Anna Pichrtova now has a chance to do what no woman has done before: win the Mt. Washington Road Race three years in a row. Pichrtova, a native of the Czech Republic who lives and trains in Virginia, has just announced that she will return this year to the White Mountains to defend her title as two-time champion in the steepest all-uphill road race in the Eastern United States.

"I am very excited to be coming back," said Pichrtova this week. Until recently, she had intended to run a marathon in Minnesota on the same weekend as the Mt. Washington race, but she changed her plans. On June 21st she will be back on the 7.6-mile Mt. Washington Auto Road, where she easily won her Mt. Washington debut on a hot day in 2001, in the impressive time of 1:13:48.
She defended her title last year when severe weather forced the first-ever shortening of the race to a safe finish below the tree line. "I think I can run well this 'little' hill," she added.

The other exciting new development in this year's race is that Kenyan master Andrew Masai will run. Masai, 43, is the three-time masters' champion at two of the country's best-known road races, the Falmouth Road Race on Cape Cod and the Peachtree 10K in Atlanta.

Coming to Mt. Washington for the first time, he will contend with top New England master Craig Fram for the over-40 trophy and possibly for the $2000 bonus offered by New England Runner magazine to anyone who can break the existing masters' record. That time, one hour four minutes 28.6 seconds, was set by Fram himself two years ago, when he broke one of the oldest records in the books, a time of 1:04:57 run by Fred Norris in 1962.

Last year's third-place woman, JulieAnne White of Vista, California, returns this year with her eyes on NER's $2000 masters record bonus. White, now 41 years old, recently defended her title as top woman overall in the Big Sur Marathon. The existing Mt. Washington women's master's record is 1:16:02.7, set in 1997 by Olympic marathon gold-medalist Joan Samuelson.

For a complete list of entrants, visit the Race Website

Sponsor: NORTHEAST DELTA DENTAL
Masters record sponsor: NEW ENGLAND RUNNER
Associate sponsor: BRIDGTON ACADEMY

Sponsored by Northeast Delta Dental, the 43rd annual 'Run To The Clouds' will welcome at least one other Kenyan speedster, Jared Segera, who finished third in this year's Indianapolis half marathon in a time of 1:04:01. His appearance in the race could be the foremost threat to defending champion Simon Gutierrez, of Albuquerque, N.M.

Gutierrez, however, returns in the midst of what appears to be another outstanding season for him. Last weekend he won the Vail Spring Run-off in Colorado, thereby qualifying for the U.S. Mountain Running Team that will compete in this year's world mountain championships in Alaska in September.

Another member of this year's U.S. mountain racing team, Kelli Lusk of Colorado, will be making her first attempt at Mt. Washington this month.
Lusk, who is also the current women's U.S. National Snowshoe Champion, has already enjoyed considerable success in New England racing this season. On June 7 she won the New England Mountain Running Championship race, an 8.3-mile run on the roller-coaster hills of Northfield Mountain in Massachusetts that is also an automatic qualifier for the U.S. national mountain running team.

In that race she had to beat at least two women who will have another crack at her on Mt. Washington, Nikki Kimball of Elizabethtown N.Y. and Julie Bryan of Jackson, Wyoming. Bryan finished fifth at Mt. Washington last year, Kimball sixth. All of them, however, will have to contend not only with Pichrtova but also probably with Anita Ortiz, of Eagle, Colorado, who finished second in last year's race and is likely to return this year.

With a field limited to 1000 runners, the race ascends 4650 vertical feet in 7.6 miles, at an average grade of 11.5 percent. The summit, 6288 feet above sea level, is often beset by the windiest and most unpredictable weather in the world.

The men's course record is 58:20.5, set in 1996 by Daniel Kihara of Kenya.
The women's record is 1:10:09, set in 1998 by Swedish runner Magdalena Thorsell, who is also Gutierrez's wife. Neither Kihara nor Thorsell is running this year's race.

Records: Men's open: Daniel Kihara, Kenya, 1996, 58:20.5.
Women's open: Magdalena Thorsell, Albuquerque NM, and Sweden, 1998, 1:10:08.2
Men's masters: Craig Fram, Plaistow NH, 2001, 1:04:28.6.
Women's masters: Joan Samuelson, Freeport ME, 1997, 1:16:02.7.

Race director: Bob Teschek, (603) 863-2537, racetime@gsrs.com
Press and elite athletes liaison: John Stifler (413) 585-0924, jstifler@econs.umass.edu
From June 19-22, best contact site for either of us is the race headquarters: the Eagle Mountain House in Jackson, N.H. Telephone (603) 383-9111.