Tracksmith

Stack miles, not meetings.

Our ode to the Eliot Ryder and the long weekend.

This series is called Summer Roads, but our latest feature takes us off them. 15 miles and 2,500ft of elevation, Vermont Overland is about “having fun in the dirt” and dancing on the trails. Dashing through fields, forests and gravel roads, Overland’s unique mix of scenery and surfaces showcase the best of eastern Vermont.

Next up on our road trip: the Beach to Beacon 10K in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. For one weekend in August, this seaside town becomes the center of the distance running world, treating pros and amateurs alike to rolling hills, sweeping Atlantic views and Mainer hospitality.

For more than six decades, New England runners have taken to Newburyport in the thick of summer for the Yankee Homecoming 10 Miler.

We joined them this year for a mid-summer measure of fitness, and a good reason to head north.

“Get fit or die trying.”

In the middle of a summer spent racing the roads, we return to where fitness is measured most honestly. For one night in Boston, we test our fitness, cheer on friends, and battle to the line at the Twilight 5000.

Love the miles you log.

The Eliot Ryder is made to stack miles.

Last week, three generations of Estey women toed the line at the Welfleet Road Race, a summer tradition dating back more than 50 years.

Since 1974, this local 5-miler at the outer end of Cape Cod has welcomed a small yet spirited field. Runners wind their way up the hilly course from Mayo Beach across the Herring River Bridge to the Great Island trailhead and back, weaving into water sprayed from neighbors’ hoses and soaking up breezes off the Atlantic.

Watch the film via the link in bio and catch up with the full Summer Roads series on YouTube.

Nothing else like it.

The Eliot Ryder arrives on July 15th. If you want it sooner, sign up for early access. Link in bio.

Nothing else like it.
The Eliot Ryder arrives on July 15th. If you want it sooner, sign up for early access. Link in bio.

“It’s not a walk in the woods, it’s a scramble up a bunch of crooked rocks.”

7.6 miles and 4,650 feet up the Northeast’s highest peak at an average grade of 12%, the Mt. Washington Road Race is the hardest hour (if you’re lucky) of running you can find, pretty much anywhere.

The latest in our exploration of idiosyncratic New England road races, Mt. Washington’s saving grace is it’s “only one hill.”