The 44th Annual Mt. Washington Road Race, June 19, 2004
“Don’t ask me to do this again next year. “
--- John Barbour, approx 11:31:46 a.m. June 19, 2004 in the Mt. Washington summit house. Elevation: 6,280 ft. *Enervation: yeh, lots of it.
“ So I didn’t. Ask him. The timing didn’t seem just quite right. Yet.”
--- Peter Watson same time, same place.
So, welcome back and welcome to the mountain.
Especially the 14 runners meeting the mountain for your first time. Don’t let any of the grizzled among us tell you that you “ain’t seen nothing yet.” Truth is that you’ve just about it seen it all. Steamy at the bottom. Stormy, foggy and with winds of 50-plus up top. Sunny back down again. With rain and hail in-between. If Bob T. had only known he’d have charged a premium on the entry fee, same as restaurants do for the “surf and turf” special.
Congratulations to everyone who summited. The largest group of Cape Ann runners (27) ever to do the race at one time: Team Gloucester’s masters team members, three husband and wife combinations, a mother and son, a son running in his injured father’s footsteps, 14 first timers, two age category winners, two brother/ “lifers” … with two more on injured reserve this year and another very much still with us all in spirit.
Masters' Team:
Runners John Barbour, Matt Curran, John Gillis, Bob Gillis, Steve Davis, Dave Gallagher and Mike Gillis, with a total time of 6:52:30 for the top five almost matched last year’s winning time, terrific for the conditions. Only to run into a whirlwind (other than the mountain) called Coastal Athletic Association, who set a masters record of 6:15:37, breaking the 1999 record time by 30 minutes. Team Gloucester was 3rd of the 15 masters teams, competing behind second place Moose Milers who also broke the old record by 15 minutes. In the open category,, where masters teams are also entered, Coastal was 3rd and Team Gloucester 4th among 20, confirming John Stifler’s assertion that the older the better on the mountain.
Rumors that Team Gloucester has launched a protest on the grounds that the Coastal and Moose runners come from a geographic area greater than five miles in radius are untrue. Beyond the ungraciousness of an appeal, Matt used up all our appeals to the good graces and good humor of Bob T. in a mildly embarrassing sequence of events which I will of course detail later.
Togetherness:
The husband and wife combinations were: Mike and Maryke Gillis, still “away from (Gloucester’s) home” in Vermont, Tom and Linda Davis who talked five friends into joining them in their collective adventure, including Pat and Rose Flannagan. The mother and son were Terry O’Neil, who perhaps found the mountain no day at Good Harbor beach where she teaches fitness, and her 14-year old son Jeremy who may harbor second thoughts now about parental togetherness.
No Escape:
The seventh of the Davis group, Derek Reed, tried to get out of the whole thing by driving off the road on Friday night on the way up north. No one was hurt and Tom Davis, not to be denied the collective part of his adventure, went to the rescue/retrieval. Note to Derek: The old driving off the road gambit never gets anyone out of running the mountain. Try a knee injury next time. It works
In the Footsteps Of
…Gloucester High freshmen Peter Asaro turned in an inaugural 1:40:03 in his injured father’s stead. A great start toward a lofty goal: to someday beat dad at his own game. Peter does have a way to go but he has the time and with a 4:39 mile to his credit already he has the talent. Still, Mark ran his best, 1:08:13, in 1993 at age 37. So Peter, 15, still has to gain only 1:27 every year from now until he’s 37 in 2026 to eclipse the old man.
Ageing Well
John Barbour was first among the 50 to 54-age category. His prize was “that hat” and, at last word no complaint from his troublesome Achilles. Carrie Parsi won among the 65 to 69 year old women. Carrie, the 60-64 year old record holder on the mountain is a Lexington expatriate (think about that) who is now at home in Gloucester.
First Timers
First timers runners this year were John Gillis, Jenn Brooks Lassen, Rick Ciolino, Dave Geary, the Flannagans, Terry O’Niel and son Jeremy, Derek Reed, Pat Salony (whose wife Chris McGrath blamed me, probably because she had to drive up the mountain), George Paganis (following Maureen Collin everywhere), Carlo Pallozolo, Sheryl Smith and Peter Asaro.
