Berkshire Highlands Pentathlon 2012

The first annual Berkshire Highlands Pentathlon was held this past weekend over near Rte. 2 in Charlemont, MA. The 5 legs of the race are a hilly 4.5-mile trail run, a hilly 3-mile road bike ride, 5 miles of river kayaking, a 1-mile hill climb (from the kayak transition to the top of the ski slope, carrying your gear), and a ski run. Due to the very warm spring, the ski run was reduced to a short stretch of remaining snow and the hill climb most definitely did not involve snowshoes, but otherwise the event seemed to go off without a hitch. About 20 people completed all five legs themselves, and the rest did it as relay teams of varying numbers of teammates.

This was supposed to be a "rest day" for me, as I did a half marathon in Westfield the next day, but I ended up running around all over the place trying to catch decent shots of each event (I still ended up with my fastest 1/2 marathon time by 2 minutes!). I never saw everyone in each leg, except maybe the opening run, but there was one guy I ended up with photos of from each event. To the guy in green, I promise I wasn't stalking you, man! =)

full photo gallery

Dinosaur Footprints

I visited this quietly neato site called Dinosaur Footprints during a light drizzle today. The property, which is immediately adjacent to Rte. 5 in Holyoke, MA, is owned by the Trustees of Reservations and sits about a hundred feet from the west bank of the Connecticut River.

The sign says there are hundreds of footprints covering the small exposure of bedrock there. I'm sure a paleontologist (or even a well-informed child) would laugh at me, but I only saw a few dozen or so that I could definitely recognize as actual footprints. The rest just kind of looked like, um... little dents.

Anyway, this was one of the most distinct. I wasn't sure about visiting the site on a rainy day, but in some ways I think the moisture actually gave the imprints more visual definition, and it was fun to play around with the polarizer. The footprint is on the right, in case anyone was mistaking my left hand for the gnarly claw of a vicious velociraptor.