Report Mount Washington Road Race on June 21, 1997 near Gorham, New Hampshire Author: Christoph F. Eick http://www.cs.uh.edu/~ceick/Run1.html Mount Washington is the highest mountain in New England with an altitude of 6450 feet. In June, every year the Granite Park Services organizes a foot race and a bicycle race up Mount Washington. The course record for bicycles is only 1 minute faster than the course record for the foot race, which is approx. 59 minutes (7:59 pace). Mt. Washington is a lonely peak --- god did not give it some other mountains to play with --- which affected his character: he is known for its unusual and harsh weather conditions, fog, and sudden weather changes; hurricane force winds (over 75mph) occur more than 100 days annually, and the highest recorded wind velocity, 231mph, blew over the mountain in April 1934. The foot-race is limited to 1000 participants, about 100 of which are elite runners, and the remaining 900 runners are selected using a lottery. This year half of the 2000 applicants were selected to run the race, and I was one of the lucky ones... The race is run on the auto road to Mount Washington. The organizers try to get as many cars as possible on the top of the mountain before the race, that will take the runners down after the finish of the race. It is like 1:3 dating: a driver of a car has to find three runners to go up for free (saves $15) to Mount Washington. The course of the race is 7.6 miles long with an elevation gain of 4650 feet (11.5% average incline; you have to climb 612 feet per mile; this is steeper than Pikes Peak(CO) where you have to climb 584 feet per mile). The race course is one of steepest in the US: especially, the first six miles the course goes up and up and up without any flat stretches that would allow you to catch your breath: it is really true that the race has just one hill. Race veterans suggest that if you manage to run your half marathon time up Mount Washington, you did very well in the race. In 1997, especially the woman's field was very strong with Cathy O'Brian and Joan Benoit-Samuelson (although she claimed she doesn't care about the time she runs in the race) participating. The race day, June 21 was a very hot and humid day with partially cloudy skies at the start of Pinkham Notch. However, we were already informed before the start of the race that the visibility on the summit was 10 feet with 50 miles per hour winds but a quite "warm" temperature of 47 (wind chill 6). However, most people were starting the race in singlets, sending their warm cloths up the mountain for after the race. It turned out later, that finding your go-down car driver after the race was not too easy because of fog, and overcrowding in the lodge. Finally, the race started, and after running the first 150 yards slightly downhill, our ascent to the 1-hill mountain started. After running for about 12 minutes, it became quite obvious that this was not the race to "run" all the way (later I found out that even elite runners interleave stretches of running with jogging to keep your breathing at a tolerable level). After 1.5 miles in most cases, I would run for 5 minutes, and walk 2 minutes (I was also surprised that walking as fast as you could was usually slower than running as slow as you could). My running periods would become shorter and shorter reaching a minimum of 1 minute during mile six (knowing the finish line was near I managed increase my speed again for the last 1.6 miles). However, this strange combination of running and walking was somewhat entertaining; it was like I was trying out some new kind of sport: it felt more like speed hiking than running to me. Moreover, you really had some time to talk to other runners in the race, and I do not recall any other race, I had so many conversions with other runners (possibly, because like Joan Benoit-Samuelson, I didn't care too much for my time). After mile 4, when we reached the tree line it was getting very windy and colder; but the wind didn't bother me too much, although it slowed down everybody significantly. I myself found running in this strong wind was quite entertaining, which let you feel like a kite. However, sometime between mile 5 and 6, we had to run in thick fog, which was very confusing, because you could no longer judge the steepness of the course, and more importantly made it impossible to take any more photos with the throw-away camera, I carried. The fog was so thick that you could barely see the runners in front of you, and most of us crossed the finish line without seeing it. The winner of the race Greg Fram run a 8:34-pace finishing in 1:04, and the female winner Cathy O'Brian run a 9:32 pace finishing in 1:12 (she only missed the course record by 1 minute, which is very good considering the very bad race conditions; in 1997 the median time was more that 4 minutes slower than in 1996); Joan Benoit-Samuelson finished second in a 10:01 pace. Unfortunately, four days before the race I pulled a muscle in the front upper leg (fortunately, this muscle is not needed too much when running slowly), and additionally had a bad cold, and I was not sure, if I could complete the race. However, luckily my cold got better on race day, the pulled muscle didn't bother me too much --- perhaps pre-race adrenaline and ibuprofen I took helped. Considering these circumstances, I was very very happy to finish the race in 1:45:17 (13:52 pace (placing 398th out of 942 finishers); perhaps my lifetime slowest pace, although I plan to run up Pikes Peak in 1998 or 1999, and I am not sure, if I will manage to run a faster pace going up Pikes Peak). The conditions at the summit were really awful: thick fog, very moist, and 50 miles per hour wind, and no place to hide except the completely overcrowded lodge: no place for human beings to stay longer. Everybody was looking for shelter, hot soup, and warm cloths, after we finished the race. In the race day evening we had a lot of fun watching the race video in the historical Eagle Mountain House. Although it only covered the first 4 miles of the course (the car that was carrying the video camera, didn't manage to get up Mt. Washington: its engine died, long before the fog started, before reaching the summit) and showed everybody crossing the finish line. We were drinking a lot of beer and applauding every time loudly when a runner present in the bar, appeared out of the fog and crossed the finish line. I meet 2 runners that ran this race before in Houston, and neither of which wanted to run the race again. However, I believe that the Mt. Washington road race is quite unique and can be a lot of fun, if you know what to expect. I am very optimistic that I will run this race again some day (trying for a time in the lower 90s) hopefully running it being healthier and without thick fog that prevents you from having nice views.