55th Mt Washington road race - My 25th

This was my 25^th time racing up the Auto Road to the top of New England and it was the least prepared I’ve ever been.  Since getting injured on Christmas day I’d missed nearly 3 months of training.  With only 11 weeks of running behind me I felt my preparation was lacking.  Normally I’d get a fairly good idea of my “mountain fitness” by doing some of the USATF NE mountain series prior to Mt Washington, but this year I’d only been able to race Wachusett Mountain and that isn’t the best indicator.  I felt that I was rounding into shape so my goal was to run under 1:15.  I thought if the weather was good and I had a solid run I might have a shot at Sumner Brown’s 1:12:37 from 1994.  That is the fourth fastest time in the 50+ age group.  The other three times by Craig Fram are so crazy fast that they are not even a consideration.

Dan Verrington and I met up and headed out for a warm-up on the Great Glen trails.  Erik Vandendries (running his first Mt Washington) and Tim Mahoney joined us for part of the run.  I felt lousy, which is either a good sign or a bad sign.  Unfortunately you never know until the race starts which it is.  I went over to the start as the final call was being made and found a spot on the front line.  I hadn’t started on the line in a couple of years but no one seemed to be itching to get up front so I took advantage.  With the traditional firing of the cannon nearly 1,100 of us took off.

The first two minutes of flat running to the start of the climb are always a bit crazy with some sprinting out.  I think of it more as a warm-up of sorts and just focus on staying on my feet and not getting run over.  I got to the start of the climb in about 50^th place which is typical.  Soon after reality hits and people start to come back.  I normally write splits down, but this year decided to not worry about it and just watch for others in the 50+.  I knew I’d want to pass four miles in about 35 and then run 10 minute miles for  the second half.  That’d mean and opening mile around 7 minutes followed by 9 minute miles through the half.  For some strange reason the race crew decided to not put the mile markers in the traditional location at the Auto Road Mile Posts (which for the race would be .9, 1.9, 2.9 etc).  Instead it appeared they put the first mile mark about 1 mile into the race and then each mile after that was closer and closer to the Mile Posts.  Weird!

Anyway, I didn’t see the Mile Post but did see the race mile marker and realized that the location was wrong (the time was clearly way too slow for it to be in the correct location).  During that first mile I’d moved up through many of the early starters and was pleased to be running with many of my CMS teammates.  I could see Francis Burdett up ahead but didn’t see Craig Fram, they’d be the top two 50+ runners so I had my sights set on them.  Teammate Erik Vandendries was also one of the top 50’s entered and he was right there with me at the mile.

After the mile I locked onto teammate Todd Callaghan and we stayed within a few feet of each other as we started picking off more of the line of people in front of us.  It was good to have someone to work with.  We slowly reeled in people as we moved up towards tree-line and the half-way mark.  Francis was 15 seconds ahead and by now I realized Fram was not in the race (he would have been ahead of me).  I kept myself in check, not wanting to make any big move to catch Francis.  I usually feel better as we get past the half and it gets cooler (although on this day it was pretty comfortable the entire way).  Todd and I had moved up to 25^th place by ½way (33:56).  Right after the half I made a conscious effort to close the gap on Francis.  Todd fell back as I caught Pat Ard (Whirlaway) who offered encouragement as I went by. 

Somewhere on the long straight between mile 4 and 5 I caught and passed Francis and surprisingly also caught Kevin Tilton.  Both also offered encouragements as I went by, I just grunted back using all of my air to keep going.  This got me into the top 20 but also got me in the position of not being able to see my competition.  I knew if I kept my shit together I’d come in under my goal time but now I was also thinking about winning the 50+ age group.  Francis has incredible leg speed so if it came to a kick he’d bury me.

