Running Up Mt. Washington 6-17-06

The sun was already beating down on us relentlessy at the 10am start, but shortly after the starting cannon was fired, the heat wasn't the only obstacle. With an average grade of 11.5% and 4650' of elevation gain over 7.6 miles, the non-stop uphills were also a formidable challenge. Huge buttkicker! This was a race like no other I've ever done. Great experience.

I was able to keep a pretty steady pace the whole way, but finished a little bit slower than I thought I would. But I'm just grateful to have just won a lotto slot to participate and I had a really awesome time. I've always wanted one of those bumper stickers that says "The driver of this car ran up Mt. Washington". Now I've earned it.

Had a few runner friends there, and got to meet VFTT's KTilton face-to-face. Really nice guy who put in an awesome performance. Kept an eye out for Cruddy Toes, but we missed each other. Also saw Giggy and JayH at the summit and got to talk with them for awhile before I headed back down. They were apparently the first two of the Pressie Traversers to get to Washington.

Overall results: 244th out of 832 finishers
Time: 1:39:04
Pace: 13:04/mile
Full results here

Way to go, Artex! Congrats on finishing a very hard race!

Awesome running Jamie!!! How did your legs feel in comparism to running a marathon?
kmac

Jamie -

Great job!! That is one hell of an effort!

Congratulations on your fine performance!

My son David and I hiked Washington yesterday. We reached Washington summit at 1:30 and saw no trace of the race by that time. Leave no trace! It was certainly a carnival atmosphere with all the bikers and tourists. I reviewed the times and I only saw one time over 3 hours. Amazing. We can certainly relate to the difficulty of elevation gain. Our route was bit rockier though.

Congratulations on a good race, Giggy & Jay did lead most of the day, Errapi & company led early on as they started real early but had called it quits on Washington & were taking it easy in the pack room when I got there soon after Giggy & Jay.

Woo hoo!!! Congrats, Jamie!!! My legs hurt just THINKING about running up the rockpile. Way to go

Congratulations, that is a super time!

Impressive, most impressive

Congrats, Artex! That is an amazing accomplishment...

That's awesome, amigo! Congrats!



is the rumor true that you rode the choo choo back down the mountain?

Unbelievable, Artex! Congratulations.

Regards,
Marty

great job!!

Congrats, Jamie. I'm breathless just reading about it.

Ray

Congratulations on an excellent accomplishment! I did the race back in 1991 and will never forget it. It's one of those type of experiences that you don't really have an appreciation of how tough it really is until you actually get out there and that hill just keeps coming at you relentlessly, with no break. So I truly appreciate what you did. Once was enough for me, I felt good enough about my time that I knew I wouldn't significantly improve it and didn't feel the need to subject myself to that sort of pain another year. Been there done that, sort of thing, and I got back to hiking, "normal" trail running and other varied activities. (My age at the time was a factor too in my decision). So good luck in your future running endeavors whatever they may be!

Great Run Jamie, you are taller than I picture you to be... Not that I had any inclination of how tall you are, but I try to get a mental picture of people sometimes. Anyway, we could see runner profiles heading up against the backdrop of the sky looking over the Great gulf (?) after heading off of Clay and skirting the gulf there. I'm thinking with a nice telephoto lens, you could get a really nice picture of the race from there.

Guy and I ran into Errapi and Sknydppr on the final ascent to Washington but I do believe Tuco and Rols should have gotten to Washington before Guy and I since they left at 1:30am whereas Guy and a bunch of us left at 4:30. We ran into Tuco after Eisenhower and before Pierce and at that point Rols bailed out.

I'll have to write my own report and pictures soon.

What's next Artex?

Jay

You da man, dawg! You ya man

whoo-hooo...way to go Jamie!!

Just to think about doing this race is impressive.

Wow, thanks guys. My internet connection has been crappy at home lately, so it's really nice to finally read through and see the kind words. I really appreciate it.

JayH - I'm planning to run the Pemi Loop with my bud Pennsy sometime in the next month or so. I'll also be registering for the Vermont 50-miler in September very soon. Nice meeting you on the summit.