Posted: June 13, 2004

Athletics: USA Mountain Running Crowns to be Contested on Mt. Washington

PINKHAM NOTCH, N.H. - (June 10, 2004) - An all-star field will gather at the foot of the Mt. Washington Auto Road on Saturday, June 19, for the 44th running of the Mount Washington Road Race. Hosting the USA Mountain Running Championship, the race has attracted an even larger number of seasoned mountain runners and endurance athletes than usual, including not only defending champions Simon Gutierrez and Anna Pichrtova but also World Mountain Running Champion Jonathan Wyatt of New Zealand, reigning U.S. Mountain Running Champion Anita Ortiz of Colorado and several other powerful hill-climbers with outstanding records on various mountains across North America and abroad.

Sponsored by Northeast Delta Dental, the annual "Run To The Clouds" is a 7.6-mile constant ascent to the summit of Mount Washington, at 6288 feet above sea level the highest peak in the northeastern United States. Approximately 1,000 runners, most chosen by lottery from an applicant pool of nearly twice that number, will pit their quadriceps muscles, their lungs and their minds against a road that rises some 4,700 vertical feet at an average grade of 11.5 percent.

Besides the steepness of the road itself, the race also offers the famously unpredictable Mount Washington weather. Temperatures can be in the 70s at the base but in the 40s at the summit, with winds typically blowing in gusts as high as 40-60 mph. (The highest wind speed ever recorded in the world was on the Mount Washington summit: 231 mph.)

The likely race favorites:

Anna Pichrtova, 31, the only woman ever to win the Mount Washington race three years in a row, has never been beaten here and in fact has barely been challenged. She won handily on a sweltering day in 2001, defended her title easily in 2002 when severe cold and precipitation forced organizers to end the race at the road's halfway mark, and then breezed away from the field again last year, pronouncing the effort "easy." A hugely popular champion, she returns this year from her native Czech Republic to try to extend her unbeaten record here.

Simon Gutierrez, of Taos, N. M., finished third in his Mount Washington debut in 1998, fifth in 1999. Three years later he returned, extremely well prepared, and ran away from the strongest New England mountain runners in the field, as well as course record-holder Daniel Kihara of Kenya, to win on the weather-shortened course. Last year, he won again in dramatic fashion, overtaking Kenyan veteran Andrew Masai and outlasting masters champion Craig Fram of Plaistow, N.H.

The conspicuous challengers:

The audible buzz surrounding the coming of Jonathan Wyatt to Mount Washington includes the frequently expressed view that the 31-year-old Wyatt will not merely win the race but in fact break the existing Mount Washington Road Race course record, a time of 58 minutes 21 seconds set in 1996 by Daniel Kihara of Kenya. Wyatt, from Wellington, New Zealand, has three times won the World Mountain Racing Championship, and members of the U.S. Mountain Running team have expressed great excitement at the prospect of seeing him run up the Auto Road. Wyatt, who will also compete in this year's Olympic marathon in Athens, hopes to follow in the footsteps of his countryman Derek Froude, who in 1990 became the first person ever to run Mount Washington in under one hour. To break Kihara's record, a runner will have to average faster than 7:41 per mile - a moderate pace for an ordinary runner on flat ground, nearly inconceivable to those who know Mount Washington.

Dubbed "Queen of the Hill" by Runner's World magazine (June 2004 issue), Anita Ortiz won last year's U.S. National Mountain Running Championship in Vail, Colo., and also won the Aleyska Mountain Race in Alaska to qualify for a spot on the U.S. Mountain Running Team in the world competition. Her one previous appearance at Mount Washington was in 2002, when she finished second behind Pichrtova in a race too short to demonstrate the extent of her strength. If any woman can beat Pichrtova, Ortiz is probably the one.

Some other top contenders:

Nikki Kimball, 33, of Elizabethtown, N.Y., is a consistently strong performer in New England trail races and was second to Pichrtova last year at Mount Washington.

Kelli Lusk, 34, of Amherst, Mass., former U.S. Snowshoe Champion, earlier this month won the USATF New England Mountain Championship at Northfield Mountain, Massachusetts. Last year at Mount Washington she was third.

Kelly Ryan, 35, of Littleton, Colo., finished second in last year's Vail Hillclimb, less than a minute behind Ortiz and ahead of Lusk and Kari DiStefano (see below), and she is a consistent top finisher in the Western mountains.

Erica Larson, 33, of Los Alamos, N.M., is a top-ranked ultramarathoner who holds the women's course record for the Leadville Trail Marathon in Colo., which reaches a peak of 13,188 feet in altitude. Larson last year won the La Luz 9-Mile Trail Run in Albuquerque, which climbs from 6,200 to 10,678 feet, and she is a four-time winner of the Pike's Peak Marathon. This is her first appearance at Mt. Washington.

New Hampshire's own Cathy O'Brien, 36, of Durham, the two-time Olympic marathoner (1988 and 1992), ran Mount Washington once before, in 1997, winning easily in rain, fog and high winds, in a time faster than any of Pichrtova's performances. Her low-key return to the race this year could mean anything.

