Mt. Washington Road Race - Spectator Report

Saturday morning dawned early as I was meeting Jeff, Cacky, Mindy and Pete at 6am in Gray to drive up for the Mt. Washington Road Race. Snowman was already up at the mountain, so he got to sleep in a bit! As I drove south, the clouds began to lift, and I had high hopes that perhaps the nasty weather we'd been having was abating and it would actually be nice up on the mountain. A girl can dream, right?!

As we drove through North Conway, we could see the summit in the clear, but the mountain itself was ringed with clouds. Pretty cool, actually. Pete, Cacky and I dropped off Mindy and Jeff with Snowman, said our goodbyes and good lucks, and headed up the mountain. Luckily Pete was ok with driving, as neither Cacky nor I were super excited about driving up the road. We were in the fog/clouds/mist for most of the drive but as we neared the 5000 foot marker, the sun was trying to break through, and amazingly enough it still was clear up at the summit, and we had some pretty neat views out over what looked like a sea of clouds below, with the fog rolling in and out over the other mountaintops. It was in the 50s, it was sunny, there was no wind. Excellent!



We headed out for a short hike around the summit area, enjoying the views and the flowers. Below is pregnant photo #2, with me at 23 weeks 3 days, out enjoying the day with Pete and Cacky.



We didn't do anything too ambitious as we wanted to get back to the finish line to see the winners, and to get a good spot to cheer on the Trail Monsters. The last 1/4 mile of the course is the toughest grade, and we sat so we would have a view of everyone making the final push up around the corner to the finish line. There were lots of people doing the same, and it was a fun atmosphere, cheering and listening to the announcer and the music as people began to come across the line.

Jeff did awesome, finishing in just over 1:25, as did Mindy, in 1:42:25. Excellent races you guys and yeah Trail Monsters! I was hoping that Mindy and Snowman would be running right around each other, but Mindy said she had passed him around mile 4 and he wasn't feeling so great. I started to get pretty nervous as the minutes ticked by. Where was he?! Then he rounded the corner and pushed up to the finish, passing a number of people on the final turn. Final time: 1:51:35. Slower than last year but still a good finish. I grabbed his bag and headed up to the line, worried at what I would find. But he seemed OK, just saying that he didn't have much capacity for suffering left in him after the 50k and hadn't had his head in the game. This is a tough race even if you are focused on it, and even tougher, I would think, if you aren't mentally prepared for it. It just wasn't his day. But still, he toughed it out and finished, and now he can say he ran up the mountain twice :-) I'd say that's pretty good!



After a quick photo at the summit, we headed down the mountain, had a quick snack under the tent, and headed (after a brief work-related delay on Snowman's part) to Moat to enjoy some beer and good food! An awesome day on the rockpile :-)

More photos of the day here.