2009 Ascutney Mountain Run

Late Update (with splits): Sunday was race #35 of the year and the scene of the crime was Ascutney Mountain at Mt. Ascutney State Park in VT. This was the 9th Annual Ascutney Mountain Race (results) but this year, they changed the course dramatically. Previously, the race was 3.8 miles all up the auto road, to the parking lot near the summit. It mirrored as closely as you can get, about 1/2 of Mount Washington. This year, they veered you off the auto road only 2.3 miles up, and had the last 1.7 over VERY technical single track trail. It was more of a 1.7 mile scramble over rocks, through mud and across a couple of streams....up some stone stairs, and across many switchbacks with trails sometimes about 6 inches across before steep edges of rocky cliffs that would send you plummeting back down into the woods (I know, I went over the side twice). In a nutshell, it was two extremes in one race...a hybrid of auto road and single track bushwhack trail, that made for an interesting race for sure.

I headed across NH to VT starting at 6:30am. I arrived after a very nice drive, with almost zero cars on the road, in only about 1hr 50min. Many of the usual suspects were already there milling around. After catching up with some of the mountain folk and heading over to get my number, we got ready and headed out for a nice warm up down VT route 5. We had a big warm up crew of CMS, WMM, RunningRaw, TNT, and GCS runners who were all a bit apprehensive about the course changes. Both dd and I agreed that the pre-race favorite would be Andy McCarron, who is definitely the best all around runner who toed the line. After a quick change, we all headed over to the start. The timing guys were actually worried about making it to the finish before the runners. They had to drive up to the top parking lot (where the race used to finish) and then hike .7 miles up to the actual true summit to set up the clock and finish chute. Problem is that it takes a few minutes to drive up to the top, and then 20 min or so to actually hike to the finish, carrying all the equipment. They would make it just fine (by how much I don't actually know)...

As the race went off, Tim Mahoney ran right to the front and really worked the first mile. I stayed right behind him for most of the way, with Joe Shaw, Dave Dunham, and Andy McCarron all right behind. At the one mile mark, Joe Shaw past us pretty convincingly and proclaimed something that sounded like 'that wasn't too bad' as we passed through the mile. I wasn't too worried about the splits and was just waiting to see how long it was going to take Dave and Andy to come passing by. Right after the mile (or just right before), Tim dropped back a bit and I started to push on to try to hold off dd and Andy. That wouldn't last, as dd soon came up and right past me with Andy a short distance back. I adjusted my pace a bit and stayed right behind dd and let him dictate pace. For the next mile, we stayed together, with him one step ahead, and it looked like we were starting to reel in Joe who had built up a decent lead. As we hit the trail, we were maybe 10-15 seconds back of Joe and dd turned to me and said 'after you' and pointed to the trail. I immediately declined the offer, as I wasn't feeling that great after the 2.3 mile non-stop uphill climb. As we ducked into the woods, I immediately felt held up behind Dave and got nervous that Joe would start to run away. I figured that I should at least try to catch him on the flatter trail sections before it started to get steep, and if dd caught me again, so be it...but at least I would have tried... So after about a minute, I yelled up to Dave that I was going to come by and he obliged. I shot past and went right after Joe. It took maybe a half mile or so to catch up to him and I ran behind him for a bit before shooting past him on a section where he had stopped to power hike. Both him and I were power hiking on and off quite a bit but I was able to get past him and continuously build up a lead. At this point, I will say four major things about the 'trail'... It was ROCKY, WET, STEEP, and actually well marked. I didn't have any navigational problems, and there were a couple of volunteers out there at the intersections, but the footing was brutal. I used my Inov-8 f-lite 230s, which worked really well, but no shoe can help you if you fall off the trail and slide down the side of the mountain, which happened to me on two separate occasions. In one section where the trail is about a foot wide before sliding straight down, I slipped off and had to hold on to rocks with my hands and pull myself back on...the first one scared the living daylights out of me...the second one was laughable because, well, it was the second one. As I approached the top, I started to notice the woods getting brighter and more sunlight showing through...a good indication that there isn't much more ahead... I asked a couple of volunteers as I approached and they told me how much was left...this helped motivate me to try to grind up the stone steps and wet rock to the top. In the end, I got up to the summit in 1st place, in a time of 37:26. Andy McCarron came rolling up in 2nd place, just 42 seconds back (which, for this trail is not too far back), and Dave Dunham came through in 3rd place. Joe dropped back to 4th, but finished up strong, just ahead of Todd Callaghan (5th).

Top 10 plus CMS finishers in blue:

Place	Time	Pace	Name	Age	City/State
1	37:26	9:22	Jim Johnson	32	Salem NH
2	38:08	9:32	Andy McCarron	26	Keene NH
3	38:43	9:41	Dave Dunham	45	Bradford MA
4	39:03	9:46	Joe Shaw	28	Grantham NH
5	39:56	9:59	Todd Callaghan	39	Somerville MA
6	40:52	10:13	Tim Van Orden	41	Bennington VT
7	41:11	10:18	Thomas Brown	23	Boston Ma
8	41:25	10:22	Kasie Enman	29	Huntington VT
9	41:39	10:25	Tim Mahoney	29	Holyoke MA
10	43:20	10:50	Philip Mason	22	North Thetford VT
11	43:56	10:59	James Pawlicki	34	Beverly MA
38	49:41	12:26	Abby Mahoney	31	Holyoke MA
52	51:24	12:51	David Lapierre	45	Chelmsford MA
126	1:02:21	15:36	Walter Kuklinski	60	Princeton MA

Splits:

Mile 1: 8:05

next .5: 4:29 (12:35 at 1.5M)

next .25: 2:18 (14:53 at 1.75M)

next .25: 2:06 (17:01 at 2M)

next .25: 2:29 (19:30 at 2.25M)

Mile 2.3 total time (to the trailhead): 19:56 - 8:40 pace for the road portion.

Last 1.7 on the trails: 17:30 - 10:17 pace for the trail section.

YIKES! Tough course.

With the USATF-NE Mountain series done, I don't have a finishing score, although I did quite well in the 4 races (of 6) I ran. In order to score, I needed to have run 1 more race (they take the best 5 of 6). Kind of a mistake on my part this year. I'll look to do the series next year, but being able to win both Loon and Ascutney again will probably prove to be a difficult task...

Photo to the left, after the race: L-R: Tim Mahoney, Paul Kirsch, Jim Pawlicki, JJ, Tim VanOrden, Todd Callaghan.

Kristin didn't make the trip out, but I did bring my camera and Kristen Kozlosky (Jim Pawlicki's girlfriend) was able to graciously get photos of the first crew of runners for me. After I finished, I started taking pictures of finishers. There may have been a few runners missed during the transition. I uploaded them to SmugMug. Thanks Kristen!

Kristen - photos 1-76, Jim - photos 77-419

After the race and awards, a group of us ran back down (my quads aren't too happy about that right now)... Then, a big group of us (Mahoney's, Callaghans, Tivo & Mike Menard, Jim & Kristen, Andy and his girl, and some GCS folk all headed over to the river for some food, beverages, and a soak. Good times for sure....then a 3 hour ride home in insane traffic near Concord basically wiped me out for 10 hours. This week may include Sapienza and a low key 5k on Saturday. That's all I got (taking a line from Ryan Cararra, back when he 'used to blog') ;)

Portsmouth Harbour Trail 5k

Late Update: 7/10/09
Saturday it was up to Portsmouth, NH for the 14th Annual Portsmouth Harbour Trail 5k (results). I headed up solo, so no photos :(. However, pictured to the left is me getting outkicked at the very end... photo courtesy of 'aussiegtl' ...I lifted it from her flickr site...hope she doesn't mind.

I 'attempted' to run this back in 2007 and dropped out after the 1 mile mark. It was my first season of racing in 8 years and I wasn't feeling that great, had some stiffness from playing hockey a couple days prior (mistake), and I only made it a mile before whipping the singlet off and stepping out of the way. Last year, this race was on the same day as Ascutney, so I had to miss my opportunity to avenge my only DNF. This year, Ascutney changed to Sunday, so I got to head up and give this race a go. Too bad I crossed paths with Ethan Hemphill (for amazingly, the first time in a road race)...

Ethan's got wheels in case anyone out there is unfamiliar. Before the race, I was talking to Bob Wiles and he told me that Ethan was around somewhere...so I knew it wasn't going to be an easy day. As we lined up, the weather was already VERY hot, and looking around, I knew it would be a 4 man race between Bob, Me, Ethan, and Colin Ingram. The gun went off and immediately, Ethan went to the front but didn't really push the pace. I settled in right on his shoulder and there I stayed. The mile markers were way off so I won't even bother laying out the splits like I normally do, but we went through what was setup as Mile 1 and it was 5:32. Bob yelled 'slow!' from right behind Ethan and I. Ethan let out an expletive and laughed a bit before picking up the pace just a tad... It was the four of us (with Colin) through about 1.5 before Ethan and I put a little distance on the other two. Through 2, the clock read 10:18 (or a 4:45 second mile according to my watch)...again, the 10:18 may have been closer to accurate, but the splits were obviously off. I didn't get the 3rd mile split, but at 3 I was right on Ethan's shoulder and we just cruised into the last turn, at which time he waited until I crept up a bit and then he turned the jets on. He's got a pretty nice kick and I didn't have the wheels to react. The race tactics played out in his favor for sure, and I know we probably could have gone out harder and salvaged a faster time, but it is what it is...and another sub 16 is always welcome in my results.

I cooled down with Ethan after the race and got to talk to him for the first time...very nice guy who lives just far enough away up in Maine that I won't cross paths with his kick too much in the near future ;)...

