Mt. Washington Road Race

On June 19th I ran the 50th Mt Washington Road Race. This year it was the US Mountain Running Championships. My last two Mt Washington experiences have been pretty awful, so this year I took the "just have fun" approach. I did my best to have fun, but it was still a most miserable experience. I don't have very much to say about my race. Below you can find my brief description of the race and some pictures.

I did a 3 mile warm up on the Great Glen Trails at the bottom of the mountain while Heather drove my truck to the top. The weather was already getting hot and I knew that this was going to be a tough one. After a quick change into my racers I was off to the starting line. The goal was to go out slow, try to stay comfortable, run for as long as I could, and have fun/enjoy the race. The cannon went off and I made my way towards the mountain and settled in behind about 4-5 of the top women. For the first mile I actually felt alright and started thinking maybe I would be OK and would have a decent race. By about 2 miles I knew I was going to have another miserable hour of running and walking up the mountain. At 2 miles I started my run, walk, run, walk thing and tried to laugh at how stupid running up a mountain is. The next 5.6 miles was just a whole lot of pain and a slew of people passing me. I just wanted the race to be over. I was happy to finally reach the top of the mountain in 1:19:43. This was good for 76th overall and 70th male finisher.

Results

I am beginning to think that mountain running just is not my thing. In my last three Mt Washington's I have had tons of people beat me that I have never lost to on the roads. I have learned my lesson, I don't run well in the mountains, I will stick to the flatter races.