Lifers
The brothers Gillis, Bob and Mike did it again, Bob for the 22nd time in the same painter’s cap, Mike for the 21st. The longest of our streakers, Captain Bob also picked up an individual age graded USATF 3rd in his category; John and Carrie won their categories. Bob also represented Team Gloucester and picked up its two awards.
In Reserve
On the injured reserve but summiting as best they could were Mark Asaro who hiked up the Tuckerman trail and Peter Watson who drove up the road as far as they’d let him and limped the rest of the way.
In Spirit
On the summit very much in spirit and remembered by the badges Mark had made and so many of us wore on our shirts in his memory was Jeff Rutchick. Jeff, who tragically died this winter, did the mountain five times. He may not have been the fastest man on the mountain but he may well have been the happiest. Down below at the post race party Captain Bob presented Jeff’s wife Cindy with the race medal given Bob at the top for completing the run.
Sunday Morning Runners
So how did the Sunday morning runners do after training all winter by going out in Cape Ann’s woods and getting lost following Steve Whittey’s lead? Pretty good. Matt was Matt, weightless and shirtless of course, and very fast. Bob Gillis and Steve Davis improbably powered through the wind, fog and rain to beat their times from last year. And first timers Rick Ciolino who will be masters-team eligible next year (“Don’t tell me that”) and Dave Geary came on strong with a 1:32:59 and a 1:36:01 respectively.
But it was the tiniest of us that came up biggest (and got in the most trouble). Jenn Brooks Lassen, off a strong mountain series run-up to the mountain, outran most of the rest of us (as usual) to finish in 1:30:14, 24th among the 238 women. But she also ran into trouble. Dehydrated and hypothermic at the top and shivering under a blanket given her by a summit staffer she brought out the paternalistic instincts in us. While Rick and Dave were trying to rub some warmth back into her back and legs, Bob was spoon feeding her hot soup and Peter was jumping the cafeteria line to get her a hot chocolate and sugar rush. All that and a switch to the warmer first aid room and a change into warm clothes helped her recover, and she’s still faster than almost all the rest of us as she’ll no doubt prove at Thursday’s Fiesta 5k.
And What Was It That Matt Did to Bob T. Anyway?
Well it went like this. Matt asked for a ride from me to the mountain in time to pick up his number. But he forgot to take his photo I.D. without which “they” said you couldn’t get your number. And Anita T. means what she says about things like that. No problem, I suggested, if they hassle you ask Bob T. to vouch for you. For my part I forgot to take Pat’s rain gar and warm clothing out of the car before I left the hotel with Matt. I also forgot to tell Pat I was leaving.
Well, Matt did get hassled and he did get Bob T. to vouch for him, so he got his ticket punched to the top and his electronic chip to record his finish when he got there. Whoops. He forgot to put his chip on his shoe and sent it up the mountain in his bag instead. Tell that to the score keepers at the top. Which he did. Tell that to Bob T. down at the bottom, which I did after Matt’s finish, was not at first recorded on the posted results. “We got him,“ Bob T. said not explaining exactly which of the many things that might mean. In fact, it meant that, chipless, Matt’s time was officially recorded anyway. Abject apologies and one fully loaded Matt-made taco later, amends were made with Bob T.
We think.
**Weather Postscript
So if the temperature at the top stayed in the mid to high 40s, which is plenty bad enough when the winds top 50 but not “that’ bad, why we were so many people in trouble this year, more than usual. There are two reasons. One, there was less warning this time down below. So people left the bottom thinking that the top was 50 with 25 m.p.h. winds predicted to worsen in the afternoon. But the winds came in faster than expected so while the temperatures didn’t drop to the predicted afternoon lows in the 30s the winds did double. Runners left the bottom without taking extra clothes and some dropped clothes by the side of the road in the first two hot miles. And then it rained and hailed. Mountain rain is cold, robbing the body of warmth in two physiological ways, my scientifically knowledgeable friend says. One, cold rain is like a cold shower, that is cold. Two, when your body is wet it tries to dry itself off from the inside out, meaning that your internal body warmth is drawn out of the body at the same time it is being externally cooled. It all spells trouble, aka Hypothermia.
