Kelley Handy, seven weeks after running Boston in 2001, ran San Diego on June 3 of that year. She decided that from then on, she would not run any marathons as a bandit. With this in mind, she signed up for the Vermont City Marathon. She was later invited to enter the Central Mass. Striders lottery for a Boston Marathon number, but declined. She had committed to Vermont. She felt that consecutive marathons were too much.

On hand to watch were her husband and two sons. This made travel to the event longer. As anyone with small children knows, kids don't like long car rides. To make it bearable for them, the Handys stopped a couple times, making a four hour trip last six. These stops included a picnic and a tour of the Ben & Jerry's Factory.

In the end, Kelley finished ahead of 52% of the pack and 67% of the women with a net time of 4:05:15. The Burlington Free Press printed a nice photo of her in the marathon pull-out section the following day.

Mike Keating had run Boston unofficially in 2000 and 2001. Mike could not do so in 2002 because he was with his son's Boy Scout Troop in South Carolina that day. The trip had been arranged well in advance. Mike wanted to do another marathon to replace Boston that year. Being a French major, he considered Quebec City in late August, but ruled it out due to the need to intensely train in Worcester during the dog days of summer. Given its timing and location, Vermont made the most sense.

During the fall of 2001, Vermont took on a larger significance. Barbara Keating, Mike's mother, died September 11 on Flight # 11. The Keating family is greatly spread out. Its members committed to getting together more often and not just waiting for funerals. On hand to watch Mike were his immediate family, his wife and two children. Also cheering him on were two brothers, an uncle, their wives, and two nephews. The Burlington area made good money off the Keating clan!

Mike finished in 4:14:12, beating 44% of the pack and and 35% of the men. At around mile 22, a woman who had read the article about him in the May 9 edition of the Burlington Free Press kept him company. She picked him out by reading his tee-shirt which had a dedication to his mother. It turns out she went to school with the husband of the flight attendant who made the telephone call to the authorities from Flight #11.

As it worked out, both runners stayed in the same motel, so the families met. Each runner had two clans for support.

While neither Mike nor Kelley met the original objective of breaking four hours, both viewed Vermont as a success because:

1. Although 3000 runners signed up for the full marathon (as opposed to relay), fewer than 2000 finished. I find it hard to believe that over 1000 people didn't show up for the race. It appears to be a high drop-out rate.

2. The overall winner took over 2 hours, 27 minutes. The record for that course is 2 hours, 17 minutes.

3. Not one (full marathon) runner they talked with afterward claimed to have had a relatively easy time.

The temperature at start was low 50's and at finish low to mid 60's. The wind was 20 to 25 mph. For those who don't understand 25 mph winds, here is a perspective. The waves were crashing on the Lake Champlain waterfront. No boats could sail. Weighted barriers were blown over near the finish line. The eighth mile was extremely nasty, a climb of about 1.2 miles with the wind in the runners' faces the whole time. Mile 15 was also a nasty hill. It was by far toughest road race for them. It made both of them swear off marathons for good. But don't you believe them! The bug will bite and they will be back next year!