I always feel like a big bad meanie when I talk to people about foot-race day on Mt Washington. I'm not being mean, and I'm not unsympathetic, it is just that what I have to tell them is ( often) not what they expect to hear.
There are 1300 runners in the Foot Race. If every runner has just 2 people ( one driver and one spectator) who need/want to be at the summit for them, that obviously is 2600 people at the summit, plus the 1300 runners, PLUS race-support folks ( race volunteers, radio operators, water station folks, timing officials, medical/safety support, media,parking crew, etc etc etc) it very quickly gets right up to
4000 + people FOR THE RACE ALONE vying for summit space. That doesn't even count the ?? # of Cog Train passengers who may not even know that there is a race that day. If every runner has 5 or 6 people in their cheering team............ well, you run the numbers, and it is mind boggling.
The Sherman Adams Summit Building has a MAX occupancy of 250 people. On Race Day, there are people at the door with clickers, keeping track of how many are in the building at any one time. There will be no quick potty calls, no quick cups of coffee or snacks, no place to get out of the weather without waiting in a very long line. It is a tremendously hard venue for everyone, even if the weather is PERFECT
( and how often does that happen on Mt W?)
The car-parking areas at the summit can hold @ 300 cars in full on " sardine can" crush. On foot race day, there will also be cars parked bumper to bumper along the road all the way down to 6 mile post, any small turnouts and flat spaces in " Cow Pasture" will be packed in as well. As it requires nearly 400 vehicles to get all runners back down to the Great Glen safely, one might begin to appreciate why there are very specific and very stringent driving logistics on race day.
http://www.mountwashingtonroadrace.com/driving-logistics/
So, if the folks in your family can manage a " woods walk", the easiest thing would be .... take the Old Jackson Road trail from PNVC JUST to 2 mile park on the Auto Road and watch from there, don't try to get above treeline, because the higher more people go, the more problematic it becomes getting everyone down.
While the MWRR is an event that " belongs" to Mt Washington Auto Road, it could not happen without an amazing partnership with Dave McGillivray Sports Enterprises for race management expertise. DMSE is also the race management team for the Boston Marathon, the Beach to Beacon and a full schedule of popular and challenging road races across the eastern Seaboard.
Breeze
