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|  The Big Mt. Washington Preview
Pinkham Notch, N.H. - Saturday, June 18, 2005
Sponsor: NORTHEAST DELTA DENTAL
Records: Men's open - Jonathan Wyatt, New
Zealand, 2004, 56:41.
For a LIST OF ENTRANTS, sortable by city/town and
state, visit Mtn. site and
click on "Mt. Washington," then on "Lottery Results."
Three-time Mt. Washington men's open winner (1992, 1993,
1998) Matt Carpenter, of Manitou Springs,
Colorado, has just announced that he will return to Mt.
Washington this year for the first time since 1999,
to make his first appearance in the masters (over 40) field.
While top Mt. Washington women's entrants Ann Pichrtova
and Moon were battling each other in the women's race at
Vail, Carpenter, now 41, not only took the men's masters
honors there but won the men's open race outright.
New England Runner magazine offers a $2000
bonus to any male or female master who sets a new
masters course record.
MEN'S MASTERS:
Previous speculation about who might win the highly
competitive masters division at Mt. Washington was
scrapped when race organizers heard from Matt Carpenter.
Carpenter has run Mt. Washington four times previously,
winning three and finishing second in 1999 in one of the
closest races ever. That year he was outkicked by
then-course record holder Daniel Kihara,, but he
ran the fastest time of any non-winner in the race's history.
In four attempts at Mt. Washington, Carpenter has broken
the one-hour barrier three times.
Among the strongest New England contenders in the
master's race is Eric Morse of Berlin, Vermont, who
turned 40 this year, and who has more top-five finishes at
Mount Washington, without yet winning, than anyone else.
Historically, he has always finished close to Craig Fram, 46,
of Plaistow, N.H., who holds the masters course record of
1:03:37,, which he set in 2003. As of today, Fram
has not announced whether or not he will run this year's
race.
Another much-watched master in the field will be Dave
Dunham,, 41, of Bradford, Massachusetts. Embodying
the spirit of this race as much as anyone, Dunham is a
former three-time Mt. Washington winner (1988,
1989, 1994) and former open course record holder who has
consistently finished among the top three men in the open
race almost every year, including two second-place finishes
behind Carpenter. Now a master, Dunham has been
contending with injuries in past months, but he recently
won the masters' division at the Pack
Monadnock Hillclimb in southern New Hampshire
while placing third overall in that race, and he is looking
suspiciously stronger as Mt. Washington approaches.
Other top male masters runners will include Mt. Washington
veteran Dan Verrington, 42, of Bradford,
Massachusetts, and newcomer Joseph Aloyisius
McVeigh, 41, of Convent Station, N.J., a two-time winner
and former course record-holder at the 10.7-mile
Hogpen Hillclimb in Helen, Georgia, who also
finished sixth in the 2000 Empire State Building Run-Up.
Another newcomer is Henry Wigglesworth, 47, of
Seattle, Washington. Wigglesworth, who won the
40-49-year age group in the latest Empire State Building
Run-up and placed second last November in the 104-floor
Sears Tower in Chicago in November, also is a likely
favorite in the 45-49-year age group at Mt. Washington,
where awards above the open division are by 5-year age
divisions.
Anticipation is intensifying over the duel between four-time
defending Mt. Washington Road Race champion Anna
Pichrtova and two-time World Mountain Running
Champion Melissa Moon as the race date approaches.
Two weekends ago, at the U.S. National Trail Running
Championship at Vail, Colorado, Pichrtova and Moon
exchanged the lead several times on the 10-kilometer
course, with Pichrtova finally winning in a time just 20
seconds faster than runnerup Moon's. Between that
performance and the 2001 World Mountain Running
Championship in which Moon beat Pichrtova by 15
seconds, the quality of the battle at Mt. Washington on June
18 is clear.
Sponsored by Northeast Delta Dental, the Mt. Washington
Road Race is an unbroken 7.6-mile ascent to the summit of
Mt. Washington, at 6288 feet above sea level the highest
peak in the northeastern United States. Approximately 1000
runners, most chosen by lottery from an applicant pool of
nearly twice that number, will compete against each other
and, as always, against the mountain itself.
