Shires of Vermont Marathon

EVENT ON HIATUS FOR 2019. From race website: “The Shires Marathon is currently on hiatus and will not be running in 2019. Thank you for your support for our races and the Shires communities.”
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A 26.2 mile, picturesque point to point journey through 5 beautiful southern Vermont villages.

The marathon is a point-to-point race from Bennington to Manchester Center, Vermont. The race begins at Bennington College, a small private liberal arts school, heads through the small town of North Bennington before entering into the back roads of Shaftsbury. The half-way point is at the Federated Church in East Arlington and then the route heads toward the Chiselville Covered Bridge and onto Sunderland Hill Road with spectacular views of mountains and meadows while protected by a canopy of trees. The course takes you through Manchester’s back roads before emerging onto downtown Manchester. The course concludes with a run through the downtown area of Manchester and on to Hunter Park finishing at Riley Rink with plenty of amenities including showers for all participants.

Sections of the course will be closed to traffic. About eight miles consist of hard-packed dirt, with the remainder of the surface paved.

The course is an officially USATF-certified (VT14002JK) Boston-qualifier marathon.