New Hampshire and USA's

The past few weeks have been pretty interesting. After spending a few weeks in good ole' New Hampshire I have a new found respect for "The Granite State" and the home of the motto "Live Free or Die." Mountains are sprawled throughout the town and its almost as if every degree you turn you see some sort of peak or ledge. I was able to meet a local celebrity in the Conway, Madison, and Jackson area during my stay this year. Kevin Tilton, also a member of Team Inov-8 showed me around a few trails one day. I must say I envy him. He lives in a mountain running paradise and its practically in his back yard! Lots of soft trails and lots of miles of open air. Many of the trails were completely empty without worry of running into a loose dog or having to run through a bush to get around a pedestrian. Kevin is truly a celebrity, no pun was intended by that comment above. I remember being in a grocery store and talking with a couple who asked me if I was running Cranmore and if I had done Mt. Washington. When I said yes, they immediately got excited and asked, "do you know Kevin Tilton?" On another occasion, I met a guy in town and he said I looked like a runner and asked the same question if I was in town for the race. Again, he said oh you must have heard of Kevin T. then he carried on about how Kevin wins literally everything out there. So, if you are ever in the North Conway area you must not only check out the mountains or Storyland, but also Kevin ( : I eventually checked out the course serving as this years USA Mountain Running Championships while simultaneously serving as the North American and Central American Mountain Running Championships in the ski area known as Cranmore. This little pocket of land was also surrounded by some nice trails along with some technical climbing and downhills. Going into the course run through I was a bit nervous as I did not really want to see what we would have to go through the coming weekend. My fears become reality as even the pictures online of the course gave the technicality and difficulty of the ascents and descents no justice. I knew right away that as I woke up the morning after the Championship I would have Paul Kirsch, race director and White Mountain Miler team member to thank for the slight feeling of rigor mortis.

Race day came and the idea of running that long fast downhill twice still haunted me. The field of runners was pretty packed with runners from all over the States and Western Hemisphere. The main pack of runners I thought would be in medal contention included too many to name. Out of the top 10 there are probably 3-4 runners who have at one time or another won a National Championship or a few. With the tough climb on the first lap I figured Eric would really put the heat on us along with Simon who are both known for their climbing ability. Sure enough they did, however the race got even more interesting nearing the first 2k as Shiloh began to push the pack. We had a large group heading up one of the steepest sections of the course and then the race started to really come to life when Rickey took the lead dropping Shiloh and a few others that were in the pack leaving Simon, Eric, Zac, Matt and I up front. After his win at Mt. Washington I think we all got a bit nervous when he took the lead because hes a beast on the downhill as well, so definitely a wake up call in the race. Ironically this front pack was the team from the 2008 USA National Mountain Running Team that received the Bronze Medal at the World Trophy. Having raced at Worlds with them all before, I knew the whole pack was tough, so there were no dark horses or walk-overs in the front pack at this point. Behind them we still had a pack that included some experienced mountain runners such as Kevin T and John T. (AKA DT!). On the last technical climb I started to pull away. Rickey and I stayed pretty close to the top and sometime near the water stop I think the pack started to separate a bit. Heading into the second lap I felt great, but with Eric and Rickey still lurking I had to be nervous as they would most likely run the fastest 2nd uphill portion of the race and they probably did. I was shocked when I turned back near the top of the last lap to see Zac pulling in on me. From what I could see, Zac and I would most likely end up being either 1st or 2nd if we stayed trouble free on the down. That's the scary part of the downhill, anything can happen! I ended up winning the race with Zac and Matt rounding out the auto qualifiers for the National Team. Mt. Cranmore will always be embedded in my memory as this was my first National Mountain Running Championship win.

I was glad to meet some members from Team Inov-8 finally, which btw, I might add that we all did pretty damn well. I would like to send a special thank you to Paul Kirsch who put on an amazing event and one that I'm 100% positive every participant woke up feeling like they needed crutches. A special shout out to Joe F. and Suzanne A. for being super accommodating. Also, I want to thank our sponsor Team Inov-8 for all their support.