Pichrtova, 32, is the only woman to have won the Mt.
Washington Road Race four times, claiming consecutive
victories in 2001-2004, in widely varying weather conditions
but always by running away from her nearest competition
early in the race. This year, however, Moon, 35, makes her
first Mt. Washington appearance, declaring herself quite
motivated for a chance to beat Pichrtova after being second
to her in the Vail race. That contest in the Rockies offered its
own challenges in terms of the weather -- snow fell during
the race -- and in terrain. Moon passed Pichrtova on the
uphill stretches, but Pichrtova regained the lead on the
downhills.
No one is betting that any other woman will be able to keep
Pichrtova and Moon within sight this year, but among those
with the best chance of doing so are Kelli Lusk, 35, of
Amherst, Massachusetts, and Lisa Grudzinski, 25, of
Harriman, NY. Lusk, 35, a former U.S. National Snowshoe
Champion and veteran of the U.S. Mountain Running Team,
was third at Mt. Washington in 2003 and fifth in 2004. She is
married to Paul Low. Grudzinski was a track and
cross-country star at Marist College, winning MAAC league
titles in 1998 and 1999, and she returned from an injury to
win her conference's Most Outstanding Runner award in
2003.
Interestingly, at Mt. Washington Anna Pichrtova's times are
all shy of the women's course record, a time of 1:10:09 set
in 1998 by Magdalena Thorsell of Sweden. While first prize
in the race is $1000, the race awards a bonus of $5000 for
anyone who sets a new course record.
WOMEN'S MASTERS:
Among the female masters the likely favorite is Anita Ortiz, of
Eagle, Colorado, who was second overall in her previous
Mt. Washington appearance, the weather-shortened 2002
race. She may challenge the masters' record set in 1997 by
Joan Samuelson, a time of 1:16:03. Acclaimed as "Queen
of the Hill" by Runner's World magazine in 2004, Ortiz won
the 2003 U.S. National Mountain Running Championship in
Vail, but an injury prevented her from defending that title on
Mt. Washington in 2004. [Ed. note: Ortiz is a late
scratch after a recent poor performance].
To win, Ortiz will have to beat the 2004 masters winner,
Cathy Pearce, 42, of Chelmsford, Massachusetts. Last
year, in addition to being first master, Pearce placed fourth
overall. Another hardy contender from New England is Suzy
West, 42, of Putney, Vermont. West, who was fourth at Mt.
Washington in 2003, won the women's race overall at Pack
Monadnock this month while running the fifth-fastest time
ever for masters women on that course. The fastest female
masters time at Pack Monadnock is also West's, from 2003.
Other top female masters contenders include Donna
Smyers, 47, of Montpelier, Vermont; Donna Smyth, 45, of
Vernon, Vermont; and former U.S. Olympic cross-country
skier Sue Wemyss, 45, who lives in Gorham, in the shadow
of the mountain itself.
MEN'S OPEN RACE:
The men's open race could be a battle between former Mt.
Washington champion Simon Gutierrez, of Taos, New
Mexico, and Paul Low of Amherst, Massachusetts.
Gutierrez, 39, has won Mt. Washington twice, in 2002 and
2003. This month he finished fifth at Vail, hampered slightly
by a tight hamstring which, he reports, is recovering well as
the Mt. Washington date approaches.
Low, 31, who was fourth in 2002, finished second last year,
one place ahead of Gutierrez and beaten only by World
Mountain champion Jonathan Wyatt of New Zealand. (Wyatt,
whose 2004 time of 56 minutes 41 seconds was nearly two
minutes off Kenyan Daniel Kihara's previous course record
(58:21), has not entered this year's race.) Last February
Low, the two-time U.S. Mountain Runner of the Year and
2004 U.S. Mountain Champion, won the hilly Amherst,
Massachusetts, 10-miler that has previously been won by
three other Mt. Washington champions (Bob Hodge,
Dunham, Fram). This spring he and Kelli Lusk were flown to
Japan as American ambassadors in a new Japanese trail
racing series, and this month Low placed third in the very
fast 12-kilometer road race in Bedford, N.H.
