Mt Washington Race Report.

The full report with pictures is on this page.  It is on post 73 which is at the bottom of the page.
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=41553065#post41553 065

Here is an excerpt:
The start is actually on a down hill. It is down hill for about 100 yards and then it,s flat for about .2 of a mile before it starts climbing. I would say that I ran probably half a mile before taking my first walk break. This race is mostly mental but obviously you need some good cardio. In order of importance I would say 1. mental toughness 2. Cardio and 3. leg strength and I would add a fourth of core strength.

The actual meat of this race report is kind of lame. It is a 7.6 mile race at 12% grade that raises over 4500 feet from base to summit. For me, it was horrible. I would have rather spent 2.5 hours in child support court (which is about the worst thing I can think of). At about a half mile into the race my heart rate was pegged at about 175-180. The grade never gets easy and every time I turned a corner it was the same or worse. The mental part was hard. I can honestly say that one major reason that I finished was that if I didn't finish then I would have to go back some time and do it again and I had no intention of ever doing that horrible race again. (Sarcasm alert) - You know what was great though was when I got to about the three mile mark and the DJ pointed up to an area about 1500 feet above us just to let us know that we only had about two miles until we were there. After that just 2.5 to go! Whooo!!! One guy said that we were just a corner from half way which actually did energize me a bit. About ten minutes later I passed the half way sign and was kind of pissed that the guy lied a bit. He looked so credible and said that he had done the race before.

As is usually the case when I do a race longer than an hour, I had stomach issues. Around mile 4.5 I knew that the trees were going to become scarce and seeing no porto potties, I hit the woods. After 5-6 minutes, I emerged a new man. Literally across the road was a rest area with a potty kind of hidden in the back corner. I didn't see it until I was about 1000 feet above it. The worst part of the race was probably a spot called Mother-in-law's drop. It was a long stretch of road that you can see probably 3/4 of a mile. You can actually see that the grade for the entire length never lessens. Again, you just have to stay mentally tough knowing that it will never get easier until you hit the finish line. That is when the pain will stop and the only time the pain will stop.

By mile 6 my wet left foot was starting to blister. I could feel a hot spot forming right on the ball of my foot. It hurt but really didn't factor into the race. That was also about the time that I started encountering runners who had finished and were now running down the hill. It actually didn't annoy me nearly as much as it does in regular races. I asked two guys how long until mile 7 and with my dry throat, they had no idea what I said and responded with plesantries. I passed the mile 7 marker about 200 yards later. The sight of their medals was another help to make it to the finish.

When I was finally about 100 yards from the finish, I muttered something like, "you have to be f-ing kidding me". What lay ahead of me was was a wall of 22%. I knew it was comming and had seen pictures and utube videos but standing there in front of it was another thing. Along with the wall were a few hundred people and at least 3 of them were cheering which was nice. The rest of them were waiting for the officials to open the road to head down.

Wow! First question was why would anyone want to do that??? It sounds so incredibly hard. But at least you can say you did it! Congratulations. I'm so impressed. And the pics are great. I love your kids with their signs. They are adorable!
Congrats!
Jan

Thanks.  Glad it's out of the way.  I guess the why would be because it was the toughest race that I could realistically think of.  In a way it was harder than the Goofy.

Insanity reigns! Glad you made it to the top. Not sure it's one of the races that I need to put on my bucket list. I like hills, but much shorter...

man, that just sounds brutal!  congrats for having the stones to sign up, train, and finish.  i liked your "tidbits" at the end of your post, it included some mixed signals :)

-I will NEVER do this race again.
-If I ever do this race again I will have to be 30 pounds lighter. From 260 to 230.

I have learned that this game has no absolutes.  After my first marathon I said never again.  I was signed up for the goofy a week later and ran another marathon three weeks after that.  I have no intention of doing this race any time soon. ...but you never know.  Registration starts in 9 months.  ;)

Scott,

What a warrior you are!!
Great job and a great report.
"Never" Yeah right!

Darrell

Dang Scott, that sounded brutal. I think you are crazy for having set it as a goal and I think your an animal for having complete it.  I enjoyed reading your full race report and then going back and reading some of your past ones.  Very entertaining, thanks for sharing.