For winning my age group, I got a $60 gift cert to Bicycle Bob's Bicycle Outlet in Portsmouth (good for a tuneup) and a $100 gift cert to Anneke Jans in Kittery, ME.

On to Ascutney tomorrow (I think...).

Top 10 (of 375):

Place	Time	Pace	Name	Age	City/State
1	15:52	5:07	Ethan Hemphill	36	Freeport ME
2	15:55	5:08	Jim Johnson	32	Salem NH
3	16:07	5:11	Bob Wiles	31	Kittery ME
4	16:22	5:17	Colin Ingram	27	Hampton NH
5	17:43	5:42	Tobias Grindal	25	Lebanon NH
6	17:47	5:44	Louie Saviano	18	Sandown NH
7	17:50	5:45	Brandon Gerrish	17	Lebanon MA
8	18:00	5:48	Douglas Mercer	21	Lakeport NH
9	18:05	5:49	Peter McNeil	25	Barrington NH
10	18:18	5:54	John Mercer	53	Lakeport NH

All Time Sub 16 at The Portsmouth Harbour Trail 5k (WHEB Harbour Trail 5k)

Rank	Time	Name	Age	City/State	Year
1	14:50	David Hinga	24	LOWELL MA	2000
2	15:02	Dave Dunham	36	BRADFORD MA	2000
3	15:03	Richard Bolt	29	MANCHESTER NH	2000
4	15:08	Zach Emerson (1)	21	Hillsboro NH	2006
5	15:10	Tim Cox	33	Epsom NH	2006
6	15:20	Craig Fram	41	PLAISTOW NH	2000
7	15:26	Ethan Hemphill (1)	32	Freeport ME	2005
8	15:27	Raymond Youngs	23	DEERFIELD NH	2001
9	15:30	Mike O'Brien	35	Durham NH	1996
10	15:31	Richard Bolt	34	Nashua NH	2005
11	15:34	Kevin Alliette	25	Methuen MA	2006
12	15:36	Mike Brady (1)	40	NEWMARKET NH	2000
13	15:37	Dan Verrington (1)	41	BRADFORD MA	2003
14	15:43	Nathan Huppe	27	Dover NH	2007
15	15:44	Dan Verrington (2)	40	BRADFORD MA	2002
16	15:48	Dan Verrington (3)	36	BRADFORD MA	1998
17	15:51	Zach Emerson (2)	20	Emmitsburg MD	2005
T-18	15:52	Matthew Germain	25	Haverhill MA	2007
T-18	15:52	Ethan Hemphill (2)	36	Freeport ME	2009
T-19	15:55	Jim Johnson	32	Salem NH	2009
T-19	15:55	Moatascim Hamcha	25	DOVER NH	2000
T-19	15:55	Mike Brady (2)	39	NEWMARKET NH	1999
20	15:56	Timothy Rider	31	Dover NH	2007
21	15:58	Jake Christiansen	18	Newipswich NH	2007

*** ** No results available for 1997. No Sub 16s in 2004 or 2008.

Mid Year Numbers / Recap

Yeah yeah, I know I'm a week late with this but figured I'd throw out some numbers as a rare mid-week blog entry... The year started off good, with lots of snowshoe racing and a couple of strong longer races...but then I hit a stretch with injuries and bad, slow races, including the worst race/day of my life (on that Monday morning in April)...things are starting to get better and I plan on easing into higher mileage by the end of the summer to get ready for a big fall season.

(photo to the left is NOT from the past few weeks, although the weather has been close to being this bad...It is actually from the Greylock Glen Snowshoe Race - 1/17/09 - courtesy of Berkshire Sports...I'm the ninja in 3rd behind Justin Fyffe and Ben Nephew.)

Total miles run so far: 1716.6 (9 miles per day average) but with 25 days off. Not bad considering the problems I had in March and the general laziness I feel in the summer.... I've been doing A LOT of runs this year with other people... a lot more than last year at this time. This has kept me under control, pace-wise, during my runs. My mileage has been pretty low considering, but I feel it is keeping me in the game. As my mileage creeps up above 75ish, so does the chances of me getting hurt. I've noticed that keeping my mileage between 60 and 70 this past Spring/Summer, with a periodic day off, has allowed me to race often and feel fresh most of the time. I have no wheels right now, but was still able to crank out a 9:44 road 2 mile this past week off of zero speed work (I've been on the track maybe 2 or 3 times all year) and coming down out of the mountains.... I have to start getting more serious as the Baystate Marathon looms a little more than 14 weeks away... I plan on actually really doing some marathon training this time around (I know I know I've said that before and we all know what happened)... the good news on that front is that dd will be doing Baystate this year as well (he's STILL the course record holder, at least for the next 14 weeks...lots of guys gunning for it this year). Since a lot of my runs have been with Dave this season, I think we'll be able to do some appropriate training together and it will keep me honest with my mileage and longer runs. He's challenged me numerous times, to a race on the 18th of October, and I will oblige.

Mid year numbers...

Total Races so far this year: 33 (Total races this time last year: 19)

Races by type:

• Road: 18
• Snowshoe: 9
• Mountain: 4
• Trail: 1
• Track: 1

- Wins: 11

- 2nds: 5

- 3rds: 5

Races by State:

• NH: 21
• MA: 8
• ME: 1*
• RI: 1
• CT: 1
• NY: 1

* Eastern States runs through 3 states. Counting this as Maine.

Amazingly, out of 33 races so far, I've run 21 different distances. Many of these weird distances are due to snowshoe/mountain/trail races, but oddly enough, I've actually run two 7ks so far.

Races by Distance

• 2M: [x1]
• 3M: [x1]
• 5K: [x10]
• 5.1K: [x1]
• 3.5M: [x1]
• 4M: [x1]
• 4.11M: [x1]
• 7k: [x2]
• 5M: [x1]
• 8.5K: [x1]
• 5.7M: [x1]
• 10K: [x2]
• 11K: [x1]
• 12K: [x1]
• 7.6M: [x1]
• 10M: [x2]
• Half M: [x1]
• 24K: [x1]
• 16M: [x1]
• 20M: [x1]
• Full M: [x1]

Highlights so far this year:

• Winning the USA National Mountain Championship Team title with CMS
• Winning the Granite State Snowshoe Series
• Winning at Loon Mountain and running 3:43 faster than last year, to run the third fastest time ever there, in it's current format (only behind CR Eric Blake and Paul Low).
• 12th Place individual finish at USA National Mountain Championship at Cranmore
• Running 30+ (old man) PRs in 2 Mile, 10k, 10M, and the Half Marathon distances (so far).

Looking ahead, I have some more summer racing to do, including the last in the mountain series (although I'm not going to be actually scoring in the series, seeing I'll only have 4 of 6 races completed). There are still 5 races left in the Seacoast Series, a couple of potential trail races for fun, and 3 more USATF-NE Grand Prix events to go, including the Baystate Marathon. I am also planning (as of right now) to go over to the US Trail Marathon Championships with a few of the CMS dudes in November. By early fall, the 2009-2010 snowshoe season schedules should be about ready, and my picture for 2010 will start to come into focus. I've already started to pencil in a tentative schedule for 2010, and as the summer winds down, the first part of 2010 will come into focus.

Sully's 2 Mile and Loon Mountain Race

Jam packed weekend...2 races, lots of travelling, lots of bbq's attended in between, lots of 'no thank you, I've got a race tomorrow' responses to offers of drinks, burgers, etc. Did I still have a good time? Absolutely.

Saturday:

Saturday morning I decided to head over to Chelmsford, MA to run Sullys 2 Mile (results), which I ran once before, in 2007, when I first started running/racing again. This year, I figured I could do this race as a fun workout before Loon, and maybe, if I felt good, run a quick 2 mile for these 32 year old legs without much effort... I warmed up with Jim St. Pierre and Titus Mutinda before toeing the line in what is usually a reckless and frenzied first quarter mile. I laced up the trusty Inov-8 f-lite 230's and headed over to the line for some 'ahem'...strides and stretching....

As the gun went off, I immediately felt pretty terrible...The closest thing to this I've done would be the many 5k's I do, but this one is a bit different, as each year a lot of younger kids like to get up on the starting line and right in front of bigger, faster runners who end up running them over as soon as the gun goes off... Like last time, I had to run around and through a bunch of little tikes to get into a good spot near the lead pack... but the weird thing about this year was the lack of a lead pack...it was immediately strung out almost exactly like how the finishing order would be... I settled in, in about 7th or 8th place or so and just tried to keep the wheels on. I haven't done much if anything as far as speed work goes, and it showed. I hit the first half mile in 2:19 and it felt awful. DD told me that the first half was off...that could be the case, as my second half mile was 2:31, which took me through the first mile in 4:50. I wanted 4:45ish to try to salvage a 9:30, so I knew a fast time was out the door, as there was still another rolling mile to go..My third half mile was 2:24 which brought me through the 1.5 mark in 7:14. By this time I had passed a couple guys including Titus Mutinda (R.UN) and got passed by a couple other younger guys... I was thinking Loon on Sunday, the entire race and really wanted to just keep the same effort and not start tearing up the muscles to go any quicker... Over the last half mile stretch which actually ascends slightly up to the finish line, I passed Joseph Koech, who has been tearing up the USATF-NE road GP this year and is a very talented road runner....he was a little off today, with the heat (close to 80 with no wind at the start), and didn't react to my move. In the end, I came across in 7th place overall, in 9:44 officially (although my watch, which I stop AFTER the second mat, read 9:41). Since there was no starting line timing mat, I am assuming the timing was slightly off...but either way, it was a decent showing for doing absolutely zero workouts this season (other than the occasional 5k).

