We had an absolutely fantastic running of the 36th Annual Lake Waramaug Polar Bear Run!

In the largest Polar Bear Run ever 580 runners registered for the lap around the lake. Conditions could not have been better- a sunny day with temps near the 50’s!

For the past 3 years our team at TrailHeads has organized the Lake Waramaug Polar Bear Run. The Run is the oldest winter race in the state and it has been a pleasure for TrailHeads to be able to uphold this fun winter tradition. A lot of work goes into organizing a race, our team had a hand in everything from getting town permissions to designing and creating the commemorative TrailHeads Technical Trucker Cap which was given to participants. In addition to leading the efforts to organize the event, three of our employees ran in the race.

“Organizing the Polar Bear Run is a company wide effort at TrailHeads. It’s incredibly rewarding to see hundreds of people from all over the region come to Lake Waramaug to run what many consider to be the most scenic course in all of Connecticut while raising money to support the amazing work being done by Guiding Eyes for the Blind.” noted Stephanie Raftery, TrailHeads CoFounder and Designer. This year’s Run marked our third year partnering with Guiding Eyes for the Blind as the event’s official charitable beneficiary.

We are pleased to announce we raised a total of $4,275 for Guiding Eyes for the Blind which meant we met & surpassed our cumulative goal of $10,000 over the past 3 years! To date our donations total $10,074. Thank you to everyone who ran the race and a special thank you to those who donated in addition to their registration!

At the race we were incredibly lucky to have many trainers and their guide dogs in training come out to support the runners and raise awareness about the organization. We also had two teams of dogs and trainers from the Running Guides Program participate in the race! The dogs in this program receive extra training that allows them to be running partners for blind or visually impaired people. Congratulations to Nick Speranza and guide dog Geo and to Michael Racioppo and guide dog Frazier on great races. It was wonderful to have the Guiding Eyes for the Blind team at the Run!

The overall winners of the Run were William Sanders from Wethersfield, CT with a time of 38:22 and Sybil Shapiro from Vernon, CT with a time of 47:09. More results can be found at fasttracktiming.com.

For more information on the Run you can follow TrailHeads (@trailheadsct) and the Lake Waramaug Polar Bear Run (@lakewaramaugpolarbear) on Facebook and Instagram.

We’d also like to take a moment to recognize all of the sponsors and volunteers who made this Run possible! We could not have done this without you. We had 50 volunteers on race day helping with parking, registering runners, acting as course guides, and so much more! Thank you for donating your time to us! The Lake Waramaug Country Club was once again generous enough to host the race. Support was provided by Kent Lions Club, Kent Wine & Spirit, Davis IGA, Hopkins Vineyard and Strong Core Wellness. A special thanks to Brookfield High School and South Kent School for manning the water stations.

Thank you to Hopkins Vineyard for hosting our Post Polar Party. We had an incredibly fun time relaxing at the Vineyard after the race! Participants were given half off of a wine tasting. We also held a raffle where racers could win additional TrailHeads prizes.

We look forward to putting together the race again next year! The 37th Annual Polar Bear Run will take place February 28, 2021.