Loon Mountain Race – US Mountain Running Championships

Loon Mountain
photo by Gianina Lindsay / snapAcidotic

Dave Dunham let me to crash with him, Tim Van Orden, and Jamie Woolsey the night before the race, saving me from a multiple hour drive the morning of the race (to and from). I ran a warm up with the team, did my thing in the woods, as the group turned around and headed back to the lodge at Loon Mountain for the 8am men’s start. As a ran back, I saw Ed Sheldon running funny, leaned over, slowly, with two others keeping him company. The company looked as concerned as I was puzzled. As I caught up, I asked what is going on, thinking the worst, that Ed hurt his back? With the sun directly in his line of sight, he hit his head on a sign a few minutes earlier near the entrance to the condos. He had 1 inch cut and blood to make you wonder if he would even bother racing 15 minutes later. I gave him my toilet paper and he applied it on the wound to stop and clean the blood. We were back at the lodge in minutes as he went inside to clean up. I went back to my car to get my racing gear on. Five minutes later, I ran over to the start to find Ed all cleaned up, with a bandage, ready to go. I would not see him again until 2.5 miles into the race. Tough guy for sure!

It was great to see all of the CMS runners at the start of the race. The went off quick and I seemed to be buried behind 100 runners in no time as we climbed the dirt road in the US Mountain Running Championships. No surprise. We had some downhill mixed in the early miles to break up the 3100 ft of ascent to the top of Loon and the Upper Walking Boss. I settled into my race pace in the first few miles, passing a few tactically to ensure I had good visibility in the shaded trails. I passed William Jackson after two miles and set my sights on Ed Sheldon who was running pretty well considering what happened earlier. I got by him on one of the climbs. I grinded up all the hills, passed a few men in the process, noting who had a 40-44 age group bib on the back. The 2^nd half of the 6.3 mile race was in the open sun and it was getting warmer. I would say however, conditions for air quality (no humidity) and temps were perfect. The miles went by quickly for me despite the hard effort climbing and occasional downhill. I took it easy going down the hill to the Upper Walking Boss on purpose. 

Then I came upon UWB with a timing company table and equipment right there to time the segment going up. Pretty funny actually to see how slow or fast you are against the race after the fact.

I tried to take little steps, big steps, side steps, run, jog, hike, walk, et cetera. I found no comfort or relief from the fight with 30% grades up. It was steep and tricky enough in a few sections to get on all fours to ensure you got up the rough patch. I got passed by teammates Dan Verrington and William Jackson (hiked by with his long stride) over the next 11 minutes up. Although the course line was straight up, I was wobbly at best, legs weak, just trying to stand up and keep going up and not fall over. Chris Smith went by too earlier but he was close enough at the top with 200m to go that I got motivated to get out of hike mode and run the last of UWB. I made it up and could hear people at the finish line. I reached the line in 1:05:08. If you add in the women’s times, this placed me 87^th overall. I seemed to have placed 4^th within my 40-44 age group. Here are the fullresults.

CMS ended up getting 1^st place in the men’s open, masters, and senior divisions. The women picked up gold in the open and silver in the masters. Several picked up age division win’s outright such as Dave Dunham (top 50-54) and Todd Callaghan (top 45-49). They were followed by other teammates as the Seniors swept with Dave, Erik Vandendries, and Jeff Hunt going 1-3. Tim Van Orden was the 2^nd 45-49 runner.

Here are my splits per mile to give you an idea of what this race is all about. You can tell where the climbing was.

US Mountain Running Championship - Loon Mountain

KrissyK photos of the men’s race

Loon Mountain Men’s race results

The skinny:

53^rd place

Time: 1:03:36.7

First time I had to walk: 39 minutes

I walked/hiked 90% of upper walking boss

Loon Mountain was hosting the 2014 US Mountain Running Championships and I had the day open so I committed to it. CMS was going to have plenty of guys there and I had to get them some gear so I was a man on a mission. I have some history at Loon and each time I get to Upper Walking Boss, I curse it. A 40% grade will do that to a sane person, trust me. The course was changed this year with more cross country early on which I loved. There was mud, elevation changes, flats, and more importantly, shade. The serious climbing was all in the 2^nd half of the race. Even in the 2^nd half, there is a little bit of down hill to break up the pain. 

I was doing pretty good, passing folks, slowly, on the climbs and caught up to Ethan Nedeau before the descent to Upper Walking Boss. However, I drove that descent with no aggression and he put 20 seconds on me. I checked out a bit while allowing the legs to recover from the ascent before. I collapsed to a crawl and started the hike and walk up the ‘boss as did most ahead of me. It seemed acceptable and running seemed useless as either effort gained the same distance (not entirely true but my legs fell for it). About eight guys passed me on the way up and I did not care too much about it. I don’t mean that negatively. I was in a world of suffering and walk or run, it was tough. Ask anyone who did it. The top of Upper Walking Boss did come quicker than I remember in the past. That was a good thing. Looking back down on the ‘boss gave me a 2 second sense of accomplishment but I still had to crest the top and finish it up. I was completely on empty on this one folks. I won’t lie. 1:03 and 36 seconds. 

