I plotted out a sunrise run up the Mt Washington a few weeks ago with Saturday being the tail-end of my vacation it seemed like the perfect time to do this. With a 5:40 am sunrise it was going to be an early day. I put the word out to about a dozen folks and got some interested. It is kind of an unusual thing (running up/down via the road AND doing it timed out for sunrise on top). It is also the perfect time to run the road as it doesn't open until 8am and we'd be off the mountain by then.
On Friday I hit the sheets a little after 3pm and was up at 11:55 pm. Out the door at 12:15 for the long drive to the Auto Road. The great thing about driving route 16 at that time of night is very little traffic. I made great time as I gobbled 2 pop-tats and 2 Mountain Dews. Arrived at the stage office at 2:45am. The group would be meeting at 3:30am so I had a little time to sit outside in the dark and enjoy seeing the Milky Way and some random meteorites. It was going to be a perfect day for running up the road with temps at the bottom around 60 and 40s on top. There was very little wind and clear skies at the start.
A few cars rolled up at 315am and I met up with Ryan Welts, Leslie O'Dell, and Richard Fargo. I hadn't run with Ryan in a couple of years so it'd be fun to catch up. Leslie was a CMS teammate but we'd only run together a few times. Rich and I have history that goes back to trail racing in the late 1980's right up to Mountain racing last year. It was going to be fun getting to chat with all of them as we got this adventure under way.
At 330am we hit the road and the fun commenced. We got into a nice groove right away and conversation was light and fun. By 2 miles Ryan and I had turned off our lights and by 3 all of us were running in the dark. The stars were blazing and we saw a few more meteorites. The sliver of the moon was even bright enough to cast shadows. The miles rolled by and we were very consistent. I had guessed a 1:45 time to the top and we were clicking off miles right in that range. Everyone seemed to be having fun and no one was struggling.
We reached treeline (4 mile mark) and the sky was definitely getting brighter. We were treated to some great views! The sky got brighter and we continued having fun and the miles zipped by. We reached the top in 1:45:50, almost to the second our predicted time.
We all did a quick change into extra layers or dry clothes as it was a bit chilly on top. I got my highest summit nude, before getting on my extra layers. Then we took pics of the impending sunrise. There was a beautiful undercast which also meant it'd be a longer until the sun peeked through. After 20 minutes on top we started the run down. We were treated to some great views again and the sun finally came up above the clouds. The run down was also fun, at least until treeline. It does seem to drag a bit once the views are gone. We were back down in 1:18:43 for a total running time of 3:04:33 and time with stops of 3:26. It was great to have 15+ miles done before 7am!
I put in another 5m of flat running to loosen up my legs after driving and that gave me my first 20+ mile day since June of last year. Not a bad way to end my vacation week.
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