An Ideal Day For Setting New Records At The 4th Annual FJG Race To the Top Of VT

2011 FJG Race To The Top Of VT Results

You never know what Mother Nature has in store and there is no way to change her mind once it's set. When last Wednesday's forecast painted a grim picture of Hurricane Irene hitting our area, there was a difficult decision to be made by Race Director Jim Fredericks. "I could cancel the 4th Annual FJG Race To The Top of Vermont and risk disappointing everyone or I could have the race one day earlier and hope most preregistered participants could rearrange their schedules. Holding the event at a later date was not feasible," said Fredericks. As it turned out, the unusual decision to bump the race up one day was a very good one.

Almost 600 racers and hikers took advantage of the mid 70 degree temperatures and scattered cloud cover to post some historic times on the 4.3 mile Toll Road. The runners have ruled for the past couple of years with the fastest times up the Mount Mansfield Toll Road but that trend came to an abrupt end when mountain biker Jamey Driscoll of Winooski, VT put down the big pedal to set a new overall course record. Jamey took 2:58 minutes off last year's course record set by runner Andrew Gardiner of Dover, NH.  Driscoll posted the fastest time of the day in 31:51.6. National Mountain Running Champion, Kasie Enman from Huntington, VT posted a time of 39:17.7 to break her 2009 course record by 55 seconds. Three-time winner, Marilyn Ruseckas from Warren, VT set a new mountain bike course record in 41:55.4, taking 91 seconds off the course mountain bike record she set in 2010.

A new record was also set for the team category by Team Sleepy Hollow. Posting the fastest combined times on the course, Kasie Enman, Ray Webster, and Marc Gilbertson nailed down the fastest Open Class Team time of the day in 1:56:31, knocking one minute and three seconds off the previous record.

One of the highlights of the day was the outstanding performance of Andrew Gardiner who posted a winning run time of 35:27.7 and immediately ran down the mountain to the start of the mountain bike race, with just one minute to spare. Without delay, he changed his gear and made his second trip up the 4.3 mile Toll Road. He finished 9th in his age group and 39th overall for mountain bikers.

All participants were treated to a BBQ meal and over $14,000 in prizes and awards following the event. A special thanks goes out to the Stowe Mountain Resort, our  sponsors listed on the right of this page, and all the volunteers who made this such a successful event. 

Put August 26, 2012 on your calendar for the 5th Annual Race To The Top Of Vermont. If you have any comments about the race, we would love to see them on our Catamount Trail Association Facebook site.