Trail Running Companion of 2025
Perhaps best of all, a friendly pace meant conversation was spurred. Few things get a runner talking like spending a couple of hours rambling along a trail together, and runners’ thoughts range as widely as their feet (this, of course, is not a testament to the actual quality of said thoughts). 

Post-run food options ran from omelets, home fries, and coffee to fritters, donuts and hot cider, to beer, pretzels and bratwurst (aka, “health food”). Equally nourishing was the opportunity to sit and chat.

George after his first-ever trail run: Pictorial evidence that the group returned him unharmed.
With each run completed, participants would then head off to start their Saturday, perhaps with tired legs but often a noticeable extra hop in their step.

Many thanks to the trail hosts who planned routes and showed off their favorite haunts. Only three dates went unfilled this past season, so CVR runners had options nearly every weekend. See you on the trails next year. — Matt Dugan

2025 CVR/ORO Race Series Standings

And that’s a wrap on the racing part of the CVR/ORO Race Series! The updated standings through Sodom Pond are here, since Leaf Peepers was literally this past weekend we don’t have updates and we may hang onto those results to keep you all in suspense until the annual dinner. Don’t forget one requirement is to volunteer at least once – the only remaining opportunities are the three Fallen Leaves 5Ks so sign up today to help! Don’t delay on signing up though, because Tim often doesn’t need a ton of extra help so if you’ve waited to the last minute and Tim turns you down…..don’t hate the player, hate the game!

Note that volunteering has other benefits, including free entry to the annual dinner usually held in January. We love to celebrate our volunteers so even if you don’t know you’ll win a prize in the series, you’ll be able to celebrate with your fellow members and volunteers at that fun event. 

A sincere thank you to our sponsor Onion River Outdoors and specifically Allee Pineault for her excellent work putting this together. We will have printed copies of the poster available if you want to share this with any local businesses or publicize at your upcoming races, just let me know!

Trail Runs Updates

CVR’s official trail runs have ended for the season but there are still opportunities to get out there this fall! See below for other races and events going on that you can support.

• October 11 – Elmore Mountain 10K via Catamount Trail Association
• October 12 – 38th Annual Ripton Ridge Run 
• October 26 – GMAA’s Ghostly Gallop Trail 5K (previously the Hills are Alive 5K) is back! Details here.
• November 1 – CircumVictory 17-miler – a fun and down to earth race (but note the event is capped at 150 so if this looks like your thing, sign up today! Prices go up 10/13). See below for a familiar CVR-er who told me last weekend that she intends to be there for this year’s again, join her?

Fun Run – DoL Tailgate on October 7

We are at the DoL meeting spot for Tuesday runs this season, meet at 5:30 for a run of your chosen distance! This Tuesday, there will be a potluck tailgate at the DoL after the run. 

Other News, Regional Opportunities, and Classifieds

**This Weekend** October 11, 2025 – The Kingdom Challenge Half Marathon and 5K

Note: It is with great sadness we announce that this year’s race will be the final running of The Kingdom Challenge. Our organizers have retired, so we won’t have the expertise to make it happen after this year. Please join us for the final race on October 11th and help us celebrate this wonderful event one last time! Registration and details can be found here.

2026 Vermont City Marathon Registration Open – Note that registration is now open for the 2026 Vermont City Marathon races! Sign up now to lock in the lowest price (and motivate yourself to start training?)

**New this week** Men’s Hoka Cliftons available!
Sal has a brand new pair of Men’s Hoka Clifton 8 in size 11 2E. The price is “pay what you can afford.” They are a navy blue color.
Sal Acosta at slacosta@gmail.com

CVR Birthdays – October 5-17

• David Erickson
• Philip Picotte
• Mark Evans
• Kimberly Tillotson
• Jessica Thornton-Sherman
• Sarah Knutson

Club Details and Information on Benefits

Member Benefits Don’t forget that you get many benefits to being a member!Meet, run with, and socialize with other area runners of all abilities.Keep up-to-date on area running races and events.Receive a regular newsletter with race results and club news.Be eligible for the Central Vermont Runners/Onion River Outdoors Race Series.Join a club that’s part of the Road Runners Club of America organization. RRCA is invaluable for insuring CVR races.Become eligible for discounts at these area businesses:**updated** Ski Rack –  15% off regular price running shoes/hiking shoes, run and fitness clothing, nutrition, and run accessories. Discount applies to non-sale items only. 5% off Garmin and Shokz headphones. Discount does apply to special ordering.Onion River Outdoors – 15% off all running gear, including running shoes, running apparel and socks, reflective gear, run vests, etc. Special orders of Hoka and Altra running shoes included.Lenny’s Shoe & Apparel — 10% off running shoesMountain Valley Lotus Massage Therapy — 15% off massages. Quarterly Newsletter Support – Now “Special Editions” Rather than publish a newsletter, we will plan to send out the periodic “special editions” – see above for a call for stories! Membership Renewal – Reminder  John Hackney is our new membership coordinator and is spearheading a change in our membership signup system, stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks. However – you can still renew membership via the link on the website at any time!  CVR Equipment Use Anyone wanting to use equipment send Sal (and cc myself) a request that includes 1) Date equipment to be removed from the shed, 2) Itemized list of equipment being removed; including quantities, 3) Date equipment will be returned to the shed.  Please send Sal (and cc the club president) and email to let us know when the equipment has been returned.Race SeriesWe agreed on some new rules for the next year so check out the Race Series site for more details.   Elected Officers President – Heather Tomlins Vice President – Tim Noonan Finance – John Valentine Secretary – Cheryl Lasell At Large Executive Committee: Anne Treadwell & Dot Helling John Hackney: website and timing Donna Smyers: timing Sal Acosta: Equipment tracking/storage John Hackney: club membership tracking Jackie Jancaitis: Race director support Katie Hulbert: Winter Group Run organization Mark Howard: Summer Trail Runs organization Jeff Prescott: MailChimp Administrator Ann Bushey: Youth Running Program Grants Joe Merrill: Race Series Tracking and Awards Dinner MC Darrel Lasell and Jim Flint: CVR Facebook page managers