Mt. Washington Road Race
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The Mount Washington Road Race is a 7.6 mile road running event that runs along a road going from the base of Mt. Washington in New Hampshire to nearly the mountain's summit (located at 6288 ft above sea level). The race was first run in 1936 and has been run annually since 1966. Women first officially participated in 1972. The race course rises 4650 vertical feet from start to finish. It is a steep mountain race with an average grade of 11%. Held in June each year, Mt. Washington is a popular race for runners in New England and also attracts many runners from other parts of the United States and the world. For non-elite runners, entrance is by lottery each year. The lottery winners are able to join the approximately 1100 runners who partake in this annual event. The lottery is held in mid-March with sign-ups being from March 1-March 15.
The course record is 56:41 and was set in 2004 by renowned mountain runner Jonathan Wyatt of New Zealand. The female course record was set by Magdalena Thorsell in a time of 1:10:49 in 1998. Multiple winners of the race on the men's side include Francis Darrah, Mike Gallagher, Bob Hodge, Gary Crossan, Dave Dunham, Derek Froude, Matt Carpenter, Daniel Kihara, and Simon Gutierrez. On the female side, Ellen Mendonca, Cathy Hodgdon, Chirs Maisto, Jacqueline Gareau, J'ne Day-Lucore, and Anna Pirchtova are multiple winners. John J. Kelley is the only runner to ever win both the Boston Marathon and the Mount Washington Road Race. Kelley won the former in 1957 and the latter in 1961.
In addition to being a steep road race course, Mt. Washington is home to extremely unpredictable weather. Winds have been known to top 200 mph at the summit. In fact, the fastest recorded gust of wind on Earth was recorded on Mt. Washington. Although the race has never been run in such extreme conditions, factors like snow, ice, fog, wind, rain, and cold can make the race a challenge for those who run it in June. It is not uncommon for temperatures to be warm at the beginning of the race but for runners to still encounter white-out conditions at the summit. Only the hardiest of competitors can come through victorious on most occasions. However, despite the difficult course and uphill terrain, there is only one hill and after runners get past this hill the race gets much easier.