Top 10 Overall (1728 Finishers):

Place	Time	Pace	Name	Age	City/State
1	9:20	4:40	Ruben Sanca	22	Lowell MA
2	9:21	4:41	Greg Wilson	20	Chelmsford MA
3	9:32	4:46	Jeffrey Veiga	18	Lowell MA
4	9:33	4:47	Jim St Pierre	38	Dracut MA
5	9:35	4:48	Brian Gagnon	22	Dracut MA
6	9:36	4:48	Josh Andrews	20	Chelmsford MA
7	9:44	4:52	Jim Johnson	32	Salem NH
8	9:47	4:54	Dan Roark	19	Dracut MA
9	9:52	4:56	Joseph Koech	40	Melrose MA
10	9:58	4:59	Titus Mutinda	44	Lowell MA

Kristin took some photos which can be seen here.

Jim Rhoades has the usual photos here.

Sunday:

There's no safeword at Loon...that's what I had going through my head on the starting line at this year's Loon Mountain Race (results) up in Lincoln, NH. Had I not had the good fortune of actually being able to win this race today, I would have had only needed 3 words to describe what happened... 'Upper Walking Boss'. However, due to the fact that there was one last stretch of downhill after the Boss, it gave me the opportunity to pull off my first Mountain win.

The day started with a wake up call at 4:30am and a departure time from Salem, NH at 6:00am sharp. 2 hours later, we were up in Lincoln, NH at Loon Mountain. The weather was promising until we hit the Plymouth State area, and then the skies started to darken, as thick gray and black clouds started to roll in. By the time we rolled into the parking lot, it was windy and a bit chilly. I warmed up with a CMS contingent of Jim Pawlicki, Andy McCarron, Dave Dunham, Tim Mahoney, and Tim VanOrden, and we were joined by Whirlaway's Patrick Ard and Paul Bazanchuk. Pat was there running his first Mountain race, and he picked what I consider the hardest one in the series... I guess it's a good one to get out of the way...now they'll all seem a bit easier going forward.

After lacing up the Inov-8 x-talon 212's, I headed down to the line, along the Pemi, for a brief chat w/ Tivo, Pat, and a few others. DD came strolling over in his obscenely short purple and pink tie-dye uni, from which I immediately distanced myself. After some quick words of wisdom from race director Paul Kirsch, we were off.

Across the first parking lot and up to the first initial ascent, I was in 3rd place behind Ed Breen (GBTC) and Abdeltif Faker. Abdel went out super fast and looked really smooth. Early on, it seemed to look like he was going to run away with the race quite easily...He was bounding up the first part of the course early on, like an 800 meter runner... very smooth and strong with big powerful strides. By maybe 1 - 1.5 mile or so, we went up past a right hand turn and kept going straight...I was following Abdel, in 2nd place and wasn't paying attention to where he was running. I saw 2 people standing up near a table and heard them yell as we were about 20-30 yards past....We had gone too far and I immediately turned and cut across and back up onto the course, and now, because I was behind the leader at this point, I took the lead as we doubled back. He immediately noticed, as I yelled 'back' and he turned with me, but was now right behind me as we made the next ascent. I held that lead for the next 2.5-3 miles as I just continued to put one foot in front of the other and tried to maintain a steady rhythm. It seemed like it was taking forever to reach the top of the gondola (where you have to run past the finish line to hit the 2nd part of the course). All this time, Patrick Ard was gaining on me slowly and by the time I did run up and past the finish area, he was right behind me. As you get up past the finish area, you have the first of 2 steep downhill sections. It was here that I put a substantial lead on both Pat and Abdel who wasn't far behind. At the end of the first long downhill section, you hit the fore mentioned Upper Walking Boss, which could quite possibly be the ugliest hill in any race anywhere, period. As I hit the boss in full downhill stride, the transition over to the uphill grind again was anything but smooth. I immediately found myself in full on power-hike mode....not even attempting to continue to work the Boss in any sort of running stride.... all the while, looking behind me and just waiting for Pat and Abdel to come around the corner and start their ascent. I got a decent amount of climb in before they came into view, indicating that they didn't hit that prior downhill at anywhere near the speed that I did... For the next 1K, I essentially power hiked with very little if any real 'running'....I've come to realize that a steady power-hike is not much slower than the fastest running stride that is possible on such a climb as the Upper Walking Boss. For about 95% of the climb, I remained in 1st place, but was getting reeled in by Pat, Abdel, Ed Breen, and now Andy McCarron and Dave Dunham. By the time I got up past Scott Mason who was there taking pictures, I had been just about been caught and was now about to be pushed back to 3rd place as we crested the top of the hill. I offered Pat some words of advice as he looked very strong, and warned him of the final descent... Now in 3rd place and having Andy and Dave not too far back, I tried to keep pace with the 2 leaders across a final flat section before the downhill. As I hit the very start of the final descent, it was immediately evident that neither Pat nor Abdel were going to try to work that final reckless downhill. I screwed on past both of them almost immediately and put serious distance on them going down. I basically threw myself down the mountain as fast as I possibly could move and luckily didn't have any problems with footing or cramping (contrary to Cranmore last week)....By the time I was about 3/4ths of the way down, and hit the one flatter section before the remaining descent, I took a peek back and knew at that point that I had the race won. All I had left was the last bit of downhill, which was going in my favor, and one last climb up to the finish which is maybe 50 yards or so. Within about 5 minutes, I went from 3rd place (with the expectation of a possible 5th or 6th place finish) to 1st place by 24 seconds over Abdel, with Pat finishing up 32 seconds back.

I was ecstatic to say the least... I never would have expected to squeak out the win there, especially knowing who was right behind me, and how I performed on the last climb...but in the end, the downhill was the story, and I'll gladly take it. After a slow and easy cool down with Todd Callaghan, Tim Mahoney, and Jim Pawlicki, we headed back inside the lodge for the awards ceremony and grub. For the win, I got to pick out a pair of Inov-8 shoes from the folks at the Inov-8 display table. They had just about every popular model, but in the end, I picked up a second pair of the x-talon 212's, as Tivo convinced me that a backup pair would be a good idea...

Top 10 + CMS in Blue

Place	First	Last	Age	City	State	Team	MM	SS
1	Jim	Johnson	32	Salem	NH	CMS	48	25
2	Abdeltif	Faker	24	Malden	MA		48	49
3	Patrick	Ard	25	Raymond	NH	Whirlaway	48	57
4	Andy	McCarron	26	Keene	NH	CMS	49	34
5	Dave	Dunham	45	Ward Hill	MA	CMS	50	01
6	Ed	Breen	27	Medford	MA	GBTC	50	16
7	Tim	VanOrden	41	Bennington	VT	CMS	51	12
8	Todd	Callaghan	39	Somerville	MA	GCS-triad	51	21
9	Mats	Lemberger	25	Hanover	NH		51	25
10	Adam	Pacheck	17	Syracuse	NY		52	30
11	Jim	Pawlicki	34	Beverly	MA	CMS	52	52
14	Tim	Mahoney	29	Holyoke	MA	CMS	54	03
45	Robert	Thomas	49	Charlton	MA	CMS	63	40
65	David	Lapierre	45	Chelmsford	MA	CMS	66	20
79	Dane	LeBlanc	51	Littleton	MA	CMS	69	16
109	Heather	Arsenault	31	Leominster	MA	CMS	76	03
126	Walter	Kuklinski	60	Princeton	MA	CMS	78	35

...240 Total Finishers.

Kristin took some nice photos from the summit. She missed the first pack of leaders on the first pass, started to take shots as more people were coming by, and then did get the leaders coming up on the second pass to the finish.

Post race, Kristin, Tivo, Tim, Todd, and a few others headed down to soak in the Pemi and kick back a couple of brewskis in the afternoon sun. Good times for sure...lots of food/nutrition talk and ad hoc race recaps as we stood in the freezing cold river and iced the legs...

The highlight of the day, besides squeaking out the win, was getting the US Championship medals from last week's US Mountain Running Championships at Cranmore. CMS was the Men's Open Team Champions and after a few days of team scoring corrections and calculations, the results were made official. This is my first ever USATF Championship medal and being a 'Team' medal, it actually means a lot more to me than an individual medal would believe it or not...I've long considered contributing to a team's success (even in a relatively solitary sport like running) to be the most important thing to me when it comes to competition. I've always loved the team concept and that is why I really took to cross country in high school and college and love the idea of the grand prix events and team events now with CMS.

Next up is the Ascutney Mountain Run on Sunday (with a possibility of 5k on Saturday....which will be a game time decision)...

...and for proof of how ugly-hard the Upper Walking Boss is, Mr. Scott Mason provides visual evidence:

2009 US Mountain Running Championships

Sunday it was back up to North Conway, NH for the 2009 US Mountain Running Championships (results) at the Cranmore Hill Climb. This was not only the US National Championship, but it was also the North American, Central American, and Caribbean (NACAC) Championships. Lastly, as the US Championship does every year, this race was a qualifier for the World Trophy team as well. The top three American Men and Top American woman received automatic berths on the Teva US Mountain Running Team that will compete in September at the World Mountain Running Championships in Italy. Needless to say, the competition at this year's race was far deeper than last year, where I managed a close third place overall (one place and 4 seconds behind CMS teammate and 2-time world team member Kevin Tilton). I was pretty excited for this race, as this was my first real 'mountain' race last year and I was looking forward to going back and running against a much deeper field. I was also looking forward to the prospect of winning a US National team title, which CMS has done numerous times before. This would be my first chance at doing so, as a member of the Central Mass Striders.

