The Annual Reach the Beach Relay Race certainly covers a lot of familiar territory for the New Hampshire State Parks team. With 12 runners split between two vans (each with its very own treasured van manager) embarking on a 202 mile challenge that turned new faces into forever friends.
A relay race commencing in the mountains of Franconia Notch State Park, chiseling along the base of Mount Washington through Crawford Notch State Park, turning the headlamps on at Echo Lake State Park, finding our second wind at White Lake State Park, staring at the wrong side of a sunrise in Bear Brook State Park, and HOLY CRAP- running through sand at Hampton Beach State Park…
Last year, amazingly we managed to land a 6th place finish in our category and 79th overall, averaging under 8 minute miles for the entire race AND we did this with two pregnant runners!
This year we are running for Planet Earth
THIS YEAR, once again we plan to proudly represent New Hampshire State Parks, which we all love so much. Each of us on the team has a strong connection to NH State Parks; whether we work for the Division of Parks or the Division of Tourism, whether we do fire rescue or search and rescue, or whether we are leading climbing or endurance adventures, New Hampshire’s diverse and gorgeous parks are where we find our passions and playgrounds.
It was unanimous amongst all of us on the team to choose the environment for our cause and bring awareness to ways we all can do our part to slow climate change. The world is feeling the accelerated increase in temperature as a result of greenhouse gases caused by all of our demand for energy, fuel, industrial processes and global deforestation. Already, parts of the world are seeing ice and glacial melting, more extreme weather, and species migrating to new places. There are things we all can do to reduce our environmental footprint.
As Gandhi put it,
“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
First we need the facts. Here are a few great resources:
- The United States Environmental Protection Agency on Climate Change
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration on Climate Change
- State of New Hampshire Task Force on Climate Change with links reports
We invite you to follow our blog posts every other Wednesday from now until our race on September 13th. We’ll share our favorite pre-race foods, test some of New Hampshire’s best trail runs, share environmental tips, and more.
Other endurance events in NH State Parks this summer:
July 27 Bear Brook State Park Trail Marathon
August 3 Top Notch Triathlon at Franconia Notch State Park
September 7 North Country Endurance Challenge
September 13 & 14 New Balance Reach the Beach Relay
September 15 Run for the Fallen, Odiorne Point State Park. Course is up to 12 miles
September 15 Pisgah Mountain Trail Races, Courses 23K and 50K
September 21 Pitch Pine Tri Challenge, White Lake State Park
September 22 YMCA 16th Annual Triathlon at Clough State Park
September 22 Trek Portsmouth Wallis Sands Triathlon
Running for planet Earth,
The New Hampshire State Park Bloggers Reach the Beach Team
Here is our team video from last years Reach the Beach experience:
