Green's Grant, NH
Saturday, June 10, 2023
Interesting historical note: Unincorporated township Green's Grant was a grant of land in 1774 from the governor of the British colony of New Hampshire to a French and Indian War lieutenant by the name of Francis Green.
This race had been on my radar for some time. I had run some of these trails at Great Glen Trails before, and it was interesting that there was a trail race comprising three distinct loops and a water crossing. Matthew and I had come up the night prior and camped at Bear Brook State Park. It had rained the previous afternoon, but for today the rain had held off thus far, but not for much longer today.
I had brought several shoe options and considering how everything was wet, I opted for my VJ Spark shoes, as they would be the grippiest in the wet weather. Also went with my feetures Elite Ultra Light socks, as their tagline is blister free.
I was pretty unimpressed by the RD who during race remarks initially said our first loop would be on a red marked loop, but then recanted and said something like no, let me check with someone that really knows what's going on. That person came on the scene and it confirmed, yes, red is the first loop. Didn't exactly exude confidence, but I did look at the trail map (below) beforehand and we also saw the course splits on our warm-up.
Loop 1: A light rain was falling as 67 runners toed the start line at 10am. 35 of us were running the 10-mile race, 25 the 3-mile race, and 7 in a 3-person 10-mile relay. Loops 1 and 3 are on the other side of the road (Route 16) and we cross under the road via a tunnel. About a half-mile in, I passed the lead woman to move into 7th place. I looked ahead and saw Matthew for the last time, in 3rd place just behind two leaders. About this time the rain intensified and was coming down pretty hard.
I had a fast Mile 1 at 6:42, partly because a slight downhill, but mostly because it was on manicured double-track. About a mile in, I caught up to the kid in 6th place. Seemed like age 15 or so. Each time I caught him, he would surge ahead, and then we would repeat the sequence. This isn't my first rodeo and in my experience this always ends poorly for the person (often a teenager) surging. Such was the case here as well. After four of these surges, he was done and I finally went past him with ease.
Ahead of me were two guys running side-by-side, one in a blue shirt and another in a yellow. I slowly caught up to the two of them, and on a slight uphill, I went past yellow guy and for the remainder of Loop 1, it was blue guy, then me, then yellow guy, all pretty close together. As we closed out Loop 1, I remember thinking I came all the way up to Great Glen to run easy, mostly flat and manicured trail loops? But that would soon change ...
Loop 2: The second loop winds behind the race start and Great Glen building, and then climbs 400'. It was runnable, but uphills are not my forte, and this would be my slowest mile at 9:34. At the base of the muddy hill climb, I remember thinking this is where I would get dropped and wouldn't see these two guys again. I did get dropped by blue guy, but yellow guy didn't even pass me. Hmm. At the top of the hill climb, we made a hard left more than 90 degrees, so I glanced back. Yellow guy not even in sight, but a guy in neon green is right on my tail. Where did he come from?
What goes up must go down, and we spent most of the next mile (Mile 5) going 400' back downhill at an average grade of 8%. I didn't think I'd see blue guy again, but halfway down the hill, I caught and passed him! This would be my fastest mile at 6:28. Luckily I refrained from celebrating, as next would be a short uphill, only about 50', but enough for blue guy to catch and re-pass me. And next someone comes right up on me and blows past me. I figured this was green guy finally catching up again, but no, this guy is in orange. And where did he come from? Will everyone pass me? Orange guy is quickly long gone, but I keep blue guy in sight as we come back to the start/finish to end Loop 2.
Loop 3: OK, one to go. We enter the tunnel to get to the other side of the road, continue on manicured dirt roads for a bit, and then split off to the final loop (yellow marked). The first mile of this loop is easy and flat, and then we head uphill on some pretty muddy double-track. Green guy does catch up to me here and passes me. I watch him pass blue guy as well on a climb, and it isn't long before both of them and gone and out of sight. Sigh.
Continuing the gradual climb all alone now, after a couple more turns, I spy a woman ahead of me. What the heck? It's not that I think that a woman can't run faster than me and be ahead of me (many can and do), but it's that I was pretty sure I had already passed the lead woman back in Mile 1 and I knew exactly who was ahead of me (the two male leaders, Matthew, orange guy, green guy, and blue guy). I gradually reeled in and passed the woman and was alone again as I finished my hill climb.
Cresting the hill, two things came to mind: I had less than two miles to go and with most of it downhill, and we still that river crossing that they promised in Loop 3. I was hoping the river crossing would be close to the finish so that we could go back to it as part of a cool-down. I enjoyed the long downhill, and towards the end of it, I saw blue guy again! I gradually gained on him, and passed him just as the hill was leveling out. My downhill advantage is now gone, and I know I need to give it all I have now and I'm not confident that will be enough to outlast him. He's clearly much younger than me and not in my age group, but it's good to have someone to push me. We enter a short, twisty, single-track section and then exit onto a big field where the Mt Washington Road Race starts.
At the end of the field, I can finally see the river crossing ahead. Yay! The river is boulder strewn and swift moving, but probably only calf deep. There is a rope on the right side of the river, but I just wing it, ignore the rope, and splash my way through the river as fast as I can. As I enter the river, I see green guy ahead of me having just exited the river! That gives me even more incentive to push. Exiting the river, there is a steep "wall" that is the steepest terrain on the course. To be clear, it's only about 30' high, but just is very steep and unexpected. I'm within feet of green guy here, but it's misleading as that's only because he has already made it up the "wall". After the wall, it's manicured gravel back through the tunnel and to the finish line as I chase green guy and finish 14 seconds behind him, but a full 24 seconds ahead of blue guy.
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| Very cool river crossing. --- NOTE: This pic is from Matthew during re-staged crossing post race, and at request of race videographer (crouching behind my right shoulder) |
Final results: 1:11:24, 5th overall out of 35. Full results here.
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| Start and finish of race |
I was surprised to learn I was 5th and not 6th. It turned out that orange guy (that blew past me in Loop 2) was part of a relay team and not running the full 10-mile race, so that me feel better. And he handed off to the woman I passed in Loop 3, solving that mystery for me as well.
My race went well, and I'm happy with my results, along with the fun conditions out there in the rain and mud. After the cooldown the rain stopped and the sun actually came out for a little while.
What I liked about this race:
- Ample parking close to the start.
- Quick and easy check-in.
- Beautiful area (at base of Mount Washington Auto Road).
- Sufficiently marked. Not excellent, but enough that I had never concerns.
- Three separate and distinct loops, each with its own flavor.
What I didn't care for:
- Very small field size. Not the race organization's fault. Or is it? Couldn't this be marketed better? (Note: I got lucky as I almost always within sight of someone, but it could have easily gone the other way, as the top three guys were seven minutes ahead of us, and the next guy after my little pack of 3 was ten minutes behind us.)
- No age group awards. I don't go to races for awards, but I just like the competition being age-graded for me to have something to shoot for and be able to gauge my projected time and results.
- Limited info in results. No age or hometown.
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