The Mt. Washington Road Race is tomorrow, and I'll be thinking about the runners as they begin in the valley at Pinkham Notch and ascend nearly 5000 feet to the top of the highest peak on the East Coast and home to some of the worst weather on Earth.
Having run the race a mere three times (and not since the early 90's), I'm hardly a veteran of Mt. Washington. But the memories of being humbled by that long climb are still fresh in my mind.
From the race website:
The Course: The Mt. Washington Auto Road is 7.6 miles in length, has an average grade of 11.5% with extended sections of 18%, and the last 50 yards is a 22% "wall" to the finish.... The course rises 4650 vertical feet from start to finish. Relax, there's Only One Hill!
The raw data notwithstanding, it's hard to describe the experience of the race. One struggles for the right words, the right comparisons. On the one hand, most competitive runners have a hard time grasping how slow it is -- I never averaged better than 9:30 miles, and that got me 25th place! On the other hand, the intensity of the race is at odds with the agonizingly incremental progress up the mountain.
In fact, I never once managed to run the entire way. No matter how hard I tried to temper my early pace, I always went out too fast, and always ended up walking, usually around the five mile mark where the trees disappear and there's nothing but road and rocks and sky.
One year, the last two miles of the course were shrouded in fog, and visibility dropped to 10-15 feet. Near the top, I heard the shriek from the cog railway, somewhere near, but completely invisible in the swirling mists. I shiver still, when I think of that moment.
One of the reasons I think about the race every June is that I feel I have unfinished business there. I never felt that I learned how to run the race well, and I'd like to take one more shot at it. I'll be 50 next year, and that seems like a good time to make the attempt. Maybe I've learned enough patience to run the entire way.
Dave Dunham, a three-time winner of the race, has written a book called
Only One Hill!. if you are interested in knowing more about the history of this unique and extraordinary event, I urge you to get the book.
2 comments:
I hate to be a stickler for details, but Mt. Washington is in fact only the highest mountain in New England. The title of "tallest mountain on the east coast" belongs to Mt. Mitchell in North Carolina, standing at 6,684 feet (as compared with Washington's 6,288).
p.s. that run took 97.4% of my energy today. I barely had enough to bike 1.25 miles home.
wow. and to think some people pride themselves on driving up the mountain. "this car climbed mt. washington"
Post a Comment