Well.....it certainly has been awhile since I've blogged. But not an entire year, so I suppose I feel some small sense of accomplishment about that.
This post is mostly for Amy Dickinson, who really wants to know what it is like at (and upon the top of) Mount Washington in New Hampshire. I know what it is like there because I drove there last month, with a friend, and ran to the top of the mountain as part of the 50th Mt. Washington Road Race.
I guess our quest started in April, when my friend and co-worker Corbin and I decided we'd enter the lottery for entry to the race. The auto road up the mountain is pretty narrow and there is limited parking at the top (for the pre-arranged rides down to park an wait) so they limit the field to 1000 people. Usually there are fewer finishers, as not everyone who gets accepted shows up to run. Anyhow.....we entered as a team (so we'd either both get in, or both be left out) in March, and found out near the end of the month that we'd be drawn for entries!!!
Fast forward to June 17th, when I hit the road early in the morning from Lexington for the drive (you'd drive too if you had a car that gets 50 mpg on the highway) to Mt. Washington. I picked Corbin up in Columbus, and we made it to Albany, NY by that night. The next day was just a short 5 hour shot over to Littleton, NH....and I have to say the scenery was beautiful. Upstate NY is really picturesque, with rolling hills and sparse farms, and Vermont and New Hampshire are tree filled and very green. We saw plenty of signs advertising the presence of moose, but we weren't lucky enough to see one :( I guess we'll have to make a second trip someday!
Once we hit our hotel in Littleton, we drove over to pick up our packets at the base of the mountain and get a good look at what we'd be dealing with the next morning. The mountain is huge! Here's a picture of the mountain behind the Mt. Washington Hotel, which is pretty much how we saw it that first night (I did not take this picture).
It was the only mountain in the whole chain that extended above the treeline for any appreciable distance....and it extended WAAAY above the treeline. So.....thoroughly intimidated, we went back to the hotel to rest up.
The next morning was race morning. We got to the course early on what would turn out to be a beautiful day (It CAN and DOES snow on Mt. Washington every month of the year, and the mountain also hold the world record for the highest velocity straight-line wind (231 mph)....but we got a clear, 80+ degree June day (I ended up getting sunburned....whoops). We met up with a woman named Suzanne, and her husband, who were incredible, and had agreed to give us a ride down. Suzanne was running the mountain for the second time, and her husband Lee and dog, Kelty, would be waiting for us at the top. I'll post a visit of Suzanne later.
The race started at ten, with a crowd of close to 1000 (there ended up being 918 finishers) including those who would become next years members of the US international mountain racing team. There were about 100 meters of slight downhill at the start, and it was all uphill from there......for 7.5 miles.
I took off at a conservative pace, and came through the .9 miles (where they gave the first "mile" split) in just over 8 minutes. The miles got slower from there. I pride myself on the following: 1) I didn't walk at all in the first 2.5 miles 2) I only walked for 45 seconds in the first half of the race 3) None of my walk breaks lasted longer than 15 seconds. But there were walk breaks. LOTS of them. In the second half of the race I pretty much stuck to a "run one minute, walk 15 seconds" schedule. Sometimes I ran 1:30, sometimes only :45, but there was NO FLAT GROUND so I knew a long walk wouldn't help me recover.....I just caught my breath and pressed on.
Here's the split breakdown from my Garmin GPS watch:
Split | Time | Moving Time | Distance | Elevation Gain | Elevation Loss | Avg Pace | Avg Moving Pace | Best Pace | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Summary | 01:27:15 | 01:26:08 | 7.49 | 4,659 | 21 | 11:38 | 11:29 | 06:04 | 865 |
| 1 | 00:08:03 | 00:07:52 | 0.91 | 430 | 21 | 08:50 | 08:37 | 06:04 | 113 |
| 2 | 00:09:59 | 00:09:59 | 0.97 | 636 | 0 | 10:19 | 10:18 | 08:12 | 124 |
| 3 | 00:10:42 | 00:10:33 | 0.95 | 634 | 0 | 11:18 | 11:08 | 08:26 | 117 |
| 4 | 00:11:22 | 00:11:20 | 0.97 | 616 | 0 | 11:42 | 11:39 | 08:52 | 122 |
| 5 | 00:12:49 | 00:12:19 | 1.00 | 702 | 0 | 12:49 | 12:18 | 09:21 | 106 |
| 6 | 00:12:43 | 00:12:37 | 0.99 | 648 | 0 | 12:49 | 12:42 | 08:24 | 104 |
| 7 | 00:13:03 | 00:12:58 | 1.00 | 606 | 0 | 13:06 | 13:00 | 09:27 | 102 |
| 8 | 00:08:29 | 00:08:30 | 0.70 | 387 | 0 | 12:04 | 12:04 | 08:44 | 77 |
The bottom line skews a little when I paste it, but you can see some fun stuff. Like the 4659 feet of elevation gain it shows for 7.5 miles (and the 21 feet of loss in the first 100 meters of mile one). You can see my average pace of 11:38 per mile and say "man....that's slow" and then I can tell you that I finished 132nd overall, out of 918 finishers, and it doesn't look so bad. I can also tell you that a couple of the guys up front (who finished between 60 and 65 minutes: 8:00+ pace) are all guys who run sub-14:00 5K's.
My finish time was 1:27:16.....right between my predicted times (and goal range) of 1:20 to 1:30. I'm totally satisfied for this effort.....heck....I'm still alive!
Corbin finished an hour later, and since I'd sent a video camera up in the car, I got to spend some time shooting video of the finish, the surroundings, the cog railway, my fellow competitors, etc. I'm posting these videos below. I narrated them as I took them, and yes, I know my narration is awful. But I'm the one on top of the mountain with the video camera....so you'll just have to deal with it.
I won't bore you with details of the drive home. It was long. It was not as exciting. We ate a lot of salty foods and drank victory soda by the gallon.
The trip was great though. This race was definitely one for the "lifetime accomplishment" list. I'd tell anyone to do A mountain race. At least one.....just for the experience. If you're as lucky as I was, you'll have a friend to go along, a beautiful day to do it on, a smooth ride back down to safety, and a great wife who'll let you go in the first place! I had a blast! Enjoy the videos (The video of Corbin coming to the finish (30% incline) is the best one!
