This past weekend, we traveled to the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts for Sunday’s Curly’s Marathon. Debbie took first place among women in this first time race, with a finishing time of 5:08:08. Ben Nephew took the overall honors in 3:47:47. Promoted by Beth Herder of Berkshire Sports, the race honors her father, Curly Voss, who was a pioneering Berkshires skier. The course was on Pittsfield State Forest trails and also on a four mile section of the Taconic Crest Trail.
Most of the runners noted that this was a rugged course, made a tad bit more challenging by the torrential rain brought to New England by tropical storm Hanna. It basically poured non-stop from 5:00 P.M. on Saturday until dawn on Sunday. We camped out and fortunately, had the benefit of our VW Eurovan. The Pop-Top kept us dry, but the pounding of the rain kept us from getting any solid sleep.
We awoke to drizzle and fog, especially evident at the high points of the course, but by 9:00 A.M., the clouds gave way to patchy sunshine. By noon, it was gorgeous with a perfect running temperature. The course was two laps of a 13.1 mile loop. It was run first counter-clockwise. There was a half marathon option. If you chose to do the full, you went back out on the course a second time in the clockwise direction.
You could tell that a lot of runners were using this race for training towards some of the bigger fall classics. The Pisgah 50km is next week and the Vermont 50 is in three weeks. I figured I would “save” my legs for later and spent the day crewing for Deb, hanging with Shep, and shooting photos. The state forest is very nice. We went to the top of the big climb at the 5 mile/8 mile mark (depending on the loop) to take in the great views west towards Albany, New York. It was chilly and breezy when we first got their moments after the 8:00 A.M. start. You can tell that fall is just around the corner.
Life Adventures 
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