I woke up at 4:00am and was at Dave Quintal's house by 5:00am over in North Salem, NH for a drive up to North Conway, which would take us about 2 hours at that time of the morning. The drive went by pretty quick as DQ and I talked about the race, running and training, and how awesome DD is. When we swung into town, the weather hadn't looked any better and dark clouds were swirling around the area, indicating that weather may once again play a factor in the race up Mt. Cranmore.

We swung into the parking lot after having spotted TiVo a few streets down, walking with one of his adoring fans (no doubt spreading the raw-food gospel around the streets of North Conway)... We saw dd's car already sitting all by itself in the lot, with a Dunkin Donuts coffee cup on the roof, and nobody near it. As we headed over into the lodge, Ben Nephew pulled in and walked over with us...We made our way into the registration area and signed in amongst a hoard of the usual suspects including dd, Todd Callaghan, and all of the elite runners from the previous week's Mount Washington race. I chatted a bit w/ dd and it was very evident that he was indeed pretty sick and congested from some mystery illness he picked up midweek...I kept my distance.

As the rain seemed like it was going to hold off, we started our warm up with a decent pack that included dd, DQ, myself, Ben, Justin Fyffe, Trish Steidl, Tim & Abby Mahoney, and near the end, Jim Pawlicki and Joe Shairs (who was there to cheer on his CMS teammates and take some pictures)... After the warm up around the trails at the base of Cranmore, it was back over to the car to tape up the ankles (something I did NOT do last year) and then into the woods for a quick rest stop before heading over to the starting area.

Loop 1) After some words from Andy Schachat and the anthems of the NACAC countries, the race was off in dramatic fashion...For the race, I went with the Inov-8 x-talon 212's and they really performed well out there on the slick rock and muddy moss. Immediately I was bunched up behind some elite women and men and getting pushed from all angles. Unfortunately I had to reach out and hand-check (pretty hard) a smaller elite woman in front of me during the first 100 meters or so and then had to swing wide and make my own path in thicker grass to the far right, to get around and back up near Kevin Tilton, like my race plan had been envisioned earlier. I couldn't get any closer than about 5 or 6 guys back of Kevin as we went up the first incline and into the woods. At this point, the first 1K or so was very slow going, as a steady line of runners all went single-file across the first lateral section of the course. By the second 'real' climb, it was starting to thin out and I could comfortably weave from side to side up the grassy, muddy slopes of Cranmore, picking my spots and trying to stay on my feet. At this point, I was solely around LaSportiva, Invo-8, and some of the other elite runners, along with Judson Cake, Tommy Manning, and a couple other good solid runners. I took a few peeks back as we made our way up some of the very steep sections, and could see Eric Morse next in line, and Ben Nephew not too far behind him. As the race progressed, and my pace slowed on the uphills, and my first bout with power-hiking began around the 11 minute mark of the race (I had jokingly guesstimated to DQ on the way up that we'd be 'walking within the first ten minutes'...almost), the first 7 or so guys really put distance on everyone else, and the field spread out quite a bit.

Looking up I could see Justin Fyffe and Josh Ferenc and a couple others that were all within eventual striking distance. Around this point, Morse was right behind me and Jason Bryant and I ran side by side for the last part of the first ascent. Once I reached the top of the first ascent, I had just passed Jason and went up and through the summit water stop. On the beginning of the first descent, I immediately caught and passed CMS teammate Justin Fyffe who didn't seem to react to my move and my encouragement to hop on the train...he's been racing a lot of longer races this year already and seemed a little 'raced-out' today. I passed one other guy on the way down and hit the bottom feeling really strong. At a couple of spots on the descent, where it gets very steep, fast, and out of control, my legs began to react and cramp up slightly....forcing me to land on my toes and back off a bit, but I was able to maintain a solid pace down to the bottom, where I was now right up next to Tommy Manning, who finished 7th at last week's Mount Washington Road Race. This made it two runners I was now ahead of or right with, that had finished in the top 10 at Mount Washington, that previous weekend. I knew Jason Bryant (who was top 10 in the last 2 years at Washington) was still a factor even though I could not see him back there any longer. I had little faith that I'd be able to hold position on the second loop's ascent, but felt head and shoulders better than I did last year going into the second loop...I'm a bit stronger this year for sure, and could feel it as I hit the second loop.

Loop 2) As we hit the beginning of the second loop, I looked over at Tommy and said 'this one's going to be very interesting'...he uttered a small reactionary grunt and we hit the climb. He moved out in front and I tried to hang on to him, all the while knowing that not too far behind me was Judson Cake, Eric Morse, and a few others that had absolutely every chance of mowing me down quickly on the second ascent. As we made our way up and across the mountain, I was now aware that I was wearing a 20lbs. singlet and my shorts were falling off my backside, they were so drenched and heavy... I had all I could do to keep my uniform on as I continued to pedal the bike up with as many real running steps as one can possibly take on these climbs. To put it in perspective, just about all the real climbs in this race are all far steeper than any section of Washington, and a few of them force an almost 'hands on the ground' approach...couple that with treacherous footing, wet rock, muddy, mossy ground, and tall grass, stumps, roots, and holes, and it makes for interesting conditions to say the least.

About half way up the second climb, I noticed that Tommy Manning had really worked on the way up and had passed a couple of guys...I was getting closer and closer to Josh Ferenc, Aaron Saft, and Kevin Tilton, and Judson Cake was getting closer and closer to me. After Judson, I didn't see anyone else back there, and about halfway up, I realized I would probably finish within 2 or 3 (give or take) places of where I was at that point... But I didn't really know what place I was in. I knew I was the second CMS guy to that point, and barring a disaster on the way down, I figured I could hold that spot. I knew Ben Nephew and Justin were great downhill guys (and climbers), but couldn't see them in back of me and I didn't have that much left in the climb. Towards the end of the 2nd ascent, my pipe dream of catching Josh, Aaron Saft, and Kevin Tilton went out the window... They all hammered the last bit of uphill to the summit water stop, and I power-hiked a lot of it. Judson was still pedalling the bike behind me and it seemed that every time I started to hike, and turned around, he was getting closer and closer to me, and was running the whole time. As I passed over the summit water stop, Tad Thomas shouted out that I was doing well and that I was in the top 15... This got the fire lit under my backside to really work the last descent and not lose any more places. As I started to hammer down the last part of the course, I had a decent lead on Judson and knew that unless I really screwed up on the way down, he wouldn't be able to catch me on the downhill...I still had about 300 meters or so of flat straightaway at the bottom before the finish line that I was worried about, but I was focused on getting there first. I didn't see anyone in front of me except some lapped runners still working on their first descents...

As I hammered downhill in a borderline out of control fashion, my legs cramped again and I had to try to keep some sort of composure... As I hit the very last section of downhill that opened up to the base of the mountain, I could see a couple of 1st lap runners and Tommy Manning, just trying to get to the finish line. I reeled him in and went by just before hitting the last straightaway flat part of the base of the course and reached for the finish line. I had no clue still as to what my place was, but I knew it was in the top 15 give or take, and I was very excited to have made it in one piece. I crossed the line and Paul Kirsch came running over to me, telling me 'dude, you're 12th in the nation!'...I was thrilled and looked around for guys to congratulate...one being my CMS teammate Kevin Tilton, who really stepped it up and finished 9th. The only sad thing I initially felt was that I missed top 10, for which you get USATF medals...but seeing my expectations were actually top 30, I was in no way going to look at anything in a negative light... My thoughts immediately turned to the team competition in which I began to realize that we were definitely going to take home the national title, as Ben Nephew, Justin Fyffe, and Eric Morse all came in together. None of those guys, I expected to be able to beat today... coupled with the fact that guys like Tim VanOrden, Tim Mahoney, Jim Pawlicki, DD, DQ, and others were all out there too...I was just happy to have been in the top 5 for CMS.

After milling around a bit and letting everyone catch their breath and wipe the mud from their hair, eyes, etc. DD, Ben, DQ, and I headed out for a cool down around the trails. I was focused on keeping my back in check, as it was borderline spasming/cramping up. I knew the day(s) following would be pretty sore/slow days for sure...but I left it out there today and gave it my all, so I was ready and willing to accept some of the soreness/stiffness that would be sure to follow.

After a quick cleanup, we headed back over to the awards ceremony, where they presented the top 10 US medals (the only sore spot for me today), age group medals, NACAC championship medals, and announced the World team qualifiers. The team competition wasn't finalized technically or officially yet because the scoring system they used, had a slight snafu and there would have to be some manual work done to sort out the results after the top 25 or so places... So our team medals had to technically wait as they had to determine who was 2nd, 3rd, etc. but it was great to know that we took home a USATF gold medal and satisfying to know that I contributed to the team's success. I took my only photos of the day, at the awards ceremony. I have numerous photos of the top 10 men & women, NACAC scorers, and some others of me with some true mountain running elites including the below shot of me (left) with top US mountain runner and last week's Mount Washington Road Race winner Rickey Gates (middle), and CMS teammate and 45-49 yr old age group silver medalist Dave Quintal (right).

I got to talk to Rickey for quite a while after the race...great guy...humble and passionate for the sport. He took the time to tell us about his summer plans for racing all over Europe (he must have named 12 countries he's going to be visiting). He will be biking from race to race over there. His excursions can be followed on his blog: http://mostlypaved.blogspot.com.

