It's been over a week since I ran the Loon Mountain Race, but the experience is still fresh in my memory. I loved that race. I loved everything about it from slopping through ankle deep mud in the first mile, to the punishing 40% grade climb in the last 1K that felt helplessly impossible. I can't wait to go back next year. [Tweet "Loon Mountain Race ReCap: tackling another mountain #mountainrunning #runNH"]

This year the Loon Mountain Race, put on by Acidotic Racing, was host to the USA Mountain Running Championships.

Because of that it grew quite a crowd of elite runners looking to nab a spot on the USA Mountain Running Team. Check out this awesome 3-D preview of the course:

https://sketchfab.com/models/83406c540be64b74a63731c060908580

Since my approach to the Mount Washington Road Race had been too aggressive and filled with unreasonable expectations, I decided that I was going to go into this race with an open mind: to run what felt like an honest race and see where that put me. I knew that the last two miles of the race were going to be brutal and so my plan was to run comfortably hard for the first mile, push through miles 2 and 3 and then hold on as best I could in the last two miles. And just power hike the famous 40% grade of "Upper Walking Boss."

The first three miles of the course were very "runable" as it took us through the cross-country ski section. The pace was fast and I was able to catch and pass a few runners on that section. I loved this portion, it was fast trail running, over rocks and bridges and through mud. After we came out of the cross-section the course rejoined the ski mountain's maintenance road and then took us up a few steep inclines.

I'd received some advice to "hike early" from another runner who has run the course before and that's what I did. I power hiked the steep sections that came around mile 3.5 and 4 and ran the sections I felt were runable. I leap frogged with a few women in the last two miles as we took turns, hiking and running. But I passed a few, which gave me confidence that I had paced well.

For every steep up hill there was a bit of a leveling and even some downhill portions, and this allowed my heart rate to drop and my lungs to recover and get ready for the next big uphill push. I did my best to combine running and power hiking to get me up the mountain as fast as I could. I was able to push harder than I did at Mt. Washington, which I think was due partly to better pacing on my part and the fact that there was some recovery between the big climbs.

With a mile and half to go there was a long climb and on that section I passed a few more women and came to the final down hill portion. I ran as fast as I could down this section but was passed by a few runners, we turned the corner for the final 1K of the race and Upper Walking Boss was like a wall in front of us. Whatever momentum that any of us had from the downhill was immediately stopped and everyone was walking. I was going so slow my Garmin auto-paused because it thought I had stopped moving.

At this point I felt like I mentally gave up a bit. The hill seemed so steep and I just relented to getting up there in any way I could. The muscles in my quads and calves were so fatigued that I started to hike up side-ways to try and use different muscles. At one point I wondered if it might be quicker to try and climb up on all fours. Anything I could do to keep putting one foot in front of the other. I was passed by a few more runners while making my way up Upper Walking Boss. I'm not sure I could have pushed myself any more, and I simply watched as people hiked by me.

With about 100m left the mountain leveled out a bit and I tried to "run" into the finish. I crossed the line in 1:18:41, finishing as the 41st woman and 25th in my age group.

I'm so pleased with my effort and felt so much stronger and confident than I did during my run up Mt. Washington. The race came on day 8 of 10 days of hard effort, so there was no "taper" for this race and the plan was for it to simply be part of my long run effort for Sunday. I ended up running down the mountain as the cool down, to add another three miles to the day.

I can't wait to do this run again next year and hopefully beat my Upper Walking Boss time from this year.

Sarah

Loon Mountain Race Recap

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