Mt. Washington Road Race

Mt. Washington defies any attempt to report on it, but here's a brief attempt a week later.  It was as expected, grueling relentless and an unpredictable performance.  I had never run a race with such complicated logistics, it was quite a production at the base of the mountain.  It was a great time, though a poor time on the clock.  The race whittled my goals down to simply finishing without walking, which I achieved at a pace dipping into 15 minute miles.  

 

The course was severe and the surroundings sublimely beautiful.  I was fascinated by the environment above treeline.  The very peak of the mountain clung to clouds but 50 feet below at the parking lot we could peer below cloudline into the valley  below.  Though I didn't meet my outside time goal, though the expense in gas and qualifying races is astronomical, I cannot wait to return next year to run this harder.  Though the Mountain presents nothing but a heap of lichen encrusted granite slabs for probably a mile, I intend to run down on the trails next year.  

 

This race seems impossible at every turn, but is a completely runnable race.  Most every physical complaint I've had while running popped up at some point, but I definitely overestimated the difficulty of this race and psyched myself out.  Maybe I can collect all the reflection on how this race unfolded and how I hope to do in the future in a later post ...