Results: Top 25 + CMS Finishers (Men) in Blue

Place	First	Last	City	State	Age	Team Name	MM	SS
1	Joe	Gray	Lakewood	WA	25	NACAC -USA	48	37
2	Zac	Freudenburg	St. Louis	MO	31		49	48
3	Matt	Byrne	Philadelphia	PA	34		49	57
4	Rickey	Gates	Alamosa	CO	28	NACAC -USA	50	04
5	Shiloh	Mielke	Weaverville	NC	29	Vasque	51	38
6	Eric	Blake	New Britain	CT	30	NACAC -USA	51	50
7	Simon	Gutierrez	Alamosa	CO	43	NACAC -USA	51	54
8	Aaron	Saft	Fletcher	NC	31		52	16
9	Kevin	Tilton	North Conway	NH	27	CMS/Inov-8	52	24
10	John	Tribbia	Boulder	CO	27		52	40
11	Josh	Ferenc	S. Acworth	NH	27	BAA/Inov-8	52	42
12	Jim	Johnson	Salem	NH	32	CMS	53	33
13	Tommy	Manning	Colorado Spring	CO	33		53	39
14	Judson	Cake	Bar Harbor	ME	31	Dirigo	53	43
15	Ben	Nephew	Mansfield	MA	15	CMS/Inov-8	54	53
16	derick	williamson	austin	TX	27		54	58
17	Justin	Fyffe	East Dummerst	VT	39	La Sportiva/CMS	55	02
18	Jason	Bryant	Elkin	NC	36		55	16
19	Eric	Morse	Berlin	VT	44	CMS	55	22
20	Paul	Chafe		CANA		NACAC -CAN	55	32
21	Graydon	Snyder		CANA		NACAC -CAN	55	46
22	Todd	Callaghan	Somerville	MA	39	GCS-Triad	55	49
23	Miguel	Angel Lopez		MEX		NACAC – MEX	55	53
24	Ed	Whetham	St. Paul	MN	32	Run n Fun	56	06
25	Dave	Dunham	Ward Hill	MA	45	CMS	56	19
26	Tim	Mahoney	Holyoke	MA	29	CMS	56	47
31	Tim	VanOrden	Bennington	VT	41	CMS
36	James	Pawlicki	Beverly	MA	34	CMS	60	14
39	DAVID	Quintal	Salem	NH	46	CMS	61	08
107	Robert	Thomas	Charlton	MA	49	CMS
130	David	Lapierre	Chelmsford	MA	45	CMS
148	Walter	Kuklinski	Princeton	MA	60	CMS

On the way home, DQ and I stopped at OHOP (that's the Ossipee House of Pizza to the layperson), and then sat in some good ole' fashioned Sunday afternoon southbound traffic for a while before getting back to southern NH around 4ish...just enough time for me lay down and get about 16 hours of sleep.

Next up is the Loon Mountain race, which in my opinion, is the toughest mountain race in the series by far. I had a terrible race there last year because of how wrecked my ankle was after my Cranmore experience, coupled with missing a couple days before hand... With Cranmore being only 2 loops, Loon has got to be the worst one by far. The climbs are ugly-hard and the psychological torture of having to go up and past the finish line, only to go up and down the worst hill in any race on planet Earth, before going back to the finish line for a second time, just adds to the torture. But I'll be there because I've developed a condition that compels me enter and run these things for fun...I still can't believe it.

Photos used in this entry (of me) were taken by Mr. Scott Mason. More of this mountain championship-goodness can be seen in his usual collection of amazing photos on http://www.scottmasonphoto.com/galleries

Photo above: JJ & Kevin Tilton (9th overall)

Photo above: The Top 10 Men/Women (L-R backrow: Joe Gray, Zac Freudenburg, Matthew Byrne, Rickey Gates, Shiloh Mielke, Eric Blake, Simon Gutierrez, Aaron Saft, Kevin Tilton, John Tribbia L-R front row: Chris Lundy, Brandy Erholtz, Laura Haefeli, Kasie Enman, Gina Lucrezi, Megan Lund, Abby Larson, Amber Moran, Trish Steidl, Christa Benton)

Photo above: JJ, Dave Quintal, Dave Dunham, and the Elusive Eric Morse (who says he's semi-retired now)...

2009 Mount Washington Road Race

Updated (at bottom): 6/22 - This past weekend was my 2nd go at the Mount Washington Road Race (results) up in the beautiful White Mountains of New Hampshire. The weekend was chock full of highs and lows... interesting and unpredictable New England weather... and good times with teammates and friends... The latter being why I do all this in the first place...

Kristin and I (pictured to the left at the finish line, post-race on Saturday) along with Dave Quintal (CMS) and Jon Healey (Adidas NE) headed up to Jackson, NH on Friday afternoon to attend the pre-race info-session and packet pickup at the Eagle Mountain House. There we met up with dd & Cath, Kevin Tilton, Paul Kirsch, and some of the usual suspects for a pre-race discussion around the USATF- NE mountain series, history of the Mt. Washington Road Race, the upcoming Mt. Washington Road Race hall of fame, and presentations by dd (race advice & Q&A) and two other female speakers....one who was running this year's race with only one leg and the other who was here doing research for her book on various interesting races around the world. It was nice to be up there ahead of time, relax, meet up with teammates, and get mentally prepared for the race. I also got to meet and quickly talk to GZ who had just gotten in from Colorado. Very cool to finally put a physical presence with the name and get him back over to the East for some 'hill running' :)... The weather before the talk was ominous and bleak...when we left the Carriage House to walk to the cars, the sun had broken through the clouds and it looked as though we may have some nice weather... but being New England, and in the Mount Washington Valley more specifically, anything was possible...

We all went from the Eagle Mountain House over to the Spaghetti Shed for dinner, where we met up with Francis Burdett, Al Bernier, Ben Nephew, Tim & Abby Mahoney, and others for some carbo-loading before heading over to Attitash for the night. That night, we checked into the Seasons at Attitash, off of Rt. 302 and only about 20 minutes from the base of the Auto Road. My sister Kristin, who was running Washington for the first time, stayed with us along with her husband and 2 of her 4 boys.

In the morning, we all headed over and up Rt. 16 to the base of the Auto Road where we met up with my Father who would be driving up with the lovely and talented Kristin. Along the way, the clouds seemed to be rolling in the closer we got to the base of the mountain. Just before we passed Wildcat Ski Area, the drizzle started to fall. We knew at that point, it was going to be interesting.

As we arrived , parked, and met up with Dad, the Goon Squad was in full effect, as Sarah Prescott, Scott Masse, and Hank Wilder all made their way over to give their auto passes to my brother-in-law so he could also drive up the mountain. As we waited for the cars to get the go-ahead to start driving up, I chatted with GZ, Eric Morse, and a few others as we waited for the CMS contingent to arrive. I also tried to offer some words of encouragement and advice to my sister (pictured here with me after the race) who was really nervous about what was to come. I even went as far as to walk her over to the hill to show her what she was going to get into in about an hour's time...I'm not sure that helped :).

At approximately 9:15, Jon Healey and I met up with dd, Dave Quintal, Justin Fyffe, Kevin Tilton, Andy McCarron, Matt Clark, Brad Klinedinst, Max Thomas, and some others for a warm up around the Great Glen trails at the base of the mountain...The weather seemed like it may cooperate, but I knew that most of the run was going to be in the clouds and had the potential of being pretty wet on the way up.

At 10:00am all 1000 brave souls had made their way up to the starting area where I said my last goodbyes and good luck to my sister and made my way right up to the front and mixed in with the CMS and Whirlaway guys. It was go time... After a brief talk by race director Bob Teschek, the cannon went off and we were on our way up 7.6 miles to the summit of the Northeast's highest peek (6288 feet).

As we hit the hill, about 200 or so meters into the race, I was mixed in behind 20 or so guys and was very aware that I wanted to stay w/ dd as a race strategy for this year...but he was about 10-20 yards behind me and I couldn't slow down. I continuously looked over my shoulder during the first mile to make sure I wasn't pulling away too much and trying to pace off of him while being in front...easier said than done. In the back of my mind I kept thinking of a couple key points he was giving the night before... relax, relax, relax, and don't worry about what anyone else was doing... At just after the 1 mile mark, Eric Morse and Francis Burdett (both CMS) made their way by me and looked very strong and steady. From there until mile 3 I tried to keep Kevin Tilton (CMS), Justin Fyffe (CMS), and another La Sportiva runner in sight and maintain my stride and pace. The higher we got, the thicker the clouds became and pretty soon, visibility was very poor. We were now in the clouds and you could see maybe 20 yards in front and behind and that was it. This made it impossible to see the runners in front or behind you, but I think it also helped keep me mentally in the game, as I was unable to see the tops of long stretches of incline....this made the hills slightly more manageable I think. At around 3 miles, I had been run down by Sean Livingston (WHIRL) and Dave Dunham (CMS) who had caught me at about the 2 Mile mark last year...so I was able to hold him off for an additional mile this year. I didn't worry about either of those two and kept pushing on at my own pace and actually felt pretty good (or as good as you can possibly feel as you chug up 7.6 miles at a 12% avg. grade in thick cloud cover)... After they went by, I caught up with Brendan Callahan (BAA) who was coming off some very good Grand Prix races and a win at Pack Monadnock in May. He was in the hurt box and slowing with each step. I caught up to him and he was able to react and push ahead of me again. This happened twice, as I once again caught up and maybe got a stride ahead before he pushed up and got out front again. The second time he reacted he actually put some good distance on me as we hit a steep climb and he actually got out of sight and disappeared into the clouds... I put my head down and pressed on and maybe about mile 4.5 or 5 I looked up and he had come back into view and had stopped to walk with hands on his side... It looked like he had gotten a cramp and I just kept pushing on by with the goal in mind at that point of not stopping at all to walk. I was able to do this last year and ran the entire race without walking....this year it seemed easier to maintain the pace and I wasn't tempted to walk at all, although I was hurting just as bad. Fortunately, this year, like the last, I didn't get a cramp...had I gotten a side-stitch or something similar, there would have been no way I could have kept going...