Paul Low, 30, of Amherst, Mass. (and Kelli Lusk's fiancé), is a two-time U.S. Mountain Runner of the Year and veteran of the U.S. Mountain Running Team, was the first U.S. finisher (and fourth overall) this year in the Empire State Building Stairclimb in New York, and placed fourth in his only previous Mount Washington appearance, in 2002.

Eric Morse, 39, of Berlin, Vt., has more top-five finishes at Mount Washington, without yet winning, than anyone else. Morse was second to Fram in 1997, second to Gutierrez in 2001.

Bill Raitter, 34, of Bend, Ore., and Estes Park, Colo., won the 2003 Aleyska Mountain Race in Alaska, competed on the U.S. National Mountain Running Team at the World Championships last year, and placed fourth last week in a highly competitive field at the Vail Hillclimb. This will be his Mount Washington debut.

Michael Wardian, Arlington, Va., 30, was the third American finisher at this year's Boston Marathon, in a time of 2:29:57. He also competed in this year's U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, finishing 33rd in 2:22:40, and he is the course record holder for the Himalayan 100-Mile Stage Race in Darjeeling, India. This will be his first Mount Washington appearance.

Eric Blake, 25, of Plattsburgh, N.Y., last week won the Whiteface Mountain race in the Adirondacks, an 8.3-mile ascent on a road that averages an 8 percent grade. (Mount Washington's is 11.5 percent.) Blake was fifth last year in the U.S. Mountain Championships in Vail.

Another Mount Washington newcomer is Michael Mykytok, 33, of Ramsey, N.J., a former U.S. champion at 10,000 meters and 10 miles with a marathon personal best of 2:20.

Top masters (40+):

As a master, Anita Ortiz, 40, is unquestionably the top female master in the race. Besides trying to catch Pichrtova, another goal for Ortiz may be to break the masters course record of 1:16:03, set in 1997 by Olympic gold medalist Joan Benoit Samuelson. Her likeliest challenger is Kari DiStefano, 44, of Telluride, Colo., who was fourth in last year's U.S. Mountain Running Championships.

Among the other top female masters are Suzy West, a 41-year old dentist from Putney, Vt., who was fourth here last year; Inge Aiken, 42, of Greenbush, N.Y. (8th last year); Donna Smyers, 46, of Montpelier, Vt.; Donna Smyth, 44, of Vernon, Vt. and Sue Wemyss, 44, who lives in Gorham, in the shadow of the mountain itself.

Among the men, the master to reckon with is Craig Fram of Plaistow, N.H. Now 45, Fram placed second in his Mount Washington debut in 1995, won the race in 1997, and in 2001 broke the near-legendary masters' course record (1:04:57) that had been set by Fred Norris in 1962, by finishing in 1:04:29. Last year, Fram lowered that mark again, passing Kenyan master Andrew Masai in the fifth mile and taking second overall (behind Gutierrez) in 1:03:27.

Andy Ames, 41, of Boulder, Colo., ran Mount Washington in 1995 and 1996, placing in the top ten each time. He has won the Vail Hillclimb twice and won several other trail races in the Rockies as well as the difficult Seven Sisters Trail Race in Massachusetts. After several years of injuries, he is competitive again and hoping to win a place on the U.S. Mountain Running Team.

Californian Matt Ebiner ran Mount Washington once before, back in 1987, placing third. He has won the Mt. Baldy Race in Calif., an eight-mile ascent from 6,000 to 10,064 feet, ten times and was sixth in the 13-mile Mt. Fuji ascent in Japan. He was fourth master in a very deep field at the Lilac Bloomsday 12K last month in Spokane, Wash., and later in May he won the Mt. Wilson Trail Race in California.

Hans Put, 43, of Astoria, N.Y., was first master (and third overall) in the 2003 Leadville (Colo.) 100-Mile Trail Run and also the overall winner of the Lake Waramaug 50-kilometer race in Connecticut. In 2002, he set the masters' course record for the Vermont 100-Mile Run.

With great regret, perennial contender and spiritual leader of the Mount Washington field Dave Dunham, now 40, of Bradford, Mass., has withdrawn from this year's race because of a persistent achilles tendon injury. Dunham, who won Mount Washington in his first appearance here in 1988, won again in 1989 and 1994, and has consistently finished in the top three or four, will serve as a commentator this year.

New England Runner magazine offers a $2000 bonus to any male or female master who sets a new course record.

Further updates will be provided in case of last-minute entries or scratches. For a complete list of entrants, visit the race website at www.gsrs.com.

Records: Men's open - Daniel Kihara, Kenya, 1996, 58:21
Women's open - Magdalena Thorsell, Albuquerque, NM, and Sweden, 1998, 1:10:09
Men's masters - Craig Fram, Plaistow, NH, 2003, 1:03:37
Women's masters - Joan Benoit Samuelson, Freeport, ME, 1997, 1:16:03

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

Race director: Bob Teschek, (603) 863-2537, racetime@gsrs.com,
Press and elite athletes liaison: John Stifler (413) 585-0924, jstifler@econs.umass.edu.