Gifford Medical Center offers healthy cooking classesGifford Medical Center offers healthy cooking classesGifford Medical Center offers healthy cooking classesGifford leads Vermont 100 medical teaifford leads Vermont 100 medical team
RANDOLPH 6/27/07 -Gifford Medical Center health care providers are serving as the volunteer medical team for the Vermont 100 Mile Endurance Run on July 20-22. As it did last year, the hospital is also donating all needed medical supplies.
The medical team is led by Gifford sports medicine providers, podiatrist Dr. Robert Rinaldi and chiropractor Dr. Hank Glass, who are this year’s medical directors of the Vermont 100.
The race is one of the nation’s original 100-mile runs and attracts up to 300 “ultra” runners from across the nation each year. The runners attempt to complete the hilly course through Vermont’s beautiful back roads and trails in fewer than 30 hours. Proceeds from the race benefit Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sports, an organization that helps disabled individuals learn and participate in sports and recreation.
The medical team treats exhausted and injured runners along the route’s 100-mile course. Last year, staff from Gifford’s Sharon Health Center volunteered at the event. With Drs. Glass and Rinaldi leading this year’s medical team, the majority of the team is from Gifford. Volunteers include Dr. Glass, Dr. Rinaldi, podiatrists Dr. Nick Benoit and Dr. Kevin McNamara, family physician Dr. Robert Kiess, physician assistant Sue Burgos, nurse practitioner Eileen Murphy, Sharon Health Center office manager Tracy Jennings and nurse Jamie Floyd.
Gifford will have teams of providers working eight- and 10-hour shifts at various points in the course to treat the medical needs that arise in an endurance run, such as dehydration, blisters and achy joints.
Race director and Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sport board President Jim Hutchinson of Randolph described ultra running as a niche sport that severely taxes the human body.
“Gifford is really an invaluable part of the Vermont 100, and there’s not enough words to express the good that Gifford does with this,” Hutchinson said. “There’s not a lot of people who participate in ultra running. There might be 10,000 to 12,000 runners worldwide. It’s one of the most amazing things that people put their bodies through. Good, competent, experienced medical staff is absolutely critical to this. Gifford’s participation contributes hugely to the sport as well as to Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sports.”
Many of the Gifford providers are athletes themselves and are volunteering because they are interested in supporting healthy activities, especially among individuals with disabilities.
“I feel that everybody should have the opportunity to participate in athletics and what Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sports does is help people who have dysfunction by supplying them special equipment so they too can participate in athletics,” said Dr. Rinaldi, a marathon runner from 30 years, a renowned physician attracting top-notch athletes to Gifford and a past organizer of the nation’s first marathon in Stamford, Conn.
Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sports also instructs disabled athletes in adaptive sports. The hospital through its community health grant program earlier this year additionally donated $2,000 to Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sports to help train volunteer instructors.
The Vermont 100 is a major fund-raiser for Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sports. The race, which begins and ends in West Windsor, is 19 years old, one of the first of its kind in the country, one of four races that make up the “grand slam” of the sport and the only race of its scale to still allow horses.
Ultra running got its start with ultra riding. Riders would take horses on 100-mile endurance runs. A California chiropractor, H. Gordon Ainsleigh, began ultra running in 1974 when his horse became lame before an ultra riding event and Ainsleigh showed up at the start line on foot. Organizers couldn’t find a rule that prohibited running instead of riding and when Ainsleigh completed the course on foot in fewer than 24 hours the sport of ultra running was born.
“This is the last remaining major race that allows horses and runners on the course at the same time,” Hutchinson said. “We have about 30 horses.”
For them, said Hutchinson, “There’s a whole team of veterinarians, who come from all over the country.”
Riders and runners start this year’s Vermont 100 at 4 a.m. on July 21 with flashlights in hand. Last year’s winner, a California man, finished in just over 15 hours. The race record is 14:08:40 and has gone unbeaten for 12 years. Finishing in 24 hours or fewer is considered an accomplishment. Few Vermont runners participate in the race. The lone Randolph runner this year is selectman and Gifford employee Damon Lease, who, like others in his sport, travels the country competing in ultra-marathons.
There is still time to sign up for the Vermont 100, but participation requires previous completion of a 50-mile run. Volunteers of all kinds are also still needed. Call Hutchinson at (802) 728-5294 to volunteer. Learn more about the race online at www.vermont100.com. Learn about sports medicine at Gifford at www.giffordmed.org or by calling the Sharon Health Center at (802) 763-8000.