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March 2026 Newsletter

Letter from a Board Member

Greetings, UVRC, and happy March!

I recently returned from a week of running, hiking, and playing in warm, sunny Arizona. I went to grad school in Flagstaff more years ago than I care to admit, so we decided to spend a week visiting old friends and old favorite trails. We got to tour though the incredibly diverse landscape unique to the Grand Canyon State, as our travels took us from 11,500ft down to 2100ft, and in doing so, we got a solid taste of spring. (And, in the case of the Sonoran desert outside of Phoenix, the 90 degree temps and active rattlesnakes felt more like summer – that’s a no thanks for me when the calendar says it’s February!) Though it was undoubtedly still winter in New England upon our return, the calendar tells us that spring is coming!  Trillium will be in bloom before we know it!

As we welcome the new beginnings that come with the warming season, we would also like to welcome two new members to our UVRC board! Jackie Albanese and William Ren have generously committed to serving on the board this year. William brings a plethora of tech skills and enthusiasm to the table. Jackie will be leading our spring Couch to 5k group this year, and is an integral part in our efforts to bridge the gap between our couch to 5k programs and the wider UVRC group. We are grateful for them both!

See the announcements and articles below for volunteer opportunities, upcoming races, updates from our Couch to Core crew, and much more!

Kristina

March 2026 Newsletter

March Announcements

Running Buddy Needed

Sarah Peters is a 37 year old Special Olympic Track athlete who is looking for a Running Buddy  to train/run with in the / around the downtown Hanover area. Sarah will represent New Hampshire at the National Special Olympic Games in Minneapolis in June 2026.  

 An ideal schedule would be 2-3 times / week for 45 minutes- hour or so.  During this time the hope would be for 1- 2 of these sessions to be a long distance run outside, (2-4 miles, weather and sidewalk surfaces permitting) OR inside, (at the Dartmouth Gym where she has a membership).   If possible the other day/s could serve as indoor interval trainings, (and could be shorter sessions). Any experience with running/ running track is welcome.  

Although Sarah lives in Hanover she needs help navigating  a longer running loop and/ or inside running distance-tracking. She currently works out at the Dartmouth Gym in between her job at 53 Commons Cafeteria  and her other Special Olympic team practices.  

Her weekday schedule after 1:30 is flexible and she is available on the weekends as well.  

If you or someone you know is interested / available please email or call / text me, (her mom) at 

pasp59@gmail.com or 603-504-8638. 

UVRC Registration – Have you renewed for 2026 yet?

You can sign up here: www.LebanonNH.gov/register  

Log in, choose the Adult Sports & Programs tab, choose Upper Valley Running Club, then 2026 UVRC Membership (either individual or family rate). 

You’ll notice an increase of $5.00 dollars across the board for all paid-for programming. This increase is to help with the behind-the-scenes work that Leb. Rec. does on a daily basis, from daily processing, general questions, website hosting, reimbursements, accounts payable, and more. Membership fees also go toward all the amazing programming below. 

UVRC Membership includes:

We look forward to your continued participation in UVRC and encourage joining a committee whether it is the social committee, volunteering, newsletter, UVRC gear planning, training, or race involvement. You can always email paul.coats@LebanonNH.gov or board presidents at contact@uppervalleyrunningclub.org.

Cara Baskin, Kristina Siladi, and Drew Prescott

Tri-UVRC Presidents

Updated Discount Code: Running Warehouse

As a UVRC member, you can enjoy a discount from Running Warehouse: 20% off clothing and socks and 10% off select clearance shoes, visors & hats, and nutrition. Enter code 2PK52FZT at checkout. Note: this is a new code as of January 1st. 

Volunteer Challenge 2026

Have you ever avoided getting lost in a race because someone in a stylish traffic vest pointed you in the right direction? Have you ever had someone hand you a cup of electrolyte mix mid-stride and continue to smile brightly even though some of that sticky liquid spilled on their hand as you took it from them? Have you ever had a stranger put a medal around your neck and congratulate you? Have you ever reached an aid station 20 hours into a race and had a stranger hand you pickle juice and an otter pop and tell you you look great even though you know they were lying through their teeth out of kindness? 

