Lincoln, NH
Sunday, July 7, 2019
Happy post: This writing, for a change, is going to be a happy and upbeat blog post! Because for today, I am pain-free and have near total mobility in my limbs! (Yes, that's because of a temporary high dosage of prednisone, but let's relish the present.) Because my attempt to complete the mountains series remains viable. Because this will be my 3rd time running up Loon Mountain. Because it's a well organized event in a beautiful location. Because it's a feeling of accomplishment to have conquered the mountain and look down over the beautiful views of mountain ranges. Because I feel alive!
Early rise: The alarm went off in Westerly, RI at 4am. Hit the snooze button but once, and then promptly got up at 4:09am. Why exactly snooze alarms are almost universally set at exactly nine minute intervals is one of the greatest perplexing mysteries of the universe. But I digress. With what little I needed having already been laid out the night before, I was on the road by 4:25am.
Easy drive: It's so rare and wonderful to have no traffic slowdowns at all. I even drove right through Boston on I-93, because for once Google Maps showed that a quicker route northbound on I-93 than I-95. I was originally on track for and hoped to watch the start of the women's race at 8am, but after stops for gas, food, and bathroom, I missed that opportunity and pulled into Loon Mountain Resort just minutes after 8am. Took my time making my way over to the now familiar Governor's Lodge to pick up my bib, as the men's race start is at 9:15am. Upon reaching the other registration, ran into confusion over two Jeff Walkers, and was told that Maine Jeff Walker had asked the registration personnel to relay a message for me to take it easy on him today! The truth is that I have only ever beaten him once in a race, and the terrain was much different (Exeter Trail Race). I certainly wasn't going to be remotely close to him today, but I appreciated his humility and gesture.
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| Boston may be ranked the 10th worst US city for traffic, but this morning it is clear sailing! |
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| Nice bibs as usual. (Photo of last year's US mountain champ winner and trail master, Joe Gray) |
The start: After an easy warm-up, and catching up with Steve Brightman, I got myself lined up. I stuck to my simple goals of 1) finish the race, and 2) have fun. To help the odds of success and to ensure I went out easy, I lined up smack dab in the middle of the field. Once the race started, it was apparent to me that the downside to my mid-packer approach was that I was stuck in a crowded field (523 men finished) with limited opportunities to pass. I told myself to just relax and go with it. After about 1/2 mile, the logjam cleared and I was able to pass with ease whenever I needed to for the remainder of the race.
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| A beautiful sunny day today. |
Mid-packer observations: With the disclaimer that none of the following bullets should be construed in any way as pompous and those that know me well will often find me cheering just as vigorously for the person who finished last as first, I'm usually in the top 10% - 20% in any given race and my self-selected mid-packer position today put me in a position to take some interesting mental notes on the participants around me. At the risk of painting too broad of a brush, and again with no intention of disrespect, here are some observations that I found unusual relative to my two previous LMRs:
- Some people start walking as early as 1/4 mile in (just past the lodge where the old starting line was, on the first significant incline).
- Can't believe how many wear headphones! And physically carry a cell phone or music device! While racing up a mountain?! This despite the LMR headphone policy of "The use of personal music devices is strongly discouraged at this race. To enjoy all that our race has to offer and for the safety of all participants, acidotic RACING, LLC encourages a headphone-free environment during the running of the Loon Mountain Race.".
- Wearing cotton underwear (or to a lesser extent any underwear to me, but yeah that's probably TMI) in a warm and muggy mountain race has just got to be very uncomfortable, sweaty, and chafing. (No, I wasn't checking out guys' underwear, but with a few shirtless guys with droopy shorts in front of me, it was kind of in my face.)
- Once we were on the only real "trail" section to me, I was astounded by how many ran weird inefficient back-and-forth across-the-trail trajectories in an apparent effort to avoid any wet ground at any cost. I suppose that's their prerogative to a point, until they cut me off, as not surprisingly, I'm generally running a relatively straight tangent even if that means I have to run through muck or step through a stream.
Reaching Aid Station 2 at the gondola summit, I got water and heard my name called, but didn't realize until I was pulling away that it was Leslie handing me water. Thanks Leslie! Post summit, the race end is near, with about 1/2 mile of sharp downhill on Haulback before starting the punishing 40%+ climb up Upper Walking Boss. Ran into a lot of women here, and it took me a bit to figure this was the tail end of the women's race. I don't remember UWB being as excruciating as before, so I can only guess that being my 3rd time, I was better mentally prepared? It's an uphill finish but with all the cheering and finish line in sight, I managed to break into a slow but sure jog across the line. Done!
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| Passing a couple of runners just before the finish line. |
Great day out there. I didn't know if I would be running 1 1/2 hours, but even with my slowdown, I still finished in 1:15.
Final results: 1:15:32. Full results here.
Four down in the mountain race series, two to go. Next up is Greylock on Labor Day weekend. Good, time to get healthy.
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