CHARLEMONT — Alix Michael of Seattle climbed halfway up Mount St. Helens this week in preparation for her first pentathlon on Saturday at Berkshire East Mountain Resort.
The Berkshire Highlands Pentathlon will run from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the resort, featuring a 4-mile run, a 16-mile road bike ride, a 2-mile river paddle, a 2-mile obstacle course run and a grand finale climb up the 1,000-foot ski slope and down to the finish. The pentathlon can be done solo, as a team of two, a team of five, or a family team.
Michael, 28, is among the five women and 12 men “Braveheart” category competitors who are doing all five “legs” of the competition themselves. One leg of the race requires participants to climb the ski mountain with their ski gear and ski down it.
“I climbed about 4,000 feet up Mount St. Helens,” she said Wednesday night. “I actually did that with a load heavier than the ski-set I’ll be using Saturday.”
Michael says she was an active soccer player until injured in a car accident and told to avoid contact sports. Since then, she said, she has been cross-training, mountain biking and rock climbing.
With the goal of participating in a duathlon in every state, she started competing in May and has so far run and biked her way through seven duathlons in seven states. A duathlon is a competition with a course of a running, cycling and a final run.
Besides the Braveheart category, “we have the Team of Two Category, and Teams of Five, and then, within the ‘Fives,’ there are the under-19 (high school) teams, ages 19 to 50, and 50-plus,” said event spokesman John Ferris. “Then there is our new Family Team Category this year — imagined to be less competitive, but more geared at getting families to come out and have fun at the race. It’s hard to believe, but we actually whittled the team categories down,” he said.
As is true with the other categories, there will still be a first-, second- and third-place standing in the Family Team category, said Ferris. “The last consideration is the overall win,” he said. “Some teams are gunning for the clear first place in the whole event and aren’t really concerned about their standing within their own category.”
Polly Bartlett, 90, of Buckland will be returning to the seventh annual Berkshire Highlands Pentathlon this Saturday to again complete a downhill ski run as part of her family’s team. Bartlett, who was last year’s “Most Inspiring Athlete,” will be the oldest participant. The youngest athletes this year will be 8.
“The family team has been quite popular already and I think more families will sign up still. We have a team of five fathers each doing one course leg with their sons, ages 8 to 10,” he said. “Factoring in Polly Bartlett, who is registered again at 90, we have an oldest to youngest age spread of 82 years this year,” he said.
“We are expecting to have about 120 competitors and at least that many spectators, plus 60 or so volunteers,” said Ferris.
The race can be done solo or as a team. It begins at Berkshire East with a mass start, a 4.2 mile road/trail run that transitions to a 16-mile cycling leg along the Deerfield River. The next transition, at the Mohawk Park, begins a 2-mile kayak/canoe race down the Deerfield River. After the kayak leg take-out, there is a 2-mile obstacle course, bringing competitors into the base area of Berkshire East. Finally a climb to the summit (1,000 vertical feet) of the ski area, finishing in a downhill ski/board course to the finish. (Athletes must carry their own gear up and back down).
In case of extremely bad weather, the event will be postponed to Sunday.
Ferris said the start time for the pentathlon is 11 a.m., with the first teams coming into view around 12:40 p.m.
“With a little walking between Berkshire East and Zoar Outdoor, spectators could see almost all the transitions,” he said.
The awards ceremony will take place around 3:30 p.m. Spectators have free access to Berkshire East’s lodge, bar and restaurant. Also, from the lodge, they will have a good view of the contestants on the final ski run.
At this time of year, there is still a skiable surface, the roads and trails are usually free of snow for running and cycling and the Deerfield River is running freely to support kayaking.
Proceeds from this year’s Berkshire Highlands Pentathlon will benefit the Charlemont Ambulance Association.
For more information, go to: http://www.berkshirehighlandsevents.com/