If you answered yes to any or all of the above, you have benefited from the generosity of volunteers in the running community! Knowing that running events do not happen without volunteers, UVRC is once again issuing a Volunteer Challenge in 2026 – now with a new format! Any UVRC member who volunteers at least 3 hours at a running event or trail work day will be entered to win a pair of running shoes of their choice from Omer and Bob’s or Stateline Sports at the end of the year! Each person gets one entry, though volunteering more than 3 hours is always encouraged. You can submit your hours by emailing  volunteering@uppervalleyrunningclub.org. If you;ve never volunteered at a running event before, we think you’ll find it to be a fun and rewarding experience!

Save the Date 6/27 – Volunteers Needed for Mount Washington Road Race

UVRC has provided volunteers for the Mount Washington Road Race for years, and we are hoping to round up another crew of amazing humans this year. The race is on Saturday, June 27th. We are in charge of post-race parking, as drivers bring runners back down to the starting area at the base. It’s a pretty easy gig, and in exchange, volunteers get all the feel-good vibes the volunteering brings about, and UVRC gets four bypass entries into the race for anyone who wants to run but does not get in via the lottery.

RELATED: Save the Date for the 2nd Annual UVRC Campout

UVRC will be hosting a campout at Barnes Field at the Dolly Copp Campground, just a few short miles from the start of the Mount Washington Road Race, June 26th-28th. It’s a great place for MWRR volunteers and racers to hang for the weekend, as well as anyone else who wants to spend a summer weekend in the Whites with some running friends! More details to come. 

Covered Bridges Half Marathon lodging discount

Do you have friends or family coming into town for the Covered Bridges Half Marathon who need lodging? On the River Inn in Woodstock is offering a discount for racers and family/friends. Use the code EVENTS when booking, or reach out to Nikki at events@ontheriverwoodstock.com who can help you with your booking! 

https://ontheriverwoodstock.com/
March 2026 Newsletter

UVRS Series Update

The 2026 Upper Valley Running Series (UVRS), brought to you by BE Fit Physical Therapy, is underway! The first race in the series was the RedZone 5K in Wilder VT. Congratulations to all of the UVRC participants; race results are here:

https://d368g9lw5ileu7.cloudfront.net/races/results_ozyw8hjdx558vihpx5f4coq0k0my.pdf

You can find UVRS standings (mostly up-to-date) on the UVRS website:

https://uppervalleyrunningclub.org/upper-valley-running-series/

The next race in the series is the Upper Valley classic, the Lebanon Shamrock Shuffle 5K! The race takes place at Lebanon Town Hall, on March 14th. Website:

https://lebanonnh.gov/816/Shamrock-Shuffle

So, what is this UVRS that you’re hearing so much about? It’s our club’s series of local road races. Full information: 

https://uppervalleyrunningclub.org/upper-valley-running-series/

Full-series registration is open before the Shamrock Shuffle, and we’ll open it again after the Shuffle. Full-series registration gets you a 25% discount! You don’t need to sign up for the whole series, though: as long as you are an up-to-date UVRC member, you can just sign up for each race through the normal race registration (even day-of is OK). You’ll get credit as a series participant.

For 2026, you need to run 6 (of the 11) races to get the finisher prize. I believe in you; you can do it!

If you don’t want to race, or have a family member along, who doesn’t want to run, consider volunteering. Prizes available. Volunteering into:

https://uppervalleyrunningclub.org/volunteering/

Happy Running!

Geoff and the UVRS committee

(Photo caption: Age Group 50-54 at the 2025 Shamrock Shuffle)

March 2026 Newsletter

Couch to Core Update

By: Laurie Franklin

Looking for something to do on Saturday morning besides sleeping in? Twenty-three people now show up at the Seminary Hill gym at 0800 for an hour-long bootcamp session. They seem to be having fun—and they keep coming back—so I’d call that a win.

This group grew out of a need to bridge Couch to 5K enthusiasm with a winter activity that kept us active and ready for spring running. While running in the snow sounds appealing (NOT), many of us prefer indoor strength and core work. Keri created a fantastic Couch to Core program and handed it off to me, which felt like a natural transition. I’m a nurse, a big believer in overall fitness, and I’ve attended almost 500 sessions at West Lebanon FitBody Bootcamp over the past three years.

