Saturday, July 20, 2019

Loon Mountain Race Report

Loony 
The Loon Mountain race has been heralded as one of the toughest races in America, and for good reason. The race has a slogan of "There's No Safe Word at Loon". This is a play on the masochistic nature of a 10K that climbs over 3,000' and ends with a quad searing final half mile on the infamous "Upper Walking Boss" a black diamond ski slope that takes souls in early July every year with its 48% grade. This year LMR drew well over 1,000 entrants from all over the US and some from abroad.

"Our Boss is Tougher Than Your Boss"

The race was split with males and females with the ladies going off about 45 minutes before the men. I arrived early to watch the start of the women's race and rub elbows with some of my old friends and teammates. Among them was Salming Athlete Jeremy Drowne of Plattsburgh, NY who was running Loon for the first time. We shared strategy and the best advice I could give him as a veteran of this event was "The shit isn't over after the boss". As it would turn out I led him astray with that because of the slight course variation this year which meant "The shit is over..exactly after the boss" I tried to conserve some gas going up and ended up finishing with a lot left to burn. This wasn't too big of a deal as I barely squeaked into the top 100. Jeremy however ended up taking home an age group and an impressive top 20! Even after my shitty advice!
Grinding my way up UWB

I felt great and PR'd the race by 3ish minutes, and I really am satisfied with that. My training base has been in preparation for Mountain 50 milers, so showing up and sending it in a short race like this was totally cool with me. 
"Steady Pace is the best way to get that PR"

This year with such a large turnout The Race Directors had their hands full, but they pulled off yet another successful LMR race to which I am grateful for. I am also very appreciative of the volunteers who came out in force to make this acidoticRACING event another for the record books. 

My shoe choice was pretty easy and Jeremy and I both toed the line in the Salming OT comps, a shoe that is currently dominating the OCR world. The deep Michelin Lugs on a light low and flexible platform make an absolute beast of a mountain racing shoe!
The Salming OT Comp is not only and OCR legend but also 
a mountain racing must have!

Moving Forward
Today was a training day in the White Mountains of NH, with Teammate and Mountain Goat Eva Johnson. She let me tag along on a 23 mi adventure with nearly 5,000' of vertical. We tagged all of the Bonds from Lincoln Woods even despite this heat wave!
Loving on the Bond Cliffs!
Happy Trails My friends.




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