LOUDON, NH – To give you an idea of how hot it was at this year’s Turtle Pond Circuit Race, the organizers of the race, the MetLife Cycling Team, shuttled 20 cases of bottled water to the registration area in the morning. Before the second wave of races got underway at noon, we heard exasperated sigh and groan, one after the other, after telling parched racers that we were completely out of water. This happens every year. The first hot racing day in New England always catches racers off guard. They come without enough liquids, under hydrated, over dressed, and without sunscreen. But who can blame them? New England’s notoriously unpredictable spring weather is almost always as big a factor in the race as is the competition or the terrain. Anyway, it was HOT!
This year’s edition of the Turtle Pond Circuit Race was a resounding success. A couple of course changes and a new placement of the finish line spiced things up, as racers would have to duke it out in a sprint finish this year, rather than pedal feverishly up to the line atop Oak Hill as they had in years past. Racers seemed pleased with the changes, as were we, since the new finish area alleviated the traffic congestion and riders descending Oak Hill (reverse direction) to get to their cars after the finish. This year, everything felt smooth and streamlined.
Even more motivating for the MetLife team was the decision to donate 100% of proceeds from Turle Pond to charities: half to the Loudon Elementary School Technology Fund, the other half to the Dennise Maslakowski Graduate Education Scholarship Fund. We jumped at the idea to return the favor granted by the citizens of Loudon, NH, for letting us host the race on town roads. Donating funding to their school system seemed like an apt thing to do. Furthermore, the funds toward to the graduate education fund could finance a potential life-changing teacher working in the Loudon school system someday. Thanks, Loudon! And just in case you’re wondering how much money we raised, when the smoke had cleared and the dust settled, we had two checks for $2500 set to go to our two designated funds!
This race could not have happened without the myriad support from many sponsors including: S&W Sports of Concord; Panera Bread in Concord; Constantly Pizza of Concord; Jordan’s Ice Cream of Belmont; Dos Amigos of Concord; Hed Cycling; and Grappone Toyota of Concord.
Huge thank yous go out to our many wonderful volunteers who soldiered through the heat to help with marshaling, course set-up and clean-up, and registration. We hope all of the racers had a great time and plan on making the Turtle Pond Circuit Race part of their racing calendar every year!