I took a quick look back at the Hair Pin turn (1 mile to go) and could see Kevin and Francis about 20 or 30 seconds back.  Anything can happen, especially when climbing 700’ in a mile at 10 minute pace.  I kept my head up as the summit building loomed larger.  The crowd on the final climb was one of the biggest and most vocal I’ve ever seen on Mt Washington.  As I neared the top I heard them announcing the first woman.  Apparently she’d been just out of sight at the hair pin and had made up 20 seconds on me in the second half.  I dug a little deeper and they had to move the women’s finish banner out of the way as I crashed through the finish line (four seconds up on the top woman).  I slogged over to the summit and on wobbly legs completed the final scramble up the rock pile to the top.

I had a lot of time on my hands after the finish since I would NOT be running down for the first time in 20 years.  It was a perfect day to be on top so I headed out for a 45 minute hike that would take me to the White Mountain National Forest high points, the Great Gulf Wilderness high point, Ball Crag, and back to the Mt Washington summit.  It turned out to be a pretty interesting loop and I enjoyed getting view of the surroundings and the summit that I’d never seen before.

I only saw a few of my teammates on the summit and after the race.  Most had pretty good days.  Francis, Erik and I swept the top 3 spots in the 50+ and along with Dan Verrington and Ernie Brake set a new team record, taking 17 minutes off of Whirlaway’s previous time. 

Once we got down from the summit I had the great honor of inducting teammate Eric Morse into the Mt Washington Hall of Fame.  The awards ceremony after the HOF inductions was a bit of a cluster and took forever.  It was worth it if you stayed until the end and saw amazing 95 year-old George Etzweiler take the stage to a standing ovation.  He completed the 7.6 miles and 4,800’ of climb in 3:28.

 

CMS at Mt Washington:

 

Pl	Time	Name		Cat	Cat Pl	Age	Gnd	City	St
19	1:11:35	Dave	Dunham	M5054	1/90	51	M	Ward Hill	MA
21	1:12:08	Kevin	Tilton	M3034	6/68	33	M	North Conway	NH
22	1:12:19	Francis	Burdett	M5054	2/90	50	M	Worcester	MA
23	1:12:20	Erik	Vandendries	M5054	3/90	50	M	Chestnut Hill	MA
25	1:12:55	Todd	Callaghan	M4549	2/107	45	M	Beverly	MA
29	1:13:56	Sam	Wood	M2529	8/55	28	M	Laconia	NH
31	1:14:31	Matthew	Veiga	M2529	9/55	28	M	Lynn	MA
33	1:15:19	Tim	Mahoney	M3539	5/93	35	M	Holyoke	MA
54	1:20:15	Patrick	Rich	M3539	10/93	38	M	S Hamilton	MA
56	1:20:28	Dan	Verrington	M5054	5/90	52	M	Bradford	MA
59	1:20:51	Ernest	Brake	M5054	6/90	53	M	N.Sutton	NH
128	1:29:14	Leslie	O'Dell	F3539	2/53	39	F	Albany	NH
149	1:31:02	John	Pajer	M5054	14/90	52	M	Leicester	MA
156	1:31:31	Paul	Bazanchuk	M6064	4/57	60	M	Cyr Conway	NH
223	1:36:27	Melissa	Donais	F3034	11/45	31	F	N Andover	MA
245	1:37:24	Barbara	McManus	F4549	3/55	47	F	Worcester	MA
253	1:37:47	David	Lapierre	M5054	23/90	51	M	Chelmsford	MA
285	1:39:55	Danielle	Lapierre	F2024	2/15	20	F	Chelmsford	MA
341	1:42:38	Stephen	Peterson	M4549	41/107	49	M	Chelmsford	MA
401	1:46:05	Alicia	Eno	F3539	13/53	37	F	Worcester	MA
404	1:46:18	Stephen	Laska	M5054	42/90	53	M	Holden	MA
422	1:47:39	Robert	Thomas	M5559	21/76	55	M	Charlton	MA
540	1:54:10	Christine	Cheney	F5054	15/40	53	F	Spencer	MA
572	1:56:19	Kathleen	Murphy	F5559	6/15	57	F	Worcester	MA
612	1:58:45	Walter	Kuklinski	M6569	13/34	66	M	Princeton	MA