Masher's Pre-Race Intel

Masher McBuns was pretty psyched to check out the new course for Give Peace A Tri 2013 and find the buoys had already been set up. Last week he went to Surry Mountain Lake to get in a swim before the race and found the place had been severely flooded. The gate to the park was closed with a sign explaining why:

Surry Mountain Lake is a flood control area. The dam will purposely allow the lake to flood to save surrounding townships from flooding. Masher hopped past the gate and the park ranger's hut and didn't get very far before he saw the flood waters from all the recent rain in New England. You can see in the photo above that there's dampness around the ranger's hut.

Behind the hut there was lots of rock and debris from when the water was at its highest. Just beyond the speed limit sign you can see where the water was as of July 7th, 2013.

That's a lot of water. To give you an idea how just how much water that is, this should be a driveway that leads between the trees. Behind the group of trees on the right is a large parking lot. Beyond the trees on the right is a large grassy area where last year's transition area was. And beyond all of that was the beach and then the lake. Here are some shots from Masher's race last year:

Transition area.

The beach.

Park, picnic area and parking lot. Front gate beyond the tree line.

The transition area, beach, picnic areas, and parking lot you see above? All under water, making it impossible and unsafe to race at the lake. Instead, Robyn, the race director (she's in the beach photo above in the blue shirt, giving the pre-race info session) worked hard to move the race to Otter Brook State Park in Keene, NH. It's no easy feat to plan a multisport event, and to move one at the last minute was surely stressful. Masher gives a special big thanks to Robyn and her husband and all the volunteers who made this race possible!

Back to race intel! Masher checked out the new course site so he would know how to get there, and he lucked out because the buoys were already set up and he could swim the exact course. He did an easy hop along the run course so he could prepare himself mentally. It was pretty hilly...certainly not pancake flat like at Surry Mountain Lake, but he's ready to race! GO MASHER MCBUNS!

Dem buns!