Saturday night, we picked up our numbers and headed over to The Shed Brewery for dinner and some beers. The beers were decent but not great and the food was expensive for what you get. A vegetarian quesadilla for 18 dollars seems a bit steep and it wasn't that big either. Towards the end of dinner, the waitress came over to the table and informed us that there was a police DUI checkpoint set up down the road so we let the non-drinkers drive back to the house. Turns out the police were set up right in front of our house! After the checkpoint broke up, we picked up a few six packs and sat down to watch the 2009 video of Mt Washington road race, good stuff. You might be able to tell that we weren't taking the race too seriously considering all the beers.
First off were the walkers, then an hour later go the mountain bikers followed ten minutes later by the runners. I started off with John P., just behind Jackie and Chris J. I started off real conservative seeing that the uphill started right away. I figured to run with John Peabody as far as possible, but John wasn't coming along, so i had to go it alone. The course is a mixture of steep climbs and a few flats or near flat sections to give you a chance to catch your breath. The road is also dirt, but in really good condition. I chugged along at 12 min. or so pace for much of the race, mixing in slow running and power walking, this seemed to work well for me. Once the temperature started to drop near the top, i felt even better, not that i was going any faster, just more comfortable with the pain. By half way, we were passing mountain bikers on the road. I just can't imagine riding my bike up a road like this, last week i was riding up some of the jeep trails around Mt Toby and the quad burn was intense. I passed bikers on my power walks, they were peddling and going nowhere. I finished up in 54.40 at 97th place. Not too bad for where my fitness level is right now. This summer has seen too many little setbacks, you miss a week here and 10 days there, so there isn't any forward progress. I think that is behind me now, or at least i hope so. I ran down the mountain after the race and could actually walk this morning, unlike Mt Ascutney six weeks ago. I guess that is a sign of progress.
As a group, the Turtles did well, Jackie Jackman placed 4th woman overall and first in 30-39. Martin Tighe won the 50-59 group and Bob Jackman was 3rd in 20-29.Overall, the race was won by Jim Johnson (35.30) and Kasie Enman (40.12) New course records for both.
Eric Morse finished second.
All in all, this is a nice race. Organization was very good. The only gripes i have are with the post race. If you go to the effort to do big post race free barbecue, you might want include something to drink too. Bottled water, soda, juice, something. In this case, you had to stand in a long line at the bar to get an overpriced can of soda after waiting in a long line for food. The other thing is the award ceremony. At the start, we were told that awards were at 12.30, the entry form said 1pm. In all actuality, 1.45 they finally got underway. There was a huge raffle with some real nice stuff, but considering that we had a 4 1/2 hour drive in front of us, there was no way we were hanging that long. Chip timing was nice, so can't you get things going faster?
For a report on the goings on up front in the race, see Jim Johnsons blog.
Later
Scott
