Ben's Mt. Washington and Mt. Greylock 2005
In case you haven’t noticed, I tend to write race stories only after races where I run well. If I stayed true to this tendency, I would not be writing a race story for Mt. Washington 2005. The thing is, sometimes it’s more interesting to hear about when things go bad during a race. People say that running a slow time is more difficult than having a great race, and this was very true for my trek up The Mountain this year. I had an idea about writing a race story as a conversation between my mind and my body, and since mountain running represents the greatest struggle between mind and body, I thought it would be a fitting format for Mt. Washington.
Mind (M): Why does everyone think I’m nuts for not wearing a shirt? Don’t they know the specific heat of water, and how effective a wet singlet is at pulling heat out of you?
Body (B): Listen for the cannon, you useless blob of grey matter.
M: I think Paul got caught off guard there, let him by.
B: Where is everyone? We really aren’t running that fast, I’m not even breathing that hard.
M: Sometime a taper actually helps, you know.
B: I assume they are going to pick it up at some point.
M: Simon just looked around and I think him and Paul are taking off.
B: Well it was nice while it lasted; I’ll stick with this pace.
M: Sounds like a good idea. There goes Carpenter and Blake. They let Paul and Simon get a bit of a lead, but it’s still early. Don’t push to stay with Kevin and Peter; we can pick it up after halfway if things feel good. About 6:30 at 0.9 miles.
B: That’s about right, but the quads are hurting. I shouldn’t be losing this much ground to those guys. I thought this was going to be a good day…
M: Just run your own race. Hopefully this is just a bad patch, or they are going out too fast. This feels steeper than it should. Nice horse sounds, Dan. The outside observer would thing you are giving me a hard time, but I’m sure you can see I’m struggling and are trying to get me going.
B: I can hang with Dan, I’m feeling better.
M: Doesn’t look that way from up here. What’s going in with your legs? This is hurting too much this early in the race.
B: You’re right; I’m going to end up walking if I keep this up.
M: We should be able to do this. 9 minutes for the second mile is not good. Great, there go Anna and Melissa, try to hang with them, I think this is close to our pace.
B: Left right left right left right….
M: They are pulling away, get back up with them.
B: The steep sections are killing me, this is all I have today.
M: There goes Dunham, this is not good. I hope this at least means he is having a good race. With the women dueling like that, I’m sure they are on 1:10 pace or better. Only Dave could run a 1:10 with the training he’s been doing. Freak.
B: It still be a short walk down, this isn’t going to be pretty.
M: I’ve heard enough from you, take your beating like a man, you useless pile of mitochondria!
B: Ok, I’ll try to hang on to Dave. I’m feeling a bit better, halfway in 34:00 is not good, but this flatter stretch is helping.
M: Reel him in.
B: I can hardly lift my legs on these steep grades, what is going on?
M: Just keep Dave in sight, and keep running.
B: Maybe we would both feel better if we walked a bit.
M: If you start walking, I’ll jump out of your skull and crawl on my cerebellum!
B: Fine, go for it.
M: You can take this, just keep your stride short and find your rhythm.
B: I can’t believe how slow I am going; walking might be faster at this point.
M: No surprise seeing Sean Livingston go by, he always does well in the second half, but Tim? When is the last time you’ve been beaten by Dave Herr? None of these guys beat us last year, and the training has been going well lately. I thought you were in shape for a 1:06 -1:07? That’s what I was ready to run.
B: Sometimes it just doesn’t work out, you just have to keep me going uphill, I really want to stop.
M: I’ll keep trying to get you to pick up the pace whenever you feel a bit better; maybe we can salvage a 1:10.
B: I hate this 4.5 to 5.5 mile stretch. Get me off this devil machine!
M: Just make it that corner, it doesn’t go on forever.
B: Could have fooled me.
M: I really hope those women are on 1:08 pace.
B: If that were the case, this should feel like 1:09 pace. We both know that is a lie. Even the lungs are getting exhausted at this point. If I breathe any faster, I’m going to hyperventilate.
M: We both know this race is about suffering from bottom to top. Remember how the quads fail at end of 7 Sisters, Blackhead in the Escarpment, cranking the treadmill down to 7:30 pace after an hour at 12.5% grade, the main ski slope at Blue Hills? We’ve been there, we can take this.
B: That ski slope sure is nasty. Why do I feel so bad while going this slow?
M: There’s no point in worrying about that now, we need to focus on making the best out of what we have today…
B: I’m sorry I’m letting you down.
M: I’d be upset if you were holding back, but that’s not the case. Let’s go get Dave.
B: Maybe my mileage will pay off in this last 1.6m.
M: You’re going to have to work hard to catch Dave. Things can’t get much worse, it’s worth a shot.
B: That last quarter mile went well, but now I feel like I’m going to fall over.
M: It would just be nice to be running somewhere near Dan or Greg. It’s a perfect day for mountain running, barely any wind at all. I figured that a bad day would be last year’s 1:09 in the 50 mph winds. This is a disaster. This mountain is killing me.
