2012 USA Mountain Running Championships Post-Race Thoughts

Training in Sun Valley, ID

I arrived in Boston after a long delay due to weather of course. You never land on time in the Northeast its common knowledge you know. If you do, consider yourself to be one of the few. I was lucky to stay with the Gorvin family in Wilmington for a few days and eat all of their food in the process, very special thanks to the family for putting up with my appetite! On the drive up I hung out with Nancy H. who has been on the committee for the National Team as long as I can remember and has been great support for Mountain/Trail events and runners for years.

As we headed to the White Mountains of New Hampshire the "Live Free or Die" State we spoke about predictions for the race as everyone usually does beforehand. I saw a few predictions online, amongst the few I saw only one really mentioned me as being a lock to qualify for the team (Dave Dunham). I was happy to see he had some faith in me even though I had been coming off injury. The other predictions had me as a top contender but really only mentioned one guy as being a lock in Max K. who had won Nationals the year before. Nancy and I agreed that we'd probably see  2-3 new faces on the USA Mountain Running Team this year. Top 6 at the Mt. Washington Road Race (Host of the National Championships) win spots on the USA Team to compete at the World Mountain Running Championships in September in the Italian Alps! I began my week of training from my friend Joe F. house in Kearsarge, NH. As always since 2009 I make my way to Mt. Cranmore to send up a prayer for my coming competition in the area on the course where I won my first National title.

SCOTT Athletes Marco and Joseph

 Heading into this years Championship I guess you could say I got bit by the bad luck bug in developing post tibial tendinitis. This is a painful soreness and with less than a month to train I found myself walking to the start line this year a little low in confidence and uncertain about my finish time. I told people including Eric B. that I thought I could run 62 mins this year or a little faster. We both thought that it would take around 61:50ish to make the team this year, ironically we were right on. In all honesty, I was not sure if I could break 63. I had not really run much mileage nor put in any real volume for tempo or race pace. I did have a nice week of training in the mountains of Sun Valley, ID. This of course must have helped a ton as I felt pretty strong heading into the first mile. Better than I had ever felt before. Heading through the mile there was a huge pack of runners tightly pressed, all with the taste of victory on the tips of their tongue.

To the finish at Mt. Washington. 2nd Place Finish 2012

In a race like this its easy to feel you are close to victory with the pack so close. I would not fall victim to such thoughts so early on. I had thoughts like this in my first attempt at Mt. Washington and was left stunned after making some rookie mistakes. With the coming steeper inclines and thinning air the pack faded slowly. I found myself right behind the previous years World Mountain Running Champion with 6-Time World Mountain Running Champion Marco De Gasperi lounging quietly beside me. This was the first time in years that I felt nervous in the midst of a race. I look back and come to the realization that our pack included, 2 World Champions, 5 Guys who have recently won National Titles, and even more nerve racking is that we were running fairly quick and everyone looked pretty fresh. Many were soothed by the fact that if they lost to Marco who is Italian that he would not count against an American for the purpose of making the National Team. Now this thought did go through my head coming into mile 2 as I was starting to think he would make a strong move. This of course is a thought only someone hurting bad would think. I was not hurting yet and I told myself I had to stick to my pace and eventually found myself leading the race and pulling away from Marco and Max. I was left surprised as another athlete who happened to be a first timer at Mt. Washington took the lead and pushed even harder over the next few miles. I hesitated to respond due to the fact that I felt I could only push hard for a few miles with my current fitness. I ran within my limits I felt and by the time I realized I was actually in good shape and felt like pushing, Sage C. (the winner that day) had already put the race in the bag and left the store. I then figured I would focus on maintaining my position and just running consistent and smooth to the finish over the last miles. I wore my Mio Motion for the sole purpose of checking my heart rate a little past mile 4 to see if I was pushing too hard. This watch comes in handy for the runner who doesn't want the weight of a chest strap during a race, but would like to know their heart rate at various points during a hard effort. I wanted to make sure I was not touching VO2 Max figures for my heart rate and fortunately I wasn't. Had I been knocking on the door of anaerobic debt this early in the race without a doubt I would have finished further back. This was the deepest field ever assembled for the National Mountain Running Championship so protecting your place late in a race is the only way you'll make the team.


My new cereal bowl

I knew I could run stronger if I needed and lactic acid had not totally taken a hold over my quads by mile 5. I found myself in the middle of the road with nobody really in front of me nor behind me. I ran the rest of the race unpressed and holding on to 2nd. Coming into the final mile someone yelled "you have about 20 seconds on the next pack". I looked back and pushed for a few seconds and had a breath of relief knowing that I will make my 11th USA National Team. Even more exciting was the fact that I had been 4th once at this race then 3rd and now 2nd. That means this year my trophy was a little bigger making it an even better cereal bowl than my previous trophies! I ended the race with a PR running 1:00:33, which was unexpected, but I'll take it. It was also great to await the finish of the next 4 Americans who would complete Team USA. I could see a battle taking place just below the finish with Eric B. and Glenn. R. of Colorado. Former Team member Eric ended up making the team as did another past Teammate Tommy M. These two guys I felt were vital assets to our 2010 team winning the Silver Medal at the World Championships and both are great guys, which always helps with team chemistry. It will be interesting to see how this years team bodes at the World Championship with 3 newcomers. I personally feel this is the best team we have fielded in my past years on the team. Would be nice to come home with some hardware once again and the group we formed Saturday is a great start.