Future of the Lyndon Adventure Race
- Details
- Created on Thursday, 04 October 2012 15:40
- Written by Catherine Vitale
LYNDON - After three failed attempts at hosting the Lyndon Adventure race, Lyndon State Adventure Activites Coordinator Jamie Struck is looking forward.
Struck and his team of students have made new plans for next year, hoping to invite community members up the hill.
The Lyndon Adventure race -- outlined in a 75-page guide, was put together by Jamie Struck and a team of about 18 Lyndon State College students. The race was set to span about 41.1 miles of the Northeast Kingdom. The start of the race was set for the Stonehenge parking lot, where road bikers would ride to the north beach of Lake Willoughby.
At the lake, two designated team members would canoe to the south beach of Willoughby. Once the canoe arrived at the beach, a mountain biker would have to complete two designated loops, ending up in the parking lot. The race ended with a runner running from the parking lot back to the north beach of Willoughby. Many hours from Struck, and his team of students went into preparing for the race.
"We wrote 20… 30 letters to sponsors, we wrote to all the area towns that we were going to be wandering through with our races, whether it were running or biking, or paddling. We looked for proper permissions from those towns as well as the state, to use their forested areas," Struck explained.
Due to long winters and lack of interest,Struck's dream for the race never came to reality in previous years. The 2012 race was set for September 30th, but was also cancelled due to lack of interest. Struck cited different reasons for the lack of interest, including a lack of students being able to participate, and the fact that it was difficult for community members from the different sports to connect with each other to create teams.
Using this disconnect as a model, Struck and his students already have a plan in place for next year.
Next year's events are planned to be held on the Lyndon State College campus, and will showcase more students, who instead of working the big 41.1 mile race, will be able to participate and enjoy.
Struck said that holding the event at Lyndon during parents and alumni weekend at Lyndon State will hopefully branch out to more people.
"We're going to be showcasing the disc golf course, not necessarily for throwing, but we do know through mapping our course that it's two miles if you walk it, so that will be sort of our run section. We also have some brand new mountain bike trails. Kingdom Trails helped us out tremendously in building some new bridges this year, that we'll be able to showcase next year," Struck said.
He also mentioned climbing the rock wall and featuring water sports on the pond, as a few other things in the line up for next year.
Struck is also hoping that changing the sports and setting will allow community members to come up the hill for the event, without having to create teams. He isn't abandoning the possibility of the 41.1 mile race in the future either. Struck said he hopes to see the on-campus event become successful and grow enough that the 41.1 mile race would be possible.