Given his recent success at Vail and his experience on the
Mt. Washington course, Matt Carpenter may be one of the
strongest contenders in the open division as well. Also,
Gutierrez and Low will have to contend with Eric Blake of
Plattsburgh, NY, who was fourth at Mt. Washington last year.
Blake, 27, is also an exceptional uphill runner, who last year
won the 8.3-mile Whiteface Mountain ascent in the
Adirondacks.
Other top men to watch include Josh Ferenc, 23, of
Westmoreland, N.H., who beat Low in the 2004 Northfield
Mountain Trail Race in Massachusetts and was first New
Hampshire finisher at Mt. Washington (7th overall) last year;
and Kevin Tilton, also 23, of Conway, N.H., who won this
year's Mt. Kearsarge Hillclimb, and who was tenth last year
at Mt. Washington.
Also 23, and running Mt. Washington for the first time, is
Tristan Colangelo of Gloucester, Massachuetts. Colangelo
ran the mile in 4:09 in high school, then led the
cross-country and track teams at Princeton University. His
personal bests include 14:06 for 5K.
Another strong newcomer is Chad Newton, 35, of Pisgah
Forest, North Carolina, a former winner of the Vermont City
Marathon who also won the National Trail Marathon
Championship in October and is now focusing on mountain
races.
SERIOUS COMPETITION AFTER AGE 50
The men's and women's over-50 fields as usual will bring
back some of New England's most remarkable runners.
The top senior women include Peg Donovan, of Auburn,
N.H., who won the Mt. Washington Road Race in 1987 and
who turned 50 this year; perennial age-group contender Dot
Helling, 55, of Montpelier, Vermont; and Rebecca
Stockdale-Woolley, 54, of Chaplin, Connecticut.
Returning to Mt. Washington for the first time in five years is
one of this race's all-time great personalities, Canadian
Jacqueline Gareau. Now 52, Gareau, who won the 1980
Boston Marathon (despite Rosie Ruiz's intrusion), also won
Mt. Washington three times - in 1989 (overtaking Peg
Donovan in the last mile), 1994 and 1996 -- and formerly
held the open and masters women's course records. Last
month she served as the Boston Marathon's honorary grand
marshal. She and John J. Kelley of Connecticut are the only
two runners ever to win both Mt. Washington and the Boston
Marathon.
The top men over 50 include two former Mt. Washington
winners: 1983 winner Keith Woodward, 54, of East Corinth,
Vt., and 1973 winner John Cederholm, 62, of Marion, Mass.
Joining them are several other remarkable hill-runners,
among them Rob Higley, 51, a physicist from Amherst,
Massachusetts, who was fifth in the over-50 age group in
this year's Boston Marathon, and Sumner Brown, now 61, of
Belmont, Massachusetts.
The newest addition to the senior field is Buzz Burrell, 53, of
Boulder, Colorado. A legendary figure in mountain and trail
running, Burrell has completed ultramarathons and
multi-day trail adventure runs from the Rockies to Tierra del
Fuego (South America) and is the current USATF Masters
10-Kilometer Trail Champion.
Built in 1861 as the Mt. Washington Carriage Road, the
course climbs 4700 vertical feet at an average grade of 11.5
percent. Besides the steepness of the road, runners must
contend with the notorious Mount Washington weather. On
race day, temperatures are sometimes in the 70s at the
base but in the 40s at the summit, with winds gusting as
high as 40-60 mph, and with various kinds of precipitation.
The highest wind speed ever recorded in the world was on
Mount Washington: 231 mph.
Race director: Bob Teschek, (603) 863-2537, Bob Teschek
Press and elite athletes' liaison: John Stifler (413)
585-0924
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