At 8 a.m. on Saturday morning, students stretched and warmed up outside Paresky. Some debated the merits of drinking energy drinks while others exchanged nerves about the steep uphill section near Mount Berlin. All were dressed and ready to run. The occasion? The Williams Outing Club’s (WOC) first “Mountain Marathon.”
The 25.7-mile race wound through campus, Hopkins Forest, and the Taconic Crest Trail and featured 5,100 feet of elevation gain. Twenty-nine students participated, with many completing the route relay-style in teams. According to co-organizer Charlie Kalnite ’28, three students — Uriah Hernandez ’27, Ben Liu ’27, and Theodore Mollano ’25.5 — ran the entire course.
By the time the last runner crossed the finish line — back at Paresky, 7 hours later — participants had run a cumulative total of 300 miles, roughly the distance from Williamstown to Philadelphia.
The seed for the WOC Mountain Marathon was planted when former board member Innes Asher ’25 participated in a similar race at Tufts University last year. WOC organized a trial run for the marathon in the spring, open only to WOC board members and their friends.
“We put it on in May to see, ‘Would this work? How would we do it?’” Lily Muhlbaum ’27, co-organizer of this year’s event, said in an interview with the Record. “But then it worked, and we were like, ‘Okay, awesome,’ and wanted to be able to make it so that everyone in the community could do it.”
Kalnite said that the College’s Berkshires setting also inspired this year’s marathon.
“I’ve been a runner all my life but never a super big trail runner,” he said. “I ran cross country [and] track in high school, and still run for fun, but being here in such a beautiful natural environment with such an abundance of good running trails is what sparked my interest in taking a leadership role with the Mountain Marathon.”
Muhlbaum and Kalnite began planning last May in order to obtain government permission, an onerous process with which WOC is familiar from planning Mountain Day each year. The duo communicated with both the New York Department of Environmental Conservation and the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation to ensure they had the proper authorization to host the event.
In late summer, Muhlbaum and Kalnite planned the precise route, gathered equipment, organized emergency procedures, and sent emails to spread the word.
Other WOC board members contributed to the festivities on Saturday, cheering on runners at various stops and providing directions for the route. Notably, WOC co-President Brianna Dechet ’26.5 made and distributed pancakes to encourage runners as they whizzed through Petersburg Pass.
For Liu, Saturday’s race was his first marathon. “I don’t think I would run [25.7 miles] on my own, just for fun,” he told the Record. “But it seems like there are people that are going to do it, and I’m up for the challenge.”
Muhlbaum reflected fondly on the event. “I had a really good time,” she said.“I think that being able to see all of the work that we had been doing with WOC come and be possible was really cool.”
Just hours after the event, she was ready for more. “We’re planning one for next year,” she added. “The hope is for more people to join and to keep going as a tradition.”
