scoolover
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 24, 2006
- Messages
- 1,386
A few months ago I asked for some help with some hill training and someone expressed some interest in hearing a report. The report is long and boring and the pictures are so-so but here it is.
It is no secret that I was nervous about this race. I have done two Goofy Challanges and completed them both and I have had a 404 day running streak which was tough but neither made me as up tight as the race up Mt. Washington did. I realized that after two and a half hours of running up the mountain, my fears and worries were warranted. This is not a race to take lightly and thank goodness that the weather cooperated because I was not prepared if it didn't.
In the weeks leading up to the race, I was hampered by some injuries. The big one was gout in my left big toe. I also was dealing with a tight left hamstring that would twinge on occation. By race time both felt alright and I didn't figure that either would factor in the race. What I didn't figure on factoring in the race was the big puddle that I stepped in about 10 minutes before the cannon fired.
One odd thing about this race is the fact that you have to arrange for a ride down from the top of the mountain after you finish. Luckily, my wife was going and she would be my ride, however, we would need tabs from two other runners that we would be bringing down after the race. This was tough for me as I am an introvert. I like to go to a race, hang by myself, perhaps chat quickly with those around me but to arrange to bring people down is just beyond my comfort zone. I posted on line about having two spots avalible and by the next morning we had two text messages and two riders. That made some apprehension disappear.
As we were on our way one of our people texted that they had a ride from someone else and didn't need ours. Whatever, but now we needed someone else and were an hour from the packet pick up. As I was there looking up my bib number at the race site, I turned around to see Bruce. Bruce is one of my local running buddies. We run many of the same races and usually we are at a similar pace and because of that, we talk a lot as we run. As luck would have it he needed a ride because his wife was sick and could not make the trip. How odd to drive 4.5 hours to a race and see someone from home who arrived at the same exact time. Problem solved.
The race started at 9am. All cars had to go up the mountain by 8:30am. At about 8am, my wife and two kids headed up the hill and she could do her own report about the drive up. It's not for the faint of heart. Bruce and I sat around waiting for the start and because it was raining pretty hard we really didn't leave the dryness of the tent. At about 8:45 we went to get in the line for the porto potty. It was long so we headed for the woods. That was where I stepped in the puddle and even though I attempted to pull my foot out quickly, it was too late. My left foot was pretty much soaked.
The start is actually on a down hill. It is down hill for about 100 yards and then it,s flat for about .2 of a mile before it starts climbing. I would say that I ran probably half a mile before taking my first walk break. This race is mostly mental but obviously you need some good cardio. In order of importance I would say 1. mental toughness 2. Cardio and 3. leg strength and I would add a fourth of core strength.
The actual meat of this race report is kind of lame. It is a 7.6 mile race at 12% grade that raises over 4500 feet from base to summit. For me, it was horrible. I would have rather spent 2.5 hours in child support court (which is about the worst thing I can think of). At about a half mile into the race my heart rate was pegged at about 175-180. The grade never gets easy and every time I turned a corner it was the same or worse. The mental part was hard. I can honestly say that one major reason that I finished was that if I didn't finish then I would have to go back some time and do it again and I had no intention of ever doing that horrible race again. (Sarcasm alert) - You know what was great though was when I got to about the three mile mark and the DJ pointed up to an area about 1500 feet above us just to let us know that we only had about two miles until we were there. After that just 2.5 to go! Whooo!!! One guy said that we were just a corner from half way which actually did energize me a bit. About ten minutes later I passed the half way sign and was kind of pissed that the guy lied a bit. He looked so credible and said that he had done the race before.
As is usually the case when I do a race longer than an hour, I had stomach issues. Around mile 4.5 I knew that the trees were going to become scarce and seeing no porto potties, I hit the woods. After 5-6 minutes, I emerged a new man. Literally across the road was a rest area with a potty kind of hidden in the back corner. I didn't see it until I was about 1000 feet above it. The worst part of the race was probably a spot called Mother-in-law's drop. It was a long stretch of road that you can see probably 3/4 of a mile. You can actually see that the grade for the entire length never lessens. Again, you just have to stay mentally tough knowing that it will never get easier until you hit the finish line. That is when the pain will stop and the only time the pain will stop.
