Loon Mountain Race
In signing up for this race, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I knew it was running up a ski mountain in NH, but I figured my enjoyment of hills would suit me fine. I decided to throw it into the beginning of my marathon training because it would give me the opportunity to go up to NH and that great state has a special place in my heart. My family has a house in Silver Lake, which is about an hour away from Loon. I spent my summers up there and that is where a ton of my preseason work was done for fall cross country. So not only was I able to get a mountain run in, I could go spend some time at the house with my parents relaxing.
Fast forward to a few days before. I start exploring the actual course map, elevation, etc. I got a hilly run in a few days before up some larger hills and I was feeling confident the race wouldn’t hurt too bad. I started seeing things on Upper Walking Boss, the final 1000m stretch before the finish…. good thing I didn’t watch the video on the website prior to the race, I highly recommend you give it a watch. At this point, I had no idea what to expect or what my expectations should be, so I began to get a little nervous. Ashley came up the night before and that helped me forget about the race for a little bit. We had a great dinner at Max’s Restaurant – check out the view from that below!
Ok, race morning is here! I had my normal pre-race breakfast of bagel with some peanut butter, threw some blueberries on top, had some banana and was ready. Drank a bunch of water and SOS and off we went to the mountain. Because the was a USATF Championship race, they had the men and women separate. This served as the US championships, College Mountain Championships, and the NACAC (north america, central america, Caribbean ) Championships. Whew that’s a lot. In looking at the times from the previous year, I felt like I had a pretty good shot to run decently well.
The race started at 9:15 on a gravel road. We thankfully were shaded the majority of the race, because there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The temperature was fine and no humidity, so perfect weather for me coming up from the swampy south. The start was quicker than I anticipated. When I saw the times from the previous year were over 10min per mile pace, and that was only the winner, I thought it would be slow moving from the get-go. It wasn’t. First mile was some rolling hills (152 feet gained) and I went through in 7:58. Uh-oh… but I was just trying to stay with the pack, there were at least 40-50 people that went out faster than that. Knowing what the average time ends up being, I got a little worried I would pay for it later. Oh well, time to roll with it.
Miles 2 and 3 were more what I was thinking. Mile 2 was spent mostly on a trail with some steep climbs and mile 3 you popped back out on some grass. Still feeling pretty good, but gained 180 and 242 for each of those miles (10:29, 10:14)… I thought here we go. After a pretty steep climb at the end of 3, we had some descent. I knew from looking at the map, this was pretty much it for the descent the rest of the race. 75 total feet climbed and dropped down to a 9:53 for mile 4. I’m still thinking to myself, this is gonna get bad, my average time is still way too low….
At this point we come out of the shade and really start going up. It’s so demoralizing to be running along, and you can see ahead, and the runners come to a walk. So you know its coming. A sign on mile 5 let me know that it was only a 20% grade! Super! Grand! At this point I am walking, others are walking and I know the grade of the UWB is over 40… wonderful. Still, I persisted, I knew that soon we would be passing the gondola and water – and the fans. My parents and Ashley would be there to cheer me on before the final push. Ashley actually didn’t take the gondola up, so she knew what I was going to get hit with before I hit it. Mile 5 had 532 feet of elevation gain and I went through that in 16:42.
It was right before 6 you crest again. People were cheering, I think I said to my parents as I passed this was the hardest thing I have ever run. You have a little downhill and flat to collect yourself, because the big boy is coming. 411 feet climbed and 13:37 for that mile. Look at that negative split! Then you see it, the bottom of the hill, you see up and you see all the people walking, almost crawling to the top.
They have a mat at the bottom to time how long it takes for you to get from the bottom to the finish line. Keep in mind its 6 miles. Immediately my legs started burning. So awful and you just look up knowing you have at least 10 minutes of this… at least…. I knew I couldn’t stop because it was so steep, I was afraid I would fall back. When it got near impossible, I turned around and walked backwards to give my muscles a break for a bit. The view wasn’t so bad either. I hate to admit that my time was so slow here, it took me over 14 minutes to go this stretch. I was passed by 5 women and maybe passed 1 if that. I realized that it doesn’t matter how much you save, this is going to suck. I think in the future, you really have to push on the earlier miles and then just deal with the pain later.
Finally you get to the top, it’s amazing. No other way to describe it. People are cheering, you see the finish line, F yeah! Take it all in. At first I was shocked at how difficult that ended up being. Then I realized I didn’t know why I was shocked, it was a black diamond that you usually ski down. And not everyone can even ski black diamonds because they are too hard! So I chugged some water and Ashley and I headed down to the gondola to meet my parents. Ashley came up to the finish from the gondola, which is pretty steep, so most just stay at the gondola.
Place wise, I expected better for myself. Last year my time would have been around 15. There were definitely way more women this year and the course changes a bit from year to year, but still, at first I felt a bit disappointed in myself. Then I realized that I should be pretty damn proud. That was like nothing I have done and I definitely don’t have mountains like that to train on. I ran up a mile (Kennesaw Mountain) and then did 11 miles on hilly terrain. That was a walk in the park. I know I’ll do it again. I will definitely have to add in Kennesaw mountain more, and after a run when you are dead tired, go run back up it. That’s the only think I can think of that can come close to simulating this. A treadmill doesn’t come near the grade, so that won’t work, ha.