One of the biggest races in Franklin County returns Saturday. 

The Berkshire Highlands Pentathlon, which returned last year following a two-year hiatus, is slated to be held Saturday at Berkshire East. There were 178 athletes signed up to compete as of Wednesday, a higher number than were signed up at that point last year. The race is set to kick off at 10 a.m. 

While there is rain projected in the forecast for Saturday, race director John Ferris said that as of Wednesday, the plan was not to postpone. 

“Right now we’re leaning toward not postponing,” Ferris said. “Postponing is such a challenge. It takes so many people to put a race on so moving that would be difficult. As of now the forecast has gone up from 36 and raining to 60 and raining. If we tried moving it to Sunday the mountain has multiple events happening. It’s better to have it on a day where the mountain is closed or not having as many people there.

“We’ve done it in the rain before, we’ve done it in the snow before,” Ferris continued. “That’s the nature of the event. Last year was probably the only year in the race’s history where we had nice weather.” 

The race features the same five events it has in the past: a 4.3-mile trail run, an 18-mile bicycle road ride, a two-mile paddle, a  two-mile adventure run and a climb up, ski down leg. Competitors have the option to split up each leg and compete as a team, or do it as a Braveheart – the category reserved for folks doing all five legs themselves.

Even with the rain, the snowstorm from a few weeks back brought 38 inches of snow to the mountain, with plenty still there for the ski portion of the race. Ferris said he feels the course is in a good place, feeling it’s both challenging yet able to be done by all ages. That showed last year, as one team’s youngest member was 72 years old while another squad’s oldest member was just 11. 

“There’s plenty of snow up there for the skiing,” Ferris said. “The run will be messy. The main thing we’re watching is the water level in the river to make sure it doesn’t get too high. That would be the only thing that might have to change. We think we’ve hit a good balance with the course. In the early years we were tweaking things to try to strike the balance between being challenging while also accessible to everyone. We feel we have that now.” 

With the race back for a second year now following a COVID-19 pause, Ferris said he has enjoyed being able to dive into it and continue to grow the event off of what it did last year. It’s easier than having to do a full reset as he did last spring. 

“We want to build off what we did last year and do some new things I’ve been wanting to work on,” Ferris said. “Everything this year has been easier in terms of sponsors. There was so much turnover last year with new people to talk to for sponsors. There’s been much more continuity this year which is nice. Knowing we would have a decent registration base to work with has been extremely helpful.” 

Ferris mentioned adding Wells Provision as a sponsor as something the race is pleased with. The group will provide the main course meal after the race while making sure all the food gets composted after. 

“The compositing part is great,” Ferris said. “I always looked at the event, saw everyone enjoying their meals but knew it was generating a lot of trash after. We wan to improve on that a little and we’ll be doing that this year.” 

Berkshire East will provide the salad, the bread and cookies will be from Bread Euphoria. Berkshire Brewing and Floodwater Brewing will provide the beer and there is also support from Cold River Package Store. Another new sponsor this year will be Champney’s Tavern in Old Deerfield.

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