By mile 6 my wet left foot was starting to blister. I could feel a hot spot forming right on the ball of my foot. It hurt but really didn't factor into the race. That was also about the time that I started encountering runners who had finished and were now running down the hill. It actually didn't annoy me nearly as much as it does in regular races. I asked two guys how long until mile 7 and with my dry throat, they had no idea what I said and responded with plesantries. I passed the mile 7 marker about 200 yards later. The sight of their medals was another help to make it to the finish.
When I was finally about 100 yards from the finish, I muttered something like, "you have to be f-ing kidding me". What lay ahead of me was was a wall of 22%. I knew it was comming and had seen pictures and utube videos but standing there in front of it was another thing. Along with the wall were a few hundred people and at least 3 of them were cheering which was nice. The rest of them were waiting for the officials to open the road to head down.
Anyway, I beat that 22% wall on dead legs and I beat the mountain. I crossed the finish at about 2:35 which was 5 minutes slower than my best guess. Here is the funny thing about this race though; I think that if I trained as well as I could and was in great shape, I may have finished 10 minutes quicker but I don't think I could have done much better. At the finish line were my wife and kids and Bruce and Andy. That made me feel really good. We got a fleece throw to keep warm and I got my medal. After taking some pictures and loading up the car, we headed back down the hill with me driving. My legs cramped up pretty badly and had to swich drivers with about two miles to go.
Here are some other tidbits:
-The post race meal was a full Thanksgiving meal with the turkey carved right on the spot.
-I probably stopped 10 times in the last two miles just to catch my breath.
-I walked most of the race. When I would run, it took so long to catch my breath after that it wasn't worth the effort.
-The temp at the top was about 45degrees. The start was probably 60.
-The next day we went back up. the base was 70 degrees. The summit was 29 with 70mph winds. That was why I was not prepared if the weather did not cooperate.
-I will NEVER do this race again.
-If I ever do this race again I will have to be 30 pounds lighter. From 260 to 230.
-My wife will never drive the mountain again.
-I didn't exactly tell her about the 1000' dropoffs.
-I was very confident that she would be fine.
-I fought a descison of wether or not to bring my camera during the run.
-There was a good chance that if I did bring my camera it would have gotten thrown over a cliff.
It is no secret that I was nervous about this race. I have done two Goofy Challanges and completed them both and I have had a 404 day running streak which was tough but neither made me as up tight as the race up Mt. Washington did. I realized that after two and a half hours of running up the mountain, my fears and worries were warranted. This is not a race to take lightly and thank goodness that the weather cooperated because I was not prepared if it didn't.
In the weeks leading up to the race, I was hampered by some injuries. The big one was gout in my left big toe. I also was dealing with a tight left hamstring that would twinge on occation. By race time both felt alright and I didn't figure that either would factor in the race. What I didn't figure on factoring in the race was the big puddle that I stepped in about 10 minutes before the cannon fired.
One odd thing about this race is the fact that you have to arrange for a ride down from the top of the mountain after you finish. Luckily, my wife was going and she would be my ride, however, we would need tabs from two other runners that we would be bringing down after the race. This was tough for me as I am an introvert. I like to go to a race, hang by myself, perhaps chat quickly with those around me but to arrange to bring people down is just beyond my comfort zone. I posted on line about having two spots avalible and by the next morning we had two text messages and two riders. That made some apprehension disappear.
As we were on our way one of our people texted that they had a ride from someone else and didn't need ours. Whatever, but now we needed someone else and were an hour from the packet pick up. As I was there looking up my bib number at the race site, I turned around to see Bruce. Bruce is one of my local running buddies. We run many of the same races and usually we are at a similar pace and because of that, we talk a lot as we run. As luck would have it he needed a ride because his wife was sick and could not make the trip. How odd to drive 4.5 hours to a race and see someone from home who arrived at the same exact time. Problem solved.
The race started at 9am. All cars had to go up the mountain by 8:30am. At about 8am, my wife and two kids headed up the hill and she could do her own report about the drive up. It's not for the faint of heart. Bruce and I sat around waiting for the start and because it was raining pretty hard we really didn't leave the dryness of the tent. At about 8:45 we went to get in the line for the porto potty. It was long so we headed for the woods. That was where I stepped in the puddle and even though I attempted to pull my foot out quickly, it was too late. My left foot was pretty much soaked.
