It was probably 6 months ago when Jim Westrich first put the bug in my ear about this tiny marathon in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. He teased me with words and phrases that he knew I couldn’t resist: low-key, old-school, rural, hilly dirt roads, fall foliage, maple syrup, beef jerky, pizza, Hill Farmstead Brewery, team competition, 9 a.m. start time.

After months of feeding me a steady diet of this, I finally was excited to commit. It was going to be in the middle of a big 2 ½ months of racing for me, and I eagerly anticipated it.

However, we also needed to round up at least one more marathoner to join us in the team competition. We put out feelers at TNT, and though there were many “yeah, that sounds great”, none actually committed. Until, finally, the day before the race, I got a text from Jim to confirm our carpool meeting time and place, and he mentioned that Ryan Scelza and William Ren were also in. They were planning on running the half marathon, with William a “maybe” for the marathon, as he was still recovering from a recent downhill marathon in Utah. Well, I know that William loves to run marathons, so I was pretty sure he would be doubling his distance in the morning.

The four of us met at the Thetford Park & Ride in the fog for an easy 90 minute drive to the “fly” part of Fly to Pie: the Northeast Kingdom International Airport in Coventry, VT. The closer we got, the more the sun exposed itself, and by the time we arrived, it was out in its full glory, shining the way to a great day of running in the Kingdom. And apparently, the sun inspired William to run the marathon, giving us our 3-person team, with Ryan sticking to his guns by running the half.

The run itself was FUN! There were 3,000’ of vert, which is pretty decent for a road marathon, and most of it was on dirt roads. As I made my way through the course and admired the beauty of it all, I couldn’t help thinking how this was the stereotype that people get when they think of Vermont: rural, hilly dirt roads, peak fall foliage, farms, old trucks, older tractors, cows, mountains. It was perfect.

After 24 miles of fun up and down cruising, I faced one more good uphill mile and a final downhill mile, so I enjoyed myself a little more and pushed it to the finish. Afterall, I wanted to get to that “pie” part of Fly to Pie so I could start stuffing my face! I happily crossed the finish as the marathon champ and all was good (except for the bloody nipples!). And as a bonus, Ryan, finished with his fine running in the half, got to see him and give me an attaboy!

As I was eating plenty of pie from Parker Pie in West Glover, William was the next of our crew to come in, very happy with his finish much quicker than he anticipated, especially since that meant he had more time to eat more pizza. Not long after, Jim joined the fun and, as promised, bought a round of beers!

The awards are what really set Fly to Pie apart. My winnings consisted of a gallon of Couture’s Maple Syrup and a pound of Brault’s Beef Jerky! And as UVRC won the team competition, Jim, William, and I each won even MORE maple syrup and jerky!

As we collected our winnings and I thought the day couldn’t get any better, well, it did! Jim suggested we stop at Hill Farmstead Brewery on the way home; that was a wonderful suggestion, and a super fun way to end a most-excellent day spent running, pizza eating, and beer drinking in the Kingdom. I really can’t highly recommend this race enough.