Using what I’ve learned, I’ve adapted the program to focus on exercises you can do at home while still getting a full-body cardio/core workout. I’ve never been great at exercising alone, and I think this space fills a real need for encouragement, accountability, and friendship. 

What I love most is how this group adapts to everyone—from those just starting out to those who are already quite fit. There truly is space for all levels. If a push-up is the goal, the path might start with a wall push-up, knee push-up, plank, or modified plank. They all count. My focus is safe movement, good alignment, and strengthening both the big and often-forgotten small muscles that support balance and injury prevention.

You’ll find yourself doing crunches, low planks with hip dips, wall sits with leg lifts, tricep dips, jumping jacks, squat jacks—and soon, burpees and beast hold walks.

It’s been great welcoming longtime UVRC members to the morning sessions. Spending time with Neil at Cioffredi’s really helped reinforce how critical this work is for stabilizing knees, hips, and core, ultimately making us stronger, more resilient runners.

Looking ahead, I’ve had great conversations with Kristina, Cara, and Jackie about how we can better bridge Couch to 5K runners into the larger group. While the main group can feel a little intimidating at first, what I’ve learned is that we all share the same desire—to be better runners. Sometimes we just need targeted training at a smaller scale before jumping into speed work and longer distances.

The goal is to build that bridge and make the transition feel welcoming and achievable. We’ll be closed March 14th for the Shamrock Shuffle but will continue workouts through March 28th—so feel free to stop by on a Saturday morning and give it a try.

March 2026 Newsletter

Running in Alaska – February

By Tim Smith

It is hard to believe that it has been a whole month since I put pen to parchment and sent a missive off to the upper valley.  

I was out recently with Running Club North, for their Wednesday night, “Fahrenheit Be Darned” run and was thinking about how much light we now have because, well — Spring is coming.  Despite the temperature displayed at the entrance to the University of Alaska campus.

(There is something in Fairbanks called the “Forty Club”.  Stand in front of this sign when it is -40F, in a bathing suit, and have your picture taken.  I’ve seen people line up for the privilege.)

This has actually not been a great month for my running.  I’ve been busy with my wife’s rocket campaign and missed a lot of runs.  But I have been skiing.  So I thought I would write about that instead.  I have been watching a number of you (via Strava) and know that many of the miles logged by UVRC runners in the Upper Valley have been on skis. So a few words about skiing may be well received.

Before I came to Alaska for the first time, about three years ago, I mentioned the trip to Dorcas and she immediately responded, “Oh! — Birch Hill”.  Birch Hill is part of the Fairbanks North Star Borough park system. But this park has effectively been taken over by the “Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks”.  The club grooms about 40 kilometers of trails for skate skiing. This includes about 10 km which also have lights for nighttime skiing.  They have hosted a number of national championship and even a few international races here. And in my opinion, the grooming and the trails are up to the task.

Mid afternoon the place reminds me of Ford Sayer, swarming with kids. But in the morning I can have the place to myself; I’m often the first one to mar the perfect surface left by the groomers.  But, ironically, it has been too cold to skate much.  Some people tell me they put away their skate skis at about 0 F.  I’ve tried skating at -28 F, it is like running in loose sand.  It is a lot of work, with out much glide.  

On the opposite side of Fairbanks, and near where I live, is the University of Alaska – Fairbanks (UAF). Most of the campus, 1,100 acres, is forested and filled with 23km of groomed trails, some of which are also lite.  A friend of mine who is a professor at UAF list on his calendar that from 12:00-1:00 he is in the “White Conference Room”.  Which means that if any student wants to talk to him at that time, they should be wearing skis.  

I’ve had a few delightful night time outings here.  Down the “T-field Road” to Smith Lake.  Smith Lake itself is pitch dark, illuminated only by the stars and moon, and sometimes the aurora.  A great oval, about a kilometer around, has been groomed on the lake.  And then back home via the “Potato Field”.

But what I really want to talk about is backcountry skiing,  because this is very different then what I do in the Upper Valley.  There are a lot of places to go, including out the front door and down to the Chena River,  but I’ll primarily write about three places I enjoy.