Just before the 7 mile mark, I had been hearing moans and groans and was eventually caught by Glen Guillemette and Andy McCarron (CMS) who were working together. I had beaten Glen by two spots last year and by about 10 seconds. They went by and I did try to hang on for a bit, but was basically in survival mode at that point and was just looking for the finish line. Right around 7 miles, I could still see Glen and Andy up front but now could hear breathing behind me...I occasionally turned to look but couldn't make anyone out... the breathing had a different sort of sound to it...for a few seconds I wasn't sure what it was...then I realized...it was the sound of a woman breathing heavily in the cloud cover directly behind me... then, as clouds opened up and I hit a switchback, I saw who it was...Brandy Erholtz of Colorado...the woman's leader and last years winner. I was 4 spots ahead of her last year and this year, at the 7 mile mark, she was the only one near me now and she was running me down... I pushed on but thought for sure she'd get me somewhere over the last .6 miles... As I began to make out the summit buildings and heard the crowd, I had probably a quarter mile to go and glanced back to make sure I had enough room on her to salvage the last finishing spot before the first elite woman....it helped push me over the last half mile as I hit the base of the wall and knew I'd be over my goal time of 1:10. The wind was taken out of my sails when I saw my watch tick over the 70 minute mark, but I was so focused on holding off Brandy that I continued on up and across the line to finish in 1:10:22 and 23rd place overall. This was 16 seconds slower than last year, but I felt better as a whole. I think because I had done this once before and knew what to expect, it didn't seem as bad although mentally it is one of the toughest races out there...

Splits from watch:

23rd Place Overall: 1:10:22

Mile 1) 6:49

Mile 2) 8:39 (15:29)

Mile 3) 9:07 (24:36)

[Half Way: 33:01]

Mile 4) 9:20 (33:56)

Mile 5) 10:16 (44:13)

Mile 6) 9:58 (54:11)

Mile 7) 10:08 (1:04:20)

last .6) 6:00 (1:10:21)

Looking at my splits from last year it looks like I went out essentially the same over the first mile, slowed a bit over the 2nd mile and 3rd mile, was just a few ticks over where I was through halfway last year, had a better 4th mile than last year, slowed again over miles 5, 6, and 7, and then (because of Brandy breathing down my neck) had a faster last .6 to the finish... Essentially my 2nd half of the race was where I fell off pace and that really is no surprise to me at all... I think the goal for next time will be to try to not hit any 10 minute miles and keep the last .6 around 6 minutes or less...that will be the key to a PR. Seems simple enough... ;)

Last year's splits vs this years:

	2008		2009
Mile	Split	Overall	Split	Overall	Tot + - (sec)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
1	6:52		6:49		-3
2	8:32	15:24	8:39	15:29	+5
3	9:04	24:29	9:07	24:36	+7
3.8		32:58		33:01	+3
4	9:23	33:53	9:20	33:56	+3
5	10:06	43:59	10:16	44:13	+14
6	9:52	53:52	9:58	54:11	+19
7	9:58	1:03:51	10:08	1:04:20	+29
7.6	6:14	1:10:06	6:00	1:10:21	+15

The CMS Men's Open team was once again dominant in the team competition, with all 5 scoring members under 1:09 for a total time of 5:38:42... that was nearly 24 minutes faster than the next team (Whirlaway). Last year, the BAA broke CMS' 16 year consecutive win streak...this year CMS once again captured the team title. Unfortunately, with my 23rd place, it was only good enough for 8th place for the CMS men's open team, as we put 2 in the top 10 and 14 in the top 50. It's great to be able to run with this many great runners on the team and experience a team victory in such a prestigious race...I just wish I could have contributed to the scoring... This is only the 2nd time since coming back to running in 2006 that I wasn't able to actually score for my team in a team-scored event (the other being this year's Bedford Rotary 12k)...but I am not complaining...this is what I was looking for and I think it will make me better in the long run... It is now motivating me to work on some things and improve my fitness, strength, and competative edge going forward...

Since moving over to CMS and being around guys who are interested in the same races and who share the same or similar goals, I have really enjoyed running and racing a lot more... No matter what jersey I've donned over the past 2 and 1/2 years and no matter what club I've run for, I've met nothing but great folks and have the utmost respect for everyone I've had the pleasure of running for and with... I feel now that I have the right support and motivation to improve and further my running career and hopefully take it to the next level (which is beat dd at Mount Washington...eventually)...

CMS at the Hill for 2009 (Top 50 Men + CMS in Blue):

Place	Time	Pace	Name	Age	City/State	Team
1	59:58	7:54	Rickey Gates	28	Boulder CO
2	1:01:19	8:04	Eric Blake	30	New Britain CT	BAA
3	1:02:35	8:15	Joseph Gray	25	Lakewood WA	INOV-8
4	1:02:45	8:16	Matthew Byrne	34	Scranton PA
5	1:04:16	8:28	Simon Gutierrez	43	Alamosa CO	TEVA
6	1:05:09	8:35	Jonathan Severy	27	Winooski VT	NYAC
7	1:05:47	8:40	Tommy Manning	33	Colorado Springs CO	NMC
8	1:06:13	8:43	Jason Bryant	36	Elkin NC	LA SPORTIVA
9	1:06:19	8:44	Matthew Russell	26	Boulder CO	CMS
10	1:06:39	8:47	Francis Burdett	44	Worcester MA	CMS
11	1:06:58	8:49	Craig Fram	50	Plaistow NH	WHIRL
12	1:07:44	8:55	Juan Guillermo Jaramillo	38	Milford NH
13	1:08:02	8:58	Shiloh Mielke	29	Weaverville NC
14	1:08:11	8:59	Justin Fyffe	29	E. Dummerston VT	CMS
15	1:08:34	9:02	Eric Morse	44	Berlin VT	CMS
16	1:08:36	9:02	Sean Livingston	40	Barrington RI	WHIRL
17	1:08:38	9:02	John Tribbia	27	Boulder CO	LA SPORTIVA
18	1:08:40	9:03	Daniel Princic	29	Woburn MA	WHIRL
19	1:08:59	9:05	Kevin Tilton	27	North Conway NH	CMS
20	1:09:22	9:08	Dave Dunham	45	Ward Hill MA	CMS
21	1:10:11	9:14	Glen Guillemette	49	Narragansett RI	NARRA
22	1:10:17	9:15	Andy McCarron	26	Lunenburg MA	CMS
23	1:10:22	9:16	Jim Johnson	32	Salem NH	CMS
24	1:11:28	9:25	Ben Nephew	33	Mansfield MA	CMS
25	1:11:47	9:27	Matthew Clark	26	Amherst MA	CMS
26	1:12:08	9:30	Brendan Callahan	27	West Hartford CT	BAA
27	1:13:10	9:38	Henry Scollard	45	Cambridge MA	CRC
28	1:13:39	9:42	Kevin Tuck	53	Salt Lake City UT
29	1:13:51	9:44	Bradford Klinedinst	32	Hudson MA	NB BOSTON
30	1:13:58	9:44	Chad Carr	33	Cambridge MA	CRC
31	1:14:05	9:45	Michael Woodman	43	Timonium MD	CMS
32	1:14:26	9:48	David Quintal	46	Salem NH	CMS
33	1:14:45	9:51	David Herr	44	Canaan VT	GCS
34	1:15:30	9:57	Todd Callaghan	39	Somerville MA	GCS
35	1:15:59	10:00	Andreas Heilmann	24	Brookline MA	BAA
36	1:16:26	10:04	Martin Tighe	51	Providence RI	TNT
37	1:16:33	10:05	Jonathan Healey	26	Chelmsford MA	ADIDAS NE
38	1:16:38	10:05	Brian Crowley	44	Hillsborough NJ
39	1:17:37	10:13	Matthew Curran	52	Gloucester MA	TG
40	1:17:39	10:14	Scott Leslie	27	Rutland MA	CMS
41	1:17:43	10:14	Tim Mahoney	29	Holyoke MA	CMS
42	1:17:47	10:15	Reno Stirrat	55	Dorchester MA	WHIRL
43	1:17:59	10:16	Gregory Nash	34	Boulder CO
44	1:18:43	10:22	Donald Pacher	37	Easthampton MA	WMM
45	1:18:43	10:22	Bernat Olle	30	Cambridge MA	CRC
46	1:19:08	10:25	Bryan Marotta	25	West Chesterfield NH
47	1:19:24	10:27	Bob Evers	58	Park City UT
48	1:19:58	10:32	Adam Bulewich	33	Windsor CT	GSH
49	1:20:15	10:34	Mike Dowling	26	Boston MA	BAA
50	1:20:15	10:34	Warren Angell	46	North Kingstown RI	NARRA
103	1:29:04	11:44	Stephen Peterson	43	Chelmsford MA	CMS
224	1:40:54	13:17	Edward Coleman	46	Auburn MA	CMS
366	1:51:33	14:41	Walter Kuklinski	60	Princeton MA	CMS
437	1:56:55	15:23	John Walsh	42	Worcester MA	CMS

My sister Kristin finished 625th overall (out of 917), was 26th of 50 women in her age group, and was the 140th woman out of 247. She ran 2:01:26 (15:59 pace). I am very proud of her effort and she was overwhelmed with emotion as she plugged her way up the final hill with me jogging along side, giving her encouragement...

