Ontario Vice President Places Second in Vermont 100K

July 28, 2008 – Pickering, ON Local 1632 Vice President Colin Arnott completed the Vermont 100K in 12 hours and 21 minutes July 19, 2008, qualifying him for second place. Arnott, a 19-year veteran fire fighter, has previously run more than 50 marathons across North America, but this was his first ultra-marathon.

To train, Arnott ran twice per day for several months. “I did not expect the Vermont course to be as mountainous as it was,” he says. “I was either going up or downhill the entire race. That was quite a change from the flat terrain I trained on in Ontario.”

To ensure runner safety, Vermont 100K staff weighed each participant throughout the race to make sure the runners weren’t losing excessive amounts of water weight. “At the 75K mark, I had lost nine pounds,” says Arnott. “But, I was able to rehydrate and return to the course fairly quickly.”

The Local 1632 vice president is very pleased with the results of his first ultra-marathon and hopes to do another soon. Meanwhile, he is coaching a beginner’s marathon class for the Toronto/Scotia Bank Marathon scheduled for September 28. He will run the Disney Marathon in Orlando, Florida, in January 2009.

Coinciding with the Vermont100K was the Vermont 100 Mile Endurance Run, one of four prestigious 100 mile races which comprise the Grand Slam of ultra-marathons. The other three are the Wasatch Front 100 Mile Endurance Run in Utah, the Leadville 100 in Colorado and the Western States 100 in California. Unfortunately, the California race was canceled this year because of wildfires.