Goldstream Creek (yes I know, creek seems redundant after the word “stream”) in the summer will be a black spruce bog, or a “muskeg”.  Marshy, meandering streams, beaver dams, ponds and pools, and (I expect – but I’ve not been here in the summer) a zillion mosquitoes.  In the winter it is a labyrinth of trails shared by snowmachines (snowmobiles), skiers and dog-sleds.  The snowmachines tend to keep to the old rail bed, leaving us skiers to follow moose tracks and musher trails.

I always like meeting a dog sled team.  The dogs seem to be enjoying there run, like the exuberance of high school cross-country runners who are in shape and beyond the view of parents or coaches. The musher seems to have only a secondary, almost incidental role in the team.  There is only the occasional call from the musher to the lead dog; “Gee” (right) or “Haw” (left) and a few more.  But most of the time the lead dog is just running down the trail; the captain of their squad.

Another of my favorite places to ski is Murphy Dome.  A “dome” is either a very large hill or a small mountain, which is rounded off on top.

If you head west by north west out of Fairbanks the roads get smaller and windier, then they start climbing to a ridge line.  And then it stops.  Behind you, to the east, is an old radar station, a precursor of the DEW line, but I’m here for the other direction. When you look west you see that this ridge, in half a dozen miles, drops into a broad expanse of muskeg called Minto Flats.  Beyond that are mountain ranges, rivers and more muskeg. And 400 miles away, is the Bering Sea.  Between that sea and this dome, there are no roads!

There are villages, dog sled & snowmachine trails, and occasionally an “ice highway”, but no roads.  Murphy Dome is also wide open, an alpine tundra with miles of horizon.  Down the ridge line is a place where you can see Mt. Denali, 180 miles away!  This is the most wild place I know of, which I can get to within half an hour of our cabin.

Because of the wind, the snow can be very hard and crusty and I’m glad that my backcountry skis have steel edges. The snow is packed by the wind, and then eroded and sculptured by that same wind into “sastrugi”, hard ridges which can be tricky to negotiate.

Last week when I skied there it was -38F with a fierce wind. When I had my gloves and over-mittens off to take the below photo, I seemed to have gotten a little bit of frost bite on my finger tips.

My newest favorite spot to ski is on the Yukon River!

I spent a week in the native village of Beaver. Beaver is one hundred miles north of Fairbanks and seventy miles from the nearest road. You have to fly, snowmachine or dog sled to get there. About sixty people, mainly Native Alaskans, live there. 

I was there to take care of radios and cameras for my wife’s rocket launch.  She launched two rockets up and over an aurora.  We spent most of the time waiting for perfect conditions. And during the day, when there was no aurora, I had little to do and so went out skiing.  Beaver is on the banks of the Mighty Yukon River.

I started on a snowmachine track which headed up stream towards Fort Yukon – about 75 miles.  But I was enchanted by the open river, so left the track — and found myself in 2-3 feet of powder! Which was not a bad things;  since it was bitterly cold (about -35F). By wading through that powder I worked up some heat and kept warm.

Eventually I learned to read the surface of the river a bit better.  But it still can be tricky. Sometimes I’m on ice, sometimes on sastrugi, sometimes on a crust which breaks through leaving me knee deep, and occasionally waist deep, in really dry snow.  And sometimes I’m on “jumble-ice”.  This is ice formed in the early season, which broke up when the river level dropped. Then that ice flowed down from the head waters and refroze here into a solid mass.

The Yukon River is not actually a good place for skiing, so why do I like it?  I was thinking about this once while half a mile from shore and no signs of humans anywhere in sight.  The sun was setting in that hour long golden process of the far north. The wind was howling and my fingers were aching due to the cold.  But all I could think was, “This really is the Yukon!”  Calvin and Hobbes have a book called, “Yukon Ho!”.  The “Call of the Wild” and many of the other adventures I grew up with invoked the Yukon.  As a boy, the Yukon ment adventure.  And from wherever I was reading those adventures the Yukon was about as far away, and as mystical, as Timbuktu or Shangri-La.

And here I was, skiing on that mighty river, complete with wolf tracks!

