Mt Washington road race - No race for me

Mt Washington race day

 I got up early to hit the road and it was 40 degrees!  Yikes, I wasn’t really prepared to ElliptiGo in cold conditions.  I gathered all my gear and piled it on.  The only thing I forgot was gloves which made the first couple of mile of riding very uncomfortable.  There wasn’t anything interesting nearby that I could climb and I was on a tight schedule so I simply did a ride down to Jackson then headed up toward Mt Washington on route 16.  The out/back was the safest way to make sure I was back in time.  The road has a small breakdown lane which is always a bonus.  I saw a lot of runners driving by on the way to the race and even got a couple of “thumbs up”.

 After a quick change I met up with Petey and we headed over to the race.  I knew the reaction I’d get but that didn’t make it any easier.  I’m not sure what it is that makes people so mean but some of the comments I got were certainly aimed to sting.  I’ll stick to focusing on the kind words from some people.  Anyway, I found my parents who came up to see the Hall of Fame ceremony and we walked a little way up the hill to watch the start.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen the race from the sidelines.  The other two times since 1988 that I couldn’t race I was either not at the race or in the press van.  It was interesting seeing the race from this perspective.  Once the crowd went by I headed back to the car and hit the Go for a fun ride up to Pinkham notch and back.  I had a tailwind on the climb and headwind on the descent which is the way to have it!  After a quick change I was off to the Great Glen Trails for another hour of biking.  I stuck with the bigger trails since I’m not much of a rider.  It was surprisingly fun.  I’d only been in GGT to either warm-up for the race or a couple of snowshoe races so this was a new experience for me.