On the way down to find the Upper Walking Boss
Photo by KrissyK

The scenery all around – surrounded by mountains on a clear sunny day was absolutely worth it. I met up with CMS teammates for some chat, photos, and a slow jog to the Gondola with Arthur Besse with whom I talked into doing such the race 18 hours earlier. He handled himself just fine helping the masters team take the win. The CMS men’s open and senior teams also took team wins! Good stuff. I caught Krissy who was wrapping up her photo session of the day for a nice Gondola ride down. I soaked the legs in the ice cold river. It was ice cold and won’t lie that I refused to take that for more than a minute on the legs. We went back to check out the awards and get a bagel before heading out for a traffic filled ride home. I am glad I went and was very happy and proud to see the guys run so well at Loon. 

Loon Mountain report

I have read and heard that some runners think that Loon Mountain is the toughest race in the mountain series. It may have the steepest section (it is called upper walking boss for a reason) we'll encounter but my judge of the toughest race is how I feel Monday morning. I felt a lot better this Monday than I did last Monday following Cranmore.

I warmed up with the CMS crew and Patrick Ard from Whirlaway who was running his first mountain race. I ran past Ted Breen and Brad Kozel from GBTC as I approached the parking lot. I gave Ted advice earlier in the week on what to wear for footwear as this was his first mountain race too. Aside from that, everyone who ran at Cranmore a week earlier all shared the same sore muscle stories that lasted most of the week. Glad that I was not the only one. I still put in a heavy week of miles. The race got off to a late start but only after Paul Kirsch made sure that all folks who were seeking Mountain Goat Status were members of USATF before the race started.

Abdeltif Faker jumped out to a quick start. He had a long stride and looked like a ringer aside from cutting his running pants into uneven length shorts. I've seen or heard worse. Dennis Floyd told me he got beat by a Greater Lowell Road Runner in cut-offs (jeans cut into shorts) in a local 5K over 10 years ago. I am not fashion expert myself so I will leave it at that.

I rolled with the race in the early going. Todd Callaghan and Dave Dunham passed me early on. I noted how good Dave looked working the ascents. The word chisel came to mind during the race watching Dave motor up the hills. He took off and I just tried to stay close to Todd Callaghan. I was successful at that until the downhill toward "upper walking boss" which is as steep as it will get for us this summer.

This bit seems to go on forever. I looked up and saw the race in front of me (10 guys in total), but they were already at it for minutes. Tivo and Todd were side-stepping in some of their climb. The kid in front of me was walking and pulling away (no news there). I was not comfortable at all walking, but did some. I felt it was easier to run, if you call it that. My steps were so small but I found a rhythm. I ran by Scott Mason (check out his photos) who was taking photos about 2/3 of the way up and he gave words of encouragement. I looked back on a switch back. I saw Kasie Enman not too far. That sighting kept me honest, not to walk anymore and get to the top. In all honesty, this upper walking boss climb did not seem as long as it did two years ago. The young kid in front of m, 17 year old Adam Pachek, was too far ahead for me to catch on the downhill. My form was a mess and I still babied down it, feeling he was unreachable with only a few minutes of race left. I tore into the last uphill and into the finish to cheers from Kristen and then into the finish line where co-race director Paul Kirsch stood. 52:52 for 11th place. It felt so nice to be done with the race.

There was nothing I did during the race that I would change if I did it over again. A quick check of my prior result here in 2007 showed that I ran 52:28 or 24 seconds quicker then. However, I know I busted the downhills harder there and walked more up the walking boss section in 2007. After getting my new CMS threads on (it was windy and a bit chilly for July), drinking some Heed, I flagged Todd down and into the Gondola ride down to the base. Mats Lemberger (formerly of Dartmouth) who finished two spots in front of me joined us for the ride down. We had a nice view. I looked down a few times and could see some flagging on the course that Dave, Tivo, and company patiently set up in 2 hours and 59 minutes the day before.

I was shocked to see Joe Shairs and family at the ski lodge who were passing through. Joe looked cold in short sleeves (it was windy at the base as well) so I sent him off with a CMS jacket that I had in the Gti. The family was heading off to the Flume Gorge only a few miles away. I proceeded cool down for a couple easy miles. I bonked hard about 10 minutes from the parking lot. I walked it in and had a granola bar that must have been in my running bag for six months. It tasted so good. I just needed some nourishment and fluids. I walked into the post race gathering ready to kill for food. It could of gotten ugly but fortunately there were plenty of bagels and crunchy peanut butter for everyone. An hour later, Kristen and I broke bread with Ted and Brad in Lincoln for sandwiches before sitting in some nasty traffic on Rt. 93. Good times for sure.

Cheers to DoubleJ for his first Mountain Race win. He earned it. Dave Dunham, 1st master, ran a solid race. Tivo and Todd Callaghan held his own as well, admitting a light week of training after the race. Tim Mahoney was right behind me and is sure to race well at Ascutney Mountain in Windsor, VT this Sunday. The check is in the mail so I will be there. I am looking forward to the change in the course which will have some trail in the 2nd half and we race to the summit.

Oh and will someone please elaborate on "there is no safeword at Loon Mountain?"