My how times have changed! In April 2007 we produced the inaugural Half Marathon Unplugged, 216 people ran, we had a single wave for starters, rented 3 buses, had 5 Course Monitors, and 2 water stops - Talk about low-key! Fast forward to year nine, 2015; we were fortunate enough to entice Switchback Brewery to sign on as presenting sponsor. 1700+ people registered to run, 1229 finished, 2 start waves, 5 buses doing 2 trips for each wave and over 40 Course Monitors.

Our feedback from you tells us we have a good thing going, that the combination of the time of the year, a fast course, and a fun post-race atmosphere at Switchback is something you want to continue. We’re planning on 1800 entrants this year and hope we’ll see you on the start line!

The growth of this race has led to some growing pains over the years. After last year’s race, our city’s safety officers as well as the neighborhoods where we start and finish asked us to come up with some ideas to minimize the impact on those areas. To address that, we are changing the way runner transportation will work for 2016.

•  One Main Street Burlington will now serve as our transportation hub as well as the location of Race Day Packet Pickup. Downtown Burlington has over 3000 public parking spaces.
•  The bus to start location is being changed from Flynn Ave to One Main Street, Burlington.
• Bus schedule here: Wave 1 Bus Info: Bus 1: 7:45am, arrive Colchester 8:00am Bus 2: 8:25am, arrive Colchester 8:40am Wave 2 Bus Info: Bus 1: 9:45am, arrive Colchester 10:00am Bus 2: 10:25am, arrive Colchester 10:40am
• After you finish, buses will be available to bring you from the finish area on Flynn Ave back to downtown. These buses will start transporting runners at 11:00.
•  Race parking near the finish will be reduced. Private vehicles will not be allowed to travel west of Briggs St on Flynn Ave. Race parking will not be allowed on the neighborhood streets south of Flynn Ave.
• If you have a friend or family member driving you to the start who wants to see you at the finish, they may do so. Our best advice is for them to drive to Airport Park to watch the start, then if you are running the first wave, drive to the finish and park at 208 Flynn Ave or the Champlain School on Pine St. If you are running the second wave, drive to downtown and take the shuttle bus to the finish area.

We strongly encourage racers to use our bus system. If we’re going to continue to be able to produce this event and use this course we need to address how many race related vehicles are in the start and finish areas.

Looking forward to another great race in 2016. Hope you can join us!