Wachusett Mountain Road Race - 3 miles

 Ah, the Saturday before Memorial Day. Sunny and moist in Princeton, MA. Good temps, enough to sweat on a short warm up. I had the CMS singlet on for this being a CMS hosted race. Today's challenge was to get to the top, about 2,000 feet on the elevation scale. I was one of about a quarter of the race who chose to race up only, not up and then down. These leg's are not was they used to be. The field was one of the biggest per Kim Gordon, race director. Steve Laska got the race and heart rates going at 9:30. I found "sustain" gear right away. No choice really. 9:14 passed at the 1 mile. Krissy got video beyond that mile on a rare flat spot. I come into view around 3:18. 

Mile two slowed down to a 9:34. At this point some were doing the run, walk and recovery method. I kept my head down and kept moving forward. I tried to push in the last mile to close a gap between teammate, Paul Bazanchuk and I but he held me off. Another teammate pulled beside me, David Lapierre with 200M to go! I was wasted but held Dave off, barely at our finish. 28:15 was the time. Place is unknown but was 69th to go through that check point (all runners got clocked at the top). I collected Dave and Paul to jog down. Dave wanted to take another route than the course and Paul got back into the race and sprinted after an age-grouper. I managed to hold 8 minute miles down. Overall, good day, over 7 miles covered. 3 Mile Results 10K results

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.