The start is actually on a down hill. It is down hill for about 100 yards and then it,s flat for about .2 of a mile before it starts climbing. I would say that I ran probably half a mile before taking my first walk break. This race is mostly mental but obviously you need some good cardio. In order of importance I would say 1. mental toughness 2. Cardio and 3. leg strength and I would add a fourth of core strength.
The actual meat of this race report is kind of lame. It is a 7.6 mile race at 12% grade that raises over 4500 feet from base to summit. For me, it was horrible. I would have rather spent 2.5 hours in child support court (which is about the worst thing I can think of). At about a half mile into the race my heart rate was pegged at about 175-180. The grade never gets easy and every time I turned a corner it was the same or worse. The mental part was hard. I can honestly say that one major reason that I finished was that if I didn't finish then I would have to go back some time and do it again and I had no intention of ever doing that horrible race again. (Sarcasm alert) - You know what was great though was when I got to about the three mile mark and the DJ pointed up to an area about 1500 feet above us just to let us know that we only had about two miles until we were there. After that just 2.5 to go! Whooo!!! One guy said that we were just a corner from half way which actually did energize me a bit. About ten minutes later I passed the half way sign and was kind of pissed that the guy lied a bit. He looked so credible and said that he had done the race before.
As is usually the case when I do a race longer than an hour, I had stomach issues. Around mile 4.5 I knew that the trees were going to become scarce and seeing no porto potties, I hit the woods. After 5-6 minutes, I emerged a new man. Literally across the road was a rest area with a potty kind of hidden in the back corner. I didn't see it until I was about 1000 feet above it. The worst part of the race was probably a spot called Mother-in-law's drop. It was a long stretch of road that you can see probably 3/4 of a mile. You can actually see that the grade for the entire length never lessens. Again, you just have to stay mentally tough knowing that it will never get easier until you hit the finish line. That is when the pain will stop and the only time the pain will stop.
By mile 6 my wet left foot was starting to blister. I could feel a hot spot forming right on the ball of my foot. It hurt but really didn't factor into the race. That was also about the time that I started encountering runners who had finished and were now running down the hill. It actually didn't annoy me nearly as much as it does in regular races. I asked two guys how long until mile 7 and with my dry throat, they had no idea what I said and responded with plesantries. I passed the mile 7 marker about 200 yards later. The sight of their medals was another help to make it to the finish.
When I was finally about 100 yards from the finish, I muttered something like, "you have to be f-ing kidding me". What lay ahead of me was was a wall of 22%. I knew it was comming and had seen pictures and utube videos but standing there in front of it was another thing. Along with the wall were a few hundred people and at least 3 of them were cheering which was nice. The rest of them were waiting for the officials to open the road to head down.
Anyway, I beat that 22% wall on dead legs and I beat the mountain. I crossed the finish at about 2:35 which was 5 minutes slower than my best guess. Here is the funny thing about this race though; I think that if I trained as well as I could and was in great shape, I may have finished 10 minutes quicker but I don't think I could have done much better. At the finish line were my wife and kids and Bruce and Andy. That made me feel really good. We got a fleece throw to keep warm and I got my medal. After taking some pictures and loading up the car, we headed back down the hill with me driving. My legs cramped up pretty badly and had to swich drivers with about two miles to go.
Here are some other tidbits:
-The post race meal was a full Thanksgiving meal with the turkey carved right on the spot.
-I probably stopped 10 times in the last two miles just to catch my breath.
-I walked most of the race. When I would run, it took so long to catch my breath after that it wasn't worth the effort.
-The temp at the top was about 45degrees. The start was probably 60.
-The next day we went back up. the base was 70 degrees. The summit was 29 with 70mph winds. That was why I was not prepared if the weather did not cooperate.
-I will NEVER do this race again.
-If I ever do this race again I will have to be 30 pounds lighter. From 260 to 230.
-My wife will never drive the mountain again.
-I didn't exactly tell her about the 1000' dropoffs.
-I was very confident that she would be fine.
-I fought a descison of wether or not to bring my camera during the run.
-There was a good chance that if I did bring my camera it would have gotten thrown over a cliff.
