Team Eastern Mountain Sports
presented by Eastern Mountain Sports

The race is now the Checkpoint Zero Adventure Race ace and frankly, we're pretty excited to come down for it. After a mild start to our winter here in New England, the temperatures plummeted in January and haven't given us much relief since. We haven't even had much snow to play with, but then we finally got dumped with snow on Valentine's Day. It allowed Dmitry to go try his first snowshoe race (he won) and for Chad , Frida and me to do the Pittsfield Snowshoe Marathon in the 12 inches of new snow that came to Vermont last weekend. Down here in Boston, however, it's warmer and that meant pouring rain which pretty much melted most of the snow, turning what remained into a sheet of ice. Dave Lamb, in the meantime, has been hitting up the local randonee (mountaineering) races and skinning the peaks in the Mt Washington Valley of New Hampshire. We do what we can, but when you're lucky to get on your bike once a week and the only paddling you have done all winter was at Swamp Stomp, you can't help but feel unprepared. The hills in the area around Helen are looking pretty intimidating and I hope I remember how to mountain bike. But ready or not, here we come!

It will be a huge field which means another chance to see so many of our friends from around the country. It's also a new area for us to race in and that is always exciting, and often so humbling! So, on Thursday, March 22nd we'll load up the CD player with George Strait and the Dixie Chicks and Chad, Dave and I, plus our amazing support person, Anne, will set a course for south of the Mason Dixon line and be on our way. See you all soon!

--Jennifer Shultis, Captain, Team Eastern Mountain Sports