TL;DR

• Location: Wachusett Mountain
• Course: map on Gaia
• Stats: 9 mi, 3000 ft elevation gain
• Date: 3/5/22 (bad weather fallback: 3/6/22 or 3/12/22)
• Time: 10:00am start – whenever people finish
• Signups: 20 spots available, sign up now until Wednesday 3/2 at midnight

(picture from the race course)

Course information

Wachusett is a fantastic spot for winter trail running: we’ll be running on popular trails that are consistently in great shape for running in microspikes.

We’ll be following this route that involves summiting Wachusett a total of three times, running on a number of popular trails including Jack Frost, Mountain House, Semuhenna, and others. The race course involves summiting Wachusett and then descending to the ski area, then back up and to the start of the race course at the Echo Lake Road parking lot, and then doing one final loop up to the Wachusett summit.

Prior to the race, we’ll send out a detailed description of the race course, so you can familiarize yourself with some landmarks and trail intersections. We also require that participants carry a map, and we recommend having GPS navigation as well (e.g. the Gaia app on your phone). The trails are well-marked, but the course has a number of intersections where you will need to take the right turns.

There will be an aid station at the starting point (which is also the 6-mile mark) where we’ll have water/drinks/snacks, and where teammates/volunteers/finishers can hang out.

Divisions

You can choose to run the race either as an individual or in a team of two:

• Individual: 9 mi and 3000 ft
• 2-person relay: 1st runner covers 6 mi and 2000 ft (two summits of Wachusett) and 2nd runner covers the last 3 mi and 1000 ft (one summit of Wachusett)

If you want to find a teammate for the relay, you can use this Google doc for finding partners.

Winter trail running and safety

If you don’t have prior winter trail running experience, there will be a mandatory pre-trip meeting over Zoom so we can go over some of the challenges of winter trail running, to make sure you are prepared. Participants will be required to carry a cell phone, headlamp, and trail map, and participants are strongly recommended to carry food, water, and some extra clothing as well.

We’ll have an aid station at the start of the race (which is also the 6-mile mark of the 9-mile race); at the 3-mile mark, we won’t have an aid station, but that point is right next to the ski resort building.

Logistics

We’ll organize carpooling to/from the race.

Volunteering

We could use a few volunteers to hang out at the aid station and take down splits. We could also use a few volunteers to act as “walking aid stations” canvassing the course (and perhaps also taking pictures/videos of participants). If you’re interested in helping out, please email Anish + Kathy.