B: In case you haven’t noticed, I’m running out of steam.
M: You’ll make it, we’ve been through worse. You can suck it up for a mile more.
B: Ok, I’ll give it one more shot at going after Dave at mile 7. Great, the calves are starting to go now.
M: What the heck are flooding me with?
B: 100% pure Mt. Washington lactic acid. You asked for it.
M: Ohhhhh, that burns the grey matter!
B: Mile 7, here we go!
M: Must ….override…..muscle failure….
B: %$@#%$#&^$^$
M: Keep…..running……
B: For the LOVE of GOD, make the bad man STOP!!!!!
M: Must….ignore….body…….
B: Too steep….can’t go on…
M: Left…right……left………..right……
B: Can’t run straight…..left leg not functional….
M: Straight for the finish…..stay on the mountain……
B (more of a corpse than at this point): STOP NOW!!!
M: That was awful…..need oxygen.
B: I can’t move.
M: I hope no one is behind us, I can’t even think straight.
B: OK, let’s crawl out of the chute.
M: There’s Dave heading to the top. I don’t deserve to climb up.
B: I’m sorry I failed you.
M: We did our best, sometimes it is just less than we expect. It just wasn’t our day.
I would like to thank the CMS team for a great time on Friday before the
race. Mt. Washington is more than a race, it’s an experience. Although my race
didn’t go as well as I would have liked, I still enjoyed my trip up north. It was awesome seeing so many CMS men have incredible races. Hopefully next year, we can contribute a winner that is more local. Blake and Low had a good run at the front, and it sounds like Paul fought through a bit of a rough patch in the second half of the race. It is great to see Eric, Dan, and Dave running so well, Dave especially. Hopefully we can get another ten years out of them before putting them out to pasture, or to the stud farm, perhaps. In addition to Blake, Kevin and Peter represent the young guns at the Mountain, and next year should be interesting. Kevin probably knows this, but his father is extremely proud of him, and rightfully so. I know this because I rode down the mountain with Mr. Tilton. It’s a nice thing to see, especially the day before Father’s Day. Rich has been a team stalwart all spring, and it’s amazing to think that he didn’t even score for the team with a 1:07. I guess I should just be happy that I wasn’t passed by Petey and Woody, as they battled all the way up the hill. Congratulations to all on their races, it was quite an impressive team performance.
Greylock 2005
My poor performance at Mt. Washington made me second guess my decision to run up and down the highest mountain in Massachusetts. I finally decided to give it a shot, and drove down to Adams to camp out. Before I called it a night, I read an account of Lance Armstrong’s 2004 Tour de France win. He was beaten badly in stage 12, but came back the next day to crush his rivals in stage 13. It made for a good story.
I lined up against two formidable foes the next morning exactly 24 hours after starting up Mt. Washington. Elijah Barret and Greg Hammett had beaten me to top of Mt. Monadnock a few weeks ago, on that day I was relatively fresh. I got a good start and lead into the first overgrown singletrack trail with my competitors right on my shoulder. As soon as we got to a carriage road, they soon passed me and began to pull away. I hung on as best I could, and after a couple minutes Elijah began to slow. I passed him and went after Greg, who was a few seconds ahead. Greg ran strong for a while, but slowed on an uphill hairpin turn, and I eased back into the lead. He stuck with me for a while, then began to slip back after about 15 minutes of running. The trail, which climbs 2400 ft to the 3500 ft top of Mt. Greylock in about 3 miles, got quite steep in the middle, and there was a lot hiking involved. I kept the pressure on in an attempt to get a lead before the 11 mile downhill to the finish. I was impressed with Elijah and Greg’s downhill running at the Monadnock race, and was worried about being able to stay with them on the extremely fast downhills.
Greg managed to keep me in his sights on the way down until he lost his shoe in a mud hole. He got it back on quickly and only lost about 20 seconds. I ran the downhills as fast as I could and added another 10-20 seconds on to my lead over the next couple miles. However, there were some confusing markings at one intersection, and I ended up going down the wrong trail and losing my entire lead. We figured out where to go, and I passed him once again and put the pressure on. Greg was right on my shoulder for the next 1.5 miles. Everyone 1-2 minutes, it seemed like he was about to pass me, but never got by, even though we were on a wide open carriage road. I gained a few steps on some tight downhill hairpin turns (thanks to my Inov-8's, which kept me upright the entire race), and when the course turned onto singletrack, I threw myself down the tight, twisting trail. This late race charge over the last two miles gave me a 1 minute win over Greg, with Elijah another 7 minutes back. Although typically second place would not be all that bad, it usually takes several wins to capture the overall title for the Grand Tree trail racing series, and I will probably need this Greylock win with Greg running so well.
The two races back to back was pretty tough, but if you are only as good as your last race, I don't have to worry about my poor performance at Mt. Washington any longer.
