Running up Mt Washington… The race started at 9am Saturday. This allowed for a pretty easy morning leading up to the race start. My wife Sas was a little nervous as she needed to drive up the Auto Road to meet me at the finish and bring me back down. She is not a big fan of heights or narrow dirt roads without guardrails! We brought two vehicles as it was raining and hoped to stay dry in mine as long as I could. Sas headed up the road… a little while later I got her text that she made it to the top without issue. Already it was a great day :-)! I watched the radar on my phone and it was looking as the front might just move through before the 9am start. Sure enough, 10 mins before the start the rain let up and we enjoyed perfect weather the rest of the day.
Since I have never raced up hill for 7.6 miles, I was a little unsure of how to pace myself. I decided the plan would be to go by heart rate. My max is around 173 so I figured I would start in the low 160’s and keep it below 170 until after the halfway milestone.
We did have one downhill, the race started with a VERY short down hill, then a little flat, then up we went. I believe there was about 1000 runners! Every walk of life, with their own personal reasons to be there, very cool. I have heard many stories about everyone going out too fast, just like the Boston Marathon and the Mt Washington Bike Hillclimb. I was not going to do that!! I was amazed at how many folks were breathing REALLY heavy a half mile up the hill! It was going to be a long day for them!!!
I stuck to my plan with heart rate. The bottom half of the hill is much steeper than the second half. With this in mind, and also knowing the 18% pitches on the hill, I chose to speed walk those sections. I weaved my way around runners and walkers for the first mile or two. Things settled down after that. At the half way point I found that my legs were happier to speed walk then to run! I tried to keep it to a sub 13 min mile and with that I would meet my goal of finishing sub 1:45. On the very few spots where the grade flattens a bit I did break into a run, it was nice to stretch it out a little!
By 7 mile I was really starting to dig deep, I knew I was on track to finish under my 1:45 goal but still wanted to push as hard as I could! Of course, the finish of this race (as is the bike hillclimb) is a 22% finish climb. I tried to run for the finish crowd but the best I could muster up was a little run and a lot of speed walking!! My hip flexors were totally shot!!!!!!!!!!!
I came across the line at 1:40:52, not too bad for an old fat dude!! I am very happy with that!! Overall, a great day! It was nice to have Sas at the finish with the cow bell and encouragement!
Not my best race finish picture, but I think it gives you an idea of the effort I put into the climb!!
The coveted Mt Washington fleece blanket for all finishers!
Our “team” at the summit!
Another great day to be me!!!!