Vermont City Marathon: Meet the NETT Mini Ponies!

NETT's road trip to the Vermont City Marathon was born the day Eminem and Peter were shut out of Boston 2012. After a couple "white lies" (with only the best intentions), it was decided NETT would head up en masse to Burlington and run some relays while supporting Karyn in her full marathon.

The results surprised even the most optimistic among us!

First and foremost big congrats to Eminem for meeting her goal of a sub-4. It was a deceptively warm day and Karyn paced herself smartly in the early miles, staying relaxed and drinking like a thirsty Canadian on Half Price Molson night. And in true NETT form, she got plenty of support from CP, AC, Big Dan and Not-so-Little Skittles. The strong support brought her in just under her goal time in 3:59, nearly cracking the top 10 in her age division. She crossed the line and was surrounded by a support crew bigger than most elite runners have.

"THANKS EVERYONE for all your support his weekend," she said. "It was a fabulous time, and I'm blown away by how well everyone did. I have to say, the NETT family rocks. (And boy, can you guys pack away the Ice cream!)" (More on that later)

Congrats Karyn. You did the work all winter, stuck to the plan, and executed with keen precision on race day.

But Karyn's finish was only the beginning of the good news. The two NETT relay teams stormed the course to finish first and second in their respective divisions.

The five-person relay kicked off with Doris running a 5K PR, weaving through the crowded field like a Ninja on roller skates! On Leg 2 Mary did what Mary does and ran a blistering pace and got Crazy Dave the bracelet in a flash. Dave held his own before Adrienne tore out around the neighborhoods and got Chris in great position to bring us home in sub-5:50 pace, kicking past teams right to the line.

We finished FIRST OVERALL out of 493 teams in the mixed open relay division in 2:53 (amazing considering two of us--almost three--are masters). We were the 9th relay team overall out of 715 five-person relay teams. It's a great example of five teammates all telling each other to "relax and have fun" but when it came their turn to run, every one of them dug deep because they didn't want to let their teammates down. .

Lastly, came the inspiring performance by "For Hannah", Marshall and Tina's two-person mixed masters relay team. Tina set out at an aggressive pace from the gun and held onto it all the way through the halfway exchange zone. Marshall continues to baffle us by running a 1:30 for his leg, crossing the line as the SECOND mixed masters two-person relay.

Part of it was our special shirts reminding us what's important. Part of it was the support from our teammates. But NETT clearly ran above its ability level in all areas this weekend. NETT also ATE above its ability level as well. Saturday night's pre-race meal was a delicious Chrisfest (there were four in attendance) capped off with a game of "How old ARE you?" from Frank and a special good luck message from Peter. Sunday's feast of Chinese food at A Single Pebble kept the pace up.

And Monday's eating...well...Karyn can tell us about that later....