The lovely and talented Kristin took some nice photos that can be seen on our SmugMug page.

Mr. Scott Mason (who sent me a couple of the nice photos above) also has some great coverage here.

Race writeups:

Mount Washington Road Race Site

Union Leader

Post race, Jon, Kristin, Brad Klinedinst and I joined Kevin & Jess Tilton, Dave & Cathy Dunham, Dave Quintal, Francis Burdett, and Tim & Abby Mahoney at Margarita Grill for some grub and then it was back to DD's condo at Attitash for a few adult beverages and some good times... Ben Nephew dropped in as well as Al Bernier and the party wrapped up around 10:00pm as we were all pretty beat. In the morning, Brad, Jon, and I met up with Francis, DD, DQ, and Albee for a run up in Bear Notch/Bartlett, NH (in the pouring rain)... Then it was back to the condo for a quick shower, clean up, and we were back on the road (stopping for breakfast and then later at Dunkins before getting back down to Salem NH at around 2pm).

Another year up...another year down... I'll probably get some video from my Dad's camera and I'll post later on... Now on to Cranmore this weekend! Thats all I got!...

Late Update:

I came across these videos tonight...cool stuff. The last one is my favorite... I knew it would pay off to run right in front of the lead woman...check out me 'holding off' Brandy Erholtz above the clouds... there was probably a half mile to go when this was taken... I can be seen peeking back continuously as she was coming on strong...

Mount Washington - Top Finishers Video - 1997-2001

I'll refer to this batch of videos as "The Kenyan Invasion". I put all remaining 5 in this group, as Washington is now only days away... this is my last batch of video clips until I begin work on ripping the real videos (full) after this years race. Featured here are snippets from the years 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2001. Daniel Kihara wins 3 times in a row (for 4 total Washington victories) from 1999-2001. Fram wins in 1997, and breaks the Masters course record in 2001 for a huge payday ($4,100 for Masters record, $300 for finishing 3rd overall, $250 for winning the age graded (WAVA) competition, and $100 for being the top NH finisher). CMS Men's Open won all 5 years (for a total of 10 in a row up until this point). Like 1995 and 1996, the camera angles are great, as it was filmed right on the corner of 'the wall' for the first group of runners. I ripped them onto the computer and labelled each finisher with name, age, place, and time. We'll include the top 10 or so finishers (some will be a little more). The full videos from each year can be purchased here.

(**Once you start playing the video, press the HQ button to enable High Quality playback...Considering this was from a VHS cassette that was a copy of a copy of a copy, it won't be that great as far as quality goes, but it's better than the standard playback quality.)

1997 - Top 10 Finishers

Featured finishers in this video:

Place	Name	Age	City/State	Club	Time
1	Craig Fram	38	Plaistow NH	CMS	1:04:48
2	Eric Morse	32	Montpelier VT	CMS	1:05:38
3	Thomas Borschel	39	Idaho Falls ID	GCS	1:07:09
4	Dan Verrington	34	Bradford MA	CMS	1:08:31
5	Thomas Murdock III	33	Somerville MA	IATC	1:09:26
6	Joel St-Louis	35	Fleurinot PQ CAN		1:09:37
7	Steve Peterson	31	Chelmsford MA	CMS	1:09:52
8	Mike Casner	35	Keene NH	CMS	1:10:03
9	Craig Widness	26	Denver CO		1:10:24
10	Richard Bolt	26	Lunenburg MA	CMS	1:10:34

From dd's book:

June 21, 1997
Saturday
929 Finishers

Conditions for the race were not ideal. It was hot and humid at the start, and the record 929 finshers were met by 55 MPH winds, drizzle, and fog at the summit.

1998 - Top 17 Finishers

Featured finishers in this video:

Place	Name	Age	City/State	Club	Time
1	Matt Carpenter	33	Manitou Springs CO		1:00:24
2	Eric Morse	33	Montpelier VT	CMS	1:02:31
3	Simon Gutierrez	32	Albuquerque NM		1:03:23
4	Dave Dunham	34	Bradford MA	CMS	1:03:38
5	Thierry Icart	29	Le Villaret FRA		1:04:40
6	Tom Borschel	40	Idaho Falls ID	GCS	1:05:42
7	Mike Casner	36	Keene NH	CMS	1:05:48
8	Dan Verrington	35	Bradford MA	CMS	1:07:20
9	Jeremy Wright	24	Laramie WY		1:07:50
10	Spyros Barres	35	Mystic CT	Pfizer	1:09:17
11	Steve Peterson	32	Chelmsford MA	CMS	1:09:41
12	Bob Hodge	42	Clinton MA	CMS	1:09:54
13	Tony Bates	39	Salisbury VT		1:09:59
14	Seth Williams	20	Manomet MA		1:10:02
15	Magdalena Thorsell	33	Albuquerque NM		1:10:09
16	Adam Hersh	26	Hanover NH	CMS	1:10:43
17	Fergus Cullen	26	West Hartford CT	HTC	1:10:51

From dd's book:

June 20, 1998
Saturday
892 Finishers

The weather was mild with temperatures in the 50s and winds of only 5 MPH...

1999 - Top 14 Finishers

Featured finishers in this video:

Place	Name	Age	City/State	Club	Time
1	Daniel Kihara	31	Royersford PA (KEN)		59:03
2	Matt Carpenter	34	Manitou Springs CO		59:16
3	Dave Dunham	35	Bradford MA	CMS	1:00:37
4	Eric Morse	34	Berlin VT	CMS	1:01:09
5	Simon Gutierrez	33	Albuquerque NM	Adidas	1:01:38
6	Joseph Lemay	32	Danbury CT	Adidas	1:03:04
7	Rich Davis	29	Fort Collins CO		1:03:32
8	Thomas Anderson	34	Keene NH	CMS	1:04:36
9	Scott Elliott	35	Boulder CO		1:05:53
10	Richard Bolt	28	Pepperell MA	CMS	1:06:00
11	Fergus Cullen	27	West Hartford CT	GLRR	1:06:22
12	Thomas Murdock III	35	Somerville MA	IATC	1:06:43
13	Edward Sheldon	34	Manchester NH	GCS	1:07:02
14	Stephen Peterson	33	Chelmsford MA	CMS	1:08:22

From dd's book:

June 19, 1999
Saturday
918 Finishers

The 45 degree temperatures coupled with little wind, 90-mile visibility and 70 degree temperaturs at the base set the stage for a fast race...

2000 - Top 11 Finishers

Featured finishers in this video:

Place	Name	Age	City/State	Club	Time
1	Daniel Kihara	32	Royersford PA (KEN)		59:24
2	Joseph Kibor	27	Concord MA		1:00:04
3	Dave Dunham	36	Bradford MA	CMS	1:02:28
4	Eric Morse	35	Berlin VT	CMS	1:04:54
5	Dan Verrington	37	Bradford MA	CMS	1:07:50
6	Mike Casner	38	Keene NH	CMS	1:09:30
7	Fergus Cullen	28	West Hartford CT	GLRR	1:09:58
8	Richard Bolt	29	Manchester NH	CMS	1:10:45
9	Simon Karori	40	Concord MA		1:11:25
10	Stephen Peterson	34	Chelmsford MA	CMS	1:13:35
11	Robert Ratcliffe	42	Lincoln MA		1:14:49

From dd's book:

June 17, 2000
Saturday
891 Finishers

2001 - Top 13 Finishers

Featured finishers in this video:

Place	Name	Age	City/State	Club	Time
1	Daniel Kihara	33	Kenya		1:00:06
2	Dave Dunham	37	Bradford MA	CMS	1:04:20
3	Craig Fram	42	Plaistow NH	WHRIL	1:04:29
4	Eric Morse	36	Berlin VT	CMS	1:05:00
5	Dan Verrington	38	Bradford MA	CMS	1:08:42
6	Larry Sayers	41	Bellows Falls VT	CMS	1:10:43
7	Mike Casner	39	Keene NH	CMS	1:11:13
8	Nick Conway	26	Alplaus NY	Willow Street AC	1:11:15
9	Fergus Cullen	29	Laconia NH	CMS	1:11:21
10	Michael Woodman	35	Timonium MD		1:12:07
11	Jeff Day	30	Berea OH		1:12:22
12	Stephen Peterson	35	Chelmsford MA	CMS	1:12:33
13	Anna Pichrtova	27	Waynesboro VA		1:12:22

From dd's book:

June 16, 2001
Saturday
897 Finishers

Temperatures on race day set the tone as it was in the 80s at the base and the summit reached 56 degrees. Winds on the top were 50 MPH and at times the visibility was down to thirty feet.

2009 Market Square Day 10K

Sunday was once again up to Market Square in Portsmouth, NH for the 3rd race in the 2009 Seacoast Road Race Series. This was my third Market Square Day 10k (results) and it didn't disappoint. I love this race and the festival that follows.

Kristin and I picked up Chico in Haverhill, MA at 7:15 and arrived up in Portsmouth by 8am. To me, this exact day and race is why I lace them up day in and day out...I'd like to think that most everyone out there who races or runs even somewhat competitively every now and then, has one of these days or events in which they think about most of the year and look forward to more than anything else...this is it for me. I sacrificed running in dd's Northfield Mountain Race this weekend to head back up and give this race another go. It is something about the race, the course, the city, the atmosphere, and just plain being there that brings me back now, year after year.

