Squirmin' on the Mount

Crazy busy month of May, so I haven't had a lot of time to catch up on the blogging front, and as a result have a daunting blog backlog to plow through, so it's time to clean the pipes and get back to the grind.

So much to cover, but it won't be chronological, just snapshots of what's been going on in - to quote the mirthful Queen Guinevere herself - the lusty month of May.

After a couple of years hiatus, it was time to make a celebrated return to one of our favorite races, particularly for its off-road offerings, the Mount Wachusett trail race.

Here's a helpful hint for you casual runners out there:  if a race has the word Mount in its title, it's a sure bet your challenge is going to involve running up a hill.

So yeah, the Mount Wachusett trail race.

We've done it several times before, but for many of those outings, the course was altered, either because of road closings, trail conditions, or some other act of god that diverted our pathway.

This year's offering was a 10K, or 6.2 mile course.  Math and physics were never my strong suit, but I now understand that for this race, that measurement means 3.1 miles UP the mountain, with the other 3.1 coming back down.

Ugh.

Pre-race, Andrew is ready to walk the planks to get to the start.

Which is where we found fellow E Streeter - oops, for this race, Lone Wolf - Scott Spence finishing up his 20 mile warm-up run

Bumped into fellow Middlesex Community College off-roader Lisa Doucett, who's notched more than a few personal bests on some of the crazier courses in our running repertoire.

The pack ahead of me, waiting to climb up Mile Hill Road.  The name alone should give you an indication of what lies ahead for mile one of this race.

Andrew has his game face on.  That's because he's done this first mile climb before, several times.  And it still sucks.

Half-way up Mile Hill Road, a half-assed selfie

The vistas up top were simply gorgeous, despite the heavy fog coating.  This particular panorama occurred at one of the steeper points of the three-mile uphill climb.  Fortunately, the elevation allowed me to slow to the point where I was able to safely capture the moment on film.

Up top, just to prove I made it there, I passed the camera-phone to one of the volunteers, just to so I could document the accomplishment.  No truth to the vicious rumor it was because I needed the extra seconds to attempt to recapture a breathing rhythm which had long fled my body.

The next three miles were straight downhill.  And here I thought my run had gone downhill since the starting gun went off.  This backside three meant recording some of the fastest mile splits we've ever recorded, thanks to momentum and the laws of gravity.  It also meant that because we had to watch our footing on the rock-covered and technical trails, there was no way the camera was coming out.  It was all I could do to control my flailing arms and downward descent without falling ass over teakettle.

At the finish line, a father-son reunion.

Heading back to the car, we ran into a couple of running legends - Lowell Sun Enterprise Editor Chris Scott and his son Andy, who ruled the mountain that day, finishing 9th overall.  As you can see from the pic, one of these two ran the race, the other was saving himself for a 100 mile bike ride later that day. 

And because it's not every day you get to stage your group shots with a polar bear, we collected Lone Wolves, Great Scotts, and E Streeters alike for our victory pose. 

Mountains do strange things to a man, and so does running.  Not for the weak of heart, Wachusett is certainly one to experience.  It's a gorgeous scale up a local treasure, but make no mistake, it's an uphill battle.  Even though I previously stated the subject wasn't my pinnacle in high school, as the laws of physics state, what goes up, must come down.  Thankfully, that dictum holds especially true for off-road mountain runners.