Mt Washington 30 years ago - 06/18/1988

From my training log 30 years ago:

06/18/1988

I’m not sure why I decided to run Mt Washington that first time.  I’m guessing it had something to do with my teammate Bob Hodge.  We were doing a lot of racing together and even some track workouts.  The Greater Lowell Road Runners were trying to build a strong road racing team around Hodgie and me.

Racing had gone pretty well in ’88 I had raced a total of 32 times which is pretty low for me.  Heading into Mt Washington I had done three races in May.  I was fourth in the NEAC (New England Athletic Congress) Grand Prix 10K in Nashua NH in 29:17.  I also traveled out to Boulder CO for the Bolder Boulder 10K race and ran 32:04, which was pretty disappointing as time bonus money ended at 32:00.  Training was going well leading up to the race.  The week of the Mt Washington I had 99 miles and 80 miles of biking despite the 100-degree heat (Wednesday). 

I drove up to the White Mountains on Friday night and did 5 miles on route 16 at 10:00 PM.  On the morning of the race Petey (Steve Peterson) and I did a three-mile warmup and some strides to get ready.  George Davis, who was our college coach and team coach for the GLRR, had predicted that we would walk and that Petey would walk before half way.  Neither of us walked.

I remember that the conditions were very good and the view was great.  I kept expecting the course to level out at every turn and was really disappointed when it didn’t.  Once I moved into the lead, I just enjoyed the run.  I recall not being sure where to go when I got into the lower parking lot near the summit and remarking after the race that the only way they could make it tougher would be to have the runners climb up the radio tower.

Petey and I ran back down to the base in 65 minutes.  I was given $1,100 total for the win, course record, and leading at half way.  After the race I had a long chat with Jay Johnson.  He seemed like a nice guy, but I had a hard time believing some of his tales of mountain racing in Europe.  I just couldn’t believe that someone would pay to have me come over to Europe to run up mountains.  It would be a few years before I took the plunge and headed over to Europe to run the circuit of races over there.

Splits = 1 mile 06:05.  2 mile 13:42.  Half 29:02.  5 mile 38:21.  1:00:50 Finish. Second half 31:48.