I have had people wonder about my venturing out into that wilderness.  Why do I think I can venture out in that weather and that wild, and feel perfectly certain that I’ll come back unscathed?  Well, the simple answer is, I’m a Runner.  We train to do things which are not easy, but are — in a way which maybe only fellow runners can understand — incredibly delightful and sublime!

If you would like to read more about my travels in Alaska, see my blog: 

https://www.trailnotes.org

—————————–

Photos

1) Running Club North / “Fahrenheit Be Darned”.  Note, Ryan Buttrick of UVRC is on the right, in yellow.

2) Night skiing at “The North Campus” of the University of Alaska – Fairbanks.

3) Dogsled encounter at Goldstream Creek.

4) “Sastrugi” on Murphy Dome.

5) Sunsetting over the Yukon River.

6) Skiing on the mystic and mighty Yukon River.

March 2026 Newsletter

Boston Prep 16 miler Recap

Ryan in Florida, the rest of us in New Hampshire

It’s Jan. 25th — 0 degree F. It’s chilly. Quite frigid. Too cold to run, some might say. And yet for one member of our motley UVRC crew, it is actually quite balmy. Ryan has made the calculated—some might say informed—decision to run in Florida. He is living it up in the sunny beachside roads of Clearwater, palm trees abound, soaking in the lovely weather on his half-marathon along the coast.

He has left the rest of us—Jim, Sean and I—to fend for ourselves in the dastardly cold temps of New Hampshire. Now to be fair, the way that I had intended to fend for myself was to not run. As still a somewhat newcomer to the upper valley, running in these temps has until now been a foreign concept. My first winter here I avoided running whenever it went below 30. My second winter I spammed the treadmill. And this third winter, well, it occurred to me that the natural progression was to fully embrace a philosophy of YOLOness, at least as much as it applied to outdoor running in the cold. 

Even still, these temps were testing my limits. I had read somewhere that at certain temps cold enough, running outside actually starts to damage your lungs. 5 degrees, I told myself, would be my limit. But I had known for a while that Jim and Sean were planning on doing the race, and swayed by their seasoned optimism, I wanted in. I do love racing. 

The day before the race there was a dilemma. Race started at 10am, and at noon, the forecasted onset of quite a spectacular blizzard. Driving back home from Derry would be a challenge, and Jim and Sean’s plans for a brewery tour would almost certainly be thwarted. We even thought the race might be canceled, but instead, organizers encouraged an hour early start, at 9am, which we decided prudently to take up. 

And so the Boston Prep 16 miler race starts at 9, and Jim, Sean, and I are in it. Energy is high, despite the temps being uncannily low. Something about this iteration being special for its slight-out of ordinariness, of being held in such cold weather with an impending snowstorm looming, brings about an air of enthusiasm. The actual course is quite difficult, with rolling hills that just keep on rolling, but fueled by this energy and half-frozen gels I am feeling good. 

Until I am no longer. Let me paint you a picture. Miles 1-10 = fun. Miles 10-12 = hill. Big hill. Hill that doesn’t seem like it wants to stop going up. Unreasonably so. Uncaringly so. Unavoidably so. All I know is hill. HILL. 

But this hill, as all things, comes to pass, and we start rolling down. And it becomes a little fun again, and at this point it has begun to snow. And at mile 13.5, it has begun to snow PROPER, and the snow is starting to stick on the ground. And now I am running faster since the hill is behind me but I notice that someone is catching up to me so I try to run even faster still. But at this point it is too late and this person passes me but as she does I follow her to pass another runner so it evens out. And then I realize “WOW! I am running in a blizzard!”. And I relish in this thought for a couple of cycles until the last couple of minutes of my race are blurred together by the blinding white of all-encompassing snow and the last dregs of effort I can muster. Which at this point in this race, is very little effort.

And then we finish, and I think to myself — wow, this has been quite the memorable event! Made even memorable, I daresay, by the fact that Jim, Sean and I have each won quite the bespoke prize of New Hampshire maple syrup!! Not quite as good as Vermont syrup, Sean will say, but I will confess my ignorance here and say I do not know the difference. 

All in all, a 10/10 event. Ryan, you were here with us in spirit.

for anyone who would like to digest some of this recap in video format: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS80kLONxmw