Reach the Beach
 

The ~200 mile Reach the Beach relay race from Bretton Woods to Hampton Beach is taking place today and tomorrow. It kicks off this morning in Bretton Woods and finishes tomorrow afternoon at Hampton Beach. There are about 300 teams participating.

Runners will be on the road in the lakes region mid afternoon through the wee hours of the morning. For example, we see runners going through Center Harbor roughly between 6:30pm to 2:00am. They all have flashing lights on for visibility but please keep an eye out for them. They tend to be on the back roads.

In addition, there will be a LOT of whites vans driving around, backing them up. Teams have 2 vans each and they leapfrog between the 36 race Exchanges (where runners hand off to the next person). At times, there can be a lot of traffic around the Exchanges.

I will always remember the first time I saw the racers. It was the first September after we bought our property on Parade Road in Laconia. We were sitting out back having a barbecue with friends and all of a sudden (around 9PM) we saw someone running down the hill with lights all over their head. We scratched our head, but then saw another racer. We now look forward to it every year because it is so much fun to cheer than mine.