After getting our numbers and doing a quick change, I was off to do my warm up, slightly later than I would have liked. I also had to wait in line for the bathroom, which pushed my warm up time back even further and forced me to go only 2 miles instead of 3. But just as the race was about to start I was fortunately focused and calmed down as I spotted Scott Rowe (2:29 '06 Boston / 2:27 '07 Manchester Marathons) who has been right behind me at Redhook and in front of me this year at Alton Bay. I also saw Seacoast Road Race Series leader John Mentzor and B.A.A.'s Pat Moulton right before the race started. As soon as I picked Pat out of the crowd (and didn't see any of the NY Kenyans who sometimes make the trip up) I knew how at least the very front of the race would pan out... Even if I had seen last year's winner milling around before the race, I still would have put Pat right up in front for sure.

As the gun went off, it was evident that it would be a pretty hot one out there and I was concerned that I hadn't properly hydrated over the course of the last 24hrs. I felt sluggish and tight on the warm up and quickly felt some signs of dehydration as I sprinted out behind Pat and another fast starter over the course of the first half minute or so.... Almost immediately I settled (after the first 200 or so meters) into 3rd place along side and then right in front of Scott Rowe and behind Pat and John. There I stayed for the entire race, essentially never more than 10 or 15 seconds behind John, but never really reeling him in either. I think I ran somewhat content in 3rd place and truthfully thought of just trying to finish in the money. Never would I have imagined that I would be able to finish in the top 3 and believed that my 4th place squeak-out last year would be my best finish.... Before 5k, I knew that barring disaster, I was going to at least hold 3rd, as I occasionally peeked back around some of the turns through the nice residential sections of Portsmouth. I built up a pretty substantial lead on Scott and didn't really notice by the end that he had been overtaken by Bob Wiles (Kittery ME). I took water at every water stop but one (and there seemed to be quite a few for a 10k). I almost never take water unless the race is 10+ miles and most of the time it's usually just to splash over my head or in my face. I mainly splashed it over me and took in very little, as I was more concerned at that point with my body overheating out there in the 82-83 degree weather at race time. In the end, I really feel pretty good about this one and ran pretty strong and even (for me) the entire race. I finished in 3rd place (one better than last year), and set my 30+ PR in the 10k of 32:45...I also finished 'in the money' for the first time here and was very pleased to have done so at this historic and typically very competitive race.

Splits for 10K : 32:45 (5:17 pace) - 3rd of 1665

Mile 1) 5:04

Mile 2) 5:14 (10:19)

Mile 3) 5:12 (15:32)

Mile 4) 5:35 (21:07)

Mile 5) 5:12 (26:22)

Mile 6) 5:18 (31:41)

last .2) 1:03 (32:44)

5ks : 16:17 / 16:28

It was also very nice that my friend Chico tagged along and ran in his 4th road race ever (4th this year) and his 3rd Seacoast series race. He finished in 56:45 (9:08 pace) in his first ever 10k. That was good enough for 829th place of 1665, once again beating more than half the field. After I was done with my race, I backtracked a little on the course and ran the last mile or so, into the finish with him...It was fun to run along side and offer support and motivation and great to see him be able to run the entire thing, on a pretty hot day. My parents once again made the trip down and were there cheering us on, and Kristin took some very nice shots of the race as usual. One unfortunate note was near the very end, when two trailered boats somehow made their way onto the last street and got in her way as she tried to get Pat as he was coming into the finish...other than that, the photos are great and can be seen in the usual spot.

The race writeup (Fosters) can be seen here.

Next up is the 49th annual Mount Washington Road Race in the White Mountains of NH this coming weekend. I'll be heading up on Friday afternoon and it should hopefully be another fantastic day with family and friends on 'the hill'.

Pictured to the left is your humble narrator, my Mom & Dad, and the lovely & talented Kristin.

Mount Washington - Top Finishers Video - 1994-1996

I'll refer to this batch of videos as "The CMS Dynasty". Featured here are snippets from the years 1994, 1995, and 1996. CMS Men's Open won all 3 years and set team records in 1995 and 1996 (as they also did previously in '93 and then again in '99 and 2005). 1994 is pretty uneventful but 1995 and 1996 are two of my favorite ones because the camera views get interesting as the videographer gets down closer to the wall for some of the top guys, and the battles up front are intense... The 'Fram' days of CMS... Also back when Morse wore a singlet... In the 1995 video, 17 year old Seth Williams finishes in style with his Footlocker Nationals singlet on... good stuff. DD loaned me a video he made, of the top 10 or so finishers from each year, and with race director Bob Teschek's permission, I ripped them onto the computer and labelled each finisher with name, age, place, and time. We'll include the top 10 or so finishers (some will be a little more). The full videos from each year can be purchased here.

(**Once you start playing the video, press the HQ button to enable High Quality playback...Considering this was from a VHS cassette that was a copy of a copy of a copy, it won't be that great as far as quality goes, but it's better than the standard playback quality.)

1994 - Top 13 Finishers

Featured finishers in this video:

Place	Name	Age	City/State	Club	Time
1	Dave Dunham	30	Londonderry NH	CMS	1:03:12
2	Neji Makhlouf	31	TUN		1:05:07
3	Abraham Limo	32	KEN		1:05:48
4	Mike Casner	32	Keene NH	CMS	1:06:26
5	Robert Ratcliffe	32	Cambridge MA		1:06:35
6	Eric Morse	29	Moretown VT	CMS	1:07:12
7	Scott Clark	28	Gilmanton NH	CMS	1:07:40
8	Daniel Kithuka	20	KEN		1:08:03
9	Karl Meltzer Jr.	26	Salt Lake City UT		1:08:45
10	Jim Garcia	35	Westford MA	CMS	1:09:57
11	Keith Woodward	43	East Corinth VT		1:10:03
12	Chuck Smead	42	Mosca CO		1:11:13
13	Steve Peterson	28	Hopkinton MA	CMS	1:11:32

From dd's book:

June 18, 1994
Saturday
884 Finishers

Hot weather was the theme for this edition of the race, with swealtering temperatures approaching 90 at the base and a near record 66 at the top. There was little wind to cool the runners in the 87% humidity...

1995 - Top 21 Finishers

Featured finishers in this video:

Place	Name	Age	City/State	Club	Time
1	Gideon Mutisya	28	Amsterdam NY (KEN)		1:01:42
2	Craig Fram	36	Hampstead NH	CMS	1:03:20
3	Dave Dunham	31	Londonderry NH	CMS	1:03:20
4	Eric Morse	30	Moretown VT	CMS	1:03:37
5	Eddy Hellebuyck	34	Albuquerque NM		1:04:49
6	Andy Ames	32	Boulder CO		1:05:16
7	Bob Ratcliffe	37	Cambridge MA		1:05:29
8	Robert Pierce	34	Alfred ME		1:06:44
9	Matthew Cull	34	Manchester Ctr. VT		1:06:55
10	Scott Clark	29	Gilmanton NH	CMS	1:07:00
11	Seth McClennen	23	Norwich CT		1:07:08
12	Thomas Murdock III	31	Somerville MA		1:07:12
13	Mike Casner	33	Keene NH	CMS	1:08:40
14	Keith Woodward	44	East Corinth VT		1:09:05
15	Jim Garcia	36	Westford MA	CMS	1:09:13
16	Karl Meltzer	27	Salt Lake City UT		1:09:28
17	Bob Hodge	39	Clinton MA		1:10:03
18	Rick Stuart	37	Phoenix AZ		1:10:34
19	Lachlan Campbell	22	Groton CT		1:10:55
20	Stephen Peterson	29	Lowell MA	CMS	1:11:01
21	Seth Williams	17	Manomet MA		1:11:10

From dd's book:

June 17, 1995
Saturday
929 Finishers

...just a bit breezy...

1996 - Top 11 Finishers

Featured finishers in this video:

Place	Name	Age	City/State	Club	Time
1	Daniel Kihara	28	Norristown PA (KEN)		58:21
2	Dave Dunham	32	Bradford MA	CMS	1:02:24
3	Eric Morse	31	Moretown VT	CMS	1:03:46
4	Craig Fram	37	Plaistow NH	CMS	1:04:22
5	Robert Ratcliffe	38	Auburndale MA		1:05:13
6	Dan Verrington	33	Bradford MA	CMS	1:05:43
7	Andy Ames	33	Boulder CO		1:05:48
8	Mike Casner	34	Marlow NH	CMS	1:08:00
9	Thomas Murdock III	32	Somerville MA		1:08:05
10	Kip Kemboi Kimeli	29	Albuquerque NM		1:08:52
11	Stephen Peterson	30	Chelmsford MA	CMS	1:08:59

From dd's book:

June 15, 1996
Saturday
911 Finishers

Temperatures were in the seventies at the base and fifties at the summit as 911 lined up for the annual race up the auto road...

2009 Mount Washington Top 50 Rankings / Seedings

DD has finished ranking his top 50 Men for the 2009 Mount Washington Road Race. I initially helped w/ sifting through the latest entrants lists and picking out runners who we thought would have the best chance at a top 50 finish. Having said that, dd's predictions (linked below) have 28 runners under 1:10. That includes 6 guys who have NEVER run Mt Washington before. They are the hardest to predict as the best prediction for Mt Washington is what you've done in the past at Mt Washington. We researched Athlinks and Googled people, but sometimes it is really hard to find any info.

DD's disclaimer:

'Please don't take offense at what I may have predicted for you (or if you don't appear on the rankings). This is all in good fun and for amusement purposes only. I would not recommend using this to make your picks in the "pool" as I have NEVER won the pool. If nothing else it gives you some sort of an idea of who is who.

Good luck to everyone racing up "the" Hill.'

- dd (self-proclaimed New England mountain running historian)'

2009 Mt. Washington Road Race Predictions/Seedings - Top 50 Men

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