The Squatchung Surprise 2018

By Claudia Rimerman
The gimmick here is that it’s a timed race with four trails, each a different length. You don’t know how far you’ll run or which trails until it happens (pull a colored golf ball out of a bucket and run the corresponding trail). The park is mid-Jersey terrain: gentle rolling hills, nothing really challenging, but very lovely. The trails are 2, 3, 4 and 5 miles, and there is significant overlap at the beginning and end, but it’s along a pretty lake, so it’s not boring or frustrating. The four mile loop has some nice single track and fun turns. The five miler goes through an abandoned Victorian era village with impressive but decrepit homes; I got stalled there an extra five minutes reading the informative placards about the turn of the century summer vacationers, the social class distinctions between wealthy and middle class vacationers, and the bookbinding business that once thrived there. The five miler also had a great combination of single track, gravel road, deep woods, river, and the hardest hill on the course (do NOT think “Blue Hill”—it’s about 3/4 mile and not as tough). That said, I did do a bit of walking. The organizers are enthusiastic, and they bring a whole snack bar of REAL FOOD, prepared in response to a pre-race survey of runners’ favorite snacks. The event ends with a P/T session and a bowl of vegetarian chili. Well worth the drive across the GWB.