This weekend I participated in the final mountain race in
the New England series that I’ll be doing this year. The Loon mountain race is by far the most
difficult race of the entire series, it is flat out brutal. When registering the course map that was
displayed on a screen said there was a 26% average grade from what I remember
and it definitely felt like that. The
real kicker in this race though is the infamous upper walking boss which boasts
a ridiculous 40% grade over 1000 meter.
Did I mention this course is brutal? Typically the race drops down again
after the boss and then climbs up to the gondola for the finish. This year due to the race being the women’s
US mountain team qualifier the race finished at the top of upper walking
boss.
On the women’s side the race was stacked with some super
tough ladies vying for the coveted team spots.
They race went out quick for them and they hammered up the
mountain. From the start though the team
seemed to be some what decided, at least from what I could tell from the photos.
A huge congratulation’s to the four women who made the team this year. Morgan Arritola, Melody Fairchild, Brandy
Erholtz, and Stevie Kremer.
Going into the race I wasn’t nervous but intimidated after
reading the course description on the race website. Add to that that the past week of training
was basically nothing with a 10 mile day Tuesday, 7.5 on Friday, and 5 on Sunday. Definitely not the kind of week that builds
confidence that you’ll race well. With
that in mind I just went for it. The
race went out stupid fast with people blasting away out of the dirt parking lot
the race started in to the start of the climbing. Once the course started climbing it there
were really only 3 spots that didn’t climb.
After the half mile there was a mellow down hill then around mile 3
there was a flattish single digit grade section, and finally as you pass the
gondola there was a super steep downhill that mellowed out as carried us to the
start of the boss. Other than these
sections it was climbing the whole 5 brutal miles up hill. Up to mile 3 I was
feeling great in this race spreading my energy well. After that it all ended the final 2 miles
absolutely destroyed me. Mile 4 was hard
climbing up grassy ski slopes. The start
of five had that brutal drop off from the gondola and the downhill stretch
which sufficiently beat up my legs before making the turn onto the walking
boss. Not having seen the upper walking boss
before the moment all I could muster was “holy sh@#”. Then the climb began. 1000 meters of power hiking and attempting to
run up a wall. When I finally finished
it was official this WAS the hardest race I have ever run. With that said I can’t complain about the
outcome. With a pitiful week of training
prior to the race and no experience on an all up hill race I mustered out a 15th
place finish in sub 50min. Would I have preferred
a faster time? You bet, but I’ll take what I can, and come back next year much
better prepared for the series as a whole with much more climbing in my
training.
This was another great race in the series with great
organization and tons of prizes and raffle for all the participants. The amount
of stuff being given away after the race was amazing with a Gopro hero 2 being
raffled off, and then local food, tee shirts, hats, trail running books, gift
certificates, water bottles and probably many other items being given away
through race number drawings. I came in
15th and walked away from this race with a Scott water bottle as an
entry gift, then got drawn in a give away receiving a t- shirt, reusable metal
water bottle, and a free pair of Scott running shoes of my pick which I can’t
wait to test out. All in all this was a
great last race for my New England mountain series. There is still Ascutney left so if you
interested sign up and try it out.
