On Friday, September 16, a group of 21 Haverford alums headed to New Hampshire to take part in what has become an annual tradition for them: the Eastern Mountain Sports Reach the Beach Relay.
On Friday, September 16, a group of 21 Haverford alums headed to New Hampshire to take part in what has become an annual tradition for them: the Eastern Mountain Sports Reach the Beach Relay. For the sixth consecutive year, Haverford would be represented by a men's team, and, for the second straight year, a coed team was competing as well.
Stretching over 200 miles, Reach the Beach pits teams of 12—most of them former college teammates, co-workers, friends, or members of the same track club—on a course that runs down from the ski slopes of Bretton Woods on Friday, through small New Hampshire towns in the dark of night, and along the Atlantic Coast to the finish line at Hampton Beach on Saturday.
Though the race has grown from fewer than 50 teams in 2000 to nearly 300 this year, the Haverford runners have remained successful. After setting the course record in 2000 and defending their title the following year, the Haverford men posted back-to-back-to-back third-place finishes, while the coed team placed 26th in its debut. Both were hoping to improve upon their 2004 finishes, when they averaged 6:19 and 7:31 per mile, respectively.
The race, which begins in small waves throughout the day, started for the coed team at 2:30 in the afternoon. Joe McCool '01 got the team off and running, tackling the challenging lead-off leg which runs up one of Bretton Woods' ski slopes for a mile and a half before plummeting. Thirty minutes later, with the coed team now a few miles down the road, Adam Chase '88 led off for the men.
When Chase had handed off to Anthony Belber '95, the team packed into two vans and headed out onto the rural roads that would take them toward Hampton Beach. With the route split into 36 legs, each person was be responsible for three legs over the next 20-plus hours. While some runners fueled up for upcoming legs, others tried to get some rest before their late-night runs.
As the sun disappeared behind the mountains, teams from previous starting groups began to appear on the road ahead. One by one, the coed and men's teams began moving up in the field, both on pace to improve on their 2004 times. While the men had been hoping to challenge for the win, alumni teams from Bucknell and the University of New Hampshire had already pulled away. Running in the familiar position of third place, the men pushed forward, passing the coed team about a quarter of the way through the race.
Battling fatigue, soreness, and occasional rain showers, both teams reached their goal of improving upon last year's times: The men averaged 6:13 per mile this year to finish third—a mere 32 seconds ahead of the fourth-place team—and the coed team improved even more, averaging 7:09 per mile to jump all the way up to 15th overall, out of 275 teams.
With Reach the Beach taking place shortly after Hurrican Katrina devastated the Gulf region, Sam McFerran '98 led a fundraising effort in conjunction with the race. Team members ended up raising a total of $5,800, which they donated to the American Friends Service Committee for its work with disaster relief.
Competing on the men's team this year were Adam Chase '88, Anthony Belber '95, Sam McFerran '98, Willie Stroever '02, Aaron Wolpert '95, Stephon Petro '00, Ian Fraser '98, Kirk Mangels '05, Mark Gyandoh '96, Marc Chalufour '99, Garth Terry '01, and Paul Hyman '98. Competing on the coed squad were Joe McCool '01, Alex Au '00, Kristen Wilson '03, Matt Spigelman '02, Alice Fraser '01, Judson Redmond '01, Shale Rosen '98, Libby George '01, and Kurt Spring '02.
— Marc Chalufour '99, managing editor of Running Times magazine.
