Well, in 2019 I finished the Mt Washington Road Race and proclaimed, “never again”. Then last year I signed up for the Race the Cog, as something of a carrot to keep me training hard on the bike after my surgery. I was surprised in February when the MTWRR sent me a free entry. I decided worst case it would be a good tune-up the week before the cog, and the best case maybe I’d even race it. Right up until race day I had not decided how hard I’d run the race. I was a bit worried about a calf issue and was also concerned about what conditions would be on race day. Well, it turned out that conditions were deemed UNSAFE to travel to the summit. On Friday the decision was made to move the finish line to the half-way point (about 3.8 miles). To be honest I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. A bit bummed about not being able to take a shot at Reno Stirrat’s age 58 record but then again half-way was going to be pretty difficult anyway. When the race was cut short in 2002 it ended up running quite similar in time to what you’d run going through the half in a full race. It seems you just can only get going a certain pace and that is it and it really doesn’t matter how long the race is. I met up with Kevin Tilton on Friday afternoon and we got in a run on the North Conway Recreation path behind the Kennett school. It was a very nice trail although it was buggy and hot and humid out there. We got together with Francis Burdett and picked up our numbers before a nice pizza-fest with much discussion of race tactics for a ½ way race. The three of us had done the race in 2002.
I felt crappy on race morning and tried to loosen up a bit with a 3 mile run at 5:30 a.m. It helped a little to wake me up. I headed over to the race pretty early as I wasn’t sure how traffic would be with no cars going to the summit. They definitely made the right call as the summit was wrapped in clouds and temps were in the 20’s with ice on the road and winds gusting up to 100 mph. It was nice seeing so many of my mountain friends and getting encouragement from so many people. I met up with Dave Lapierre and we headed out for a 2 mile warm-up on the Great Glens trails. Many used this as well so it was a lot of “hellos” to friend old and new. I switched into race gear (choosing to not use carbon fiber shoes due to worries about my calf) and did another mile over to the line. Fred Ross (44 time finisher) caught me in serious-mode as I was heading over.
Man, I felt awful which I guess is normal. I got over to the narrow start with 5 minutes to go and was happy to see teammate Scott Mindel rocking the old “Polar” singlet with the giant polar bear on it. I had gone with the old black Polar singlet. I got in about 8 rows from the front and moved up a couple to line up with Francis and Kevin, along with other 50+ teammates Erik Vandendries, Todd Callaghan, and Steve Brightman. The first ¼ mile over the trail was going to be interesting as it was quite narrow and had a few turns.
I
got out okay with maybe 50 people in front of me when we got to the Auto Road
and started to climb. Only one person would pass me over the remainder of
the race. People slowly came back (very slowly) and I only moved up a
couple of spots by the 1 mile mark. I was focused on my aforementioned
teammates, all were ahead except for Erik Vandendries who I guessed wasn’t too
far behind. I could also see Sean Livingston who was notorious for
running a conservative first half and SMOKING the second half. He looked
strong as did Kevin Tilton who was already starting to pull away and start
picking off people. I caught Francis around the mile and kept focusing on
the 50+ guys ahead, while also looking to catch CMS teammate Sam Wood who was
looking strong as well. I never looked at my watch as I was just going on
feel and trying to “race” as much as you can without getting into
trouble. Mile 2 & 3 are probably the toughest of the race in ANY year
and it showed this year. A dozen people in line in front of me were there
for the picking and I hoped to get some. I slowly reeled in runners and
was starting to feel in a groove by 2 miles. I caught Brightman sometime
after 2 miles and gained on NHTI runner Michael Mott who I’d met a few times at
some of the Concord races (a very nice kid). He offered some
encouragement when I caught him and we worked together. There was another
guy a step behind but I didn’t want to look. As I passed 3 miles I
glanced over and saw that it was Erik V! I found out from Francis after
the race that he could see Erik stalking me about 2 steps behind me the entire
time. We were closing on Todd Callaghan but it was hard to tell where the
finish line was. I also just did not have another gear. With about
200 yards to go both Mike and Erik sprinted off and I just stayed in my
lumbering gear. I crossed in 35:11 for 29th place. More
importantly I took 2nd in the 55-59 and was 4th in the
50+. Our squad had a solid day with 2nd place in the open, and
first in the 40+ and 50+ teams.
1 27:43 Joseph Gray M38 Colorado Springs CO
2 28:48 Everett Hackett M32 Hartford CT
3 29:11 Eric Blake M43 West Hartford CT
10 31:56 Kim Dobson F38 Eagle CO First woman
14 33:28 Kevin Tilton M40 Conway NH CMS
24 34:42 Sean Livingston M53 Bristol RI First 50+
26 35:02 Todd Callaghan M52 Beverly MA CMS
27 35:03 Erik Vandendries M57 Chestnut Hill MA CMS
29 35:11 Dave Dunham M58 Haverhill MA CMS
31 35:19 Steve Brightman M53 Providence RI
36 35:46 Sam Wood M35 Laconia NH
43 36:16 Iain Ridgway M42 Worcester MA
46 36:35 Francis Burdett M57 Worcester MA
67 38:06 Ernest Brake M60 Sutton NH
190 45:41 Stephen Peterson M56 Chelmsford MA
194 45:43 David Lapierre M58 Chelmsford MA
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