Mt. Washington Road Race

This Saturday I had the pleasure of doing the Mount Washington Road Race -- 7.6 miles and 5,000 feet up the auto road. It was strange to race it, since failure to aggressively pace yourself early on could spell doom for the rest of the race. I started a little back in the pack and took it really easy for the first 2-3 miles, mainly just concentrating on following people who seemed to be pacing themselves well. After the fourth or fifth of them suddenly started walking, I started pushing a little harder and kept moving up through about mile 5 or so. There's a part(aptly named "The Wall") where you go around a curve in the road and discover that the grade has gone from about 12% to 20%. I power-walked up it and passed a bunch of people who were trying to jog. From about mile 6 onward, the altitude and fatigue really started getting to me. I kept on trying to surge, but would only make a few steps before getting pushed back to my original pace.

I ended up finishing in 1:22:32, which was about 5 minutes earlier than I'd been hoping for. I don't think I could have hoped for a better first race -- I pushed as hard as I could have without having done the course before. My dad was at the finish line with some warm clothes and a ride down, which was awesome. Since there was a bit of a wait before they let cars go down, I drank my customary post-workout chocolate milk and took a nap in the car. All in all, it was a fabulous race and a definite highlight of this year's racing season. I haven't been able to find any photos yet, although I imagine they'll end up looking either half-dead or very angry.