June started with TEVA GAMES which for mountain running in Colorado is the start of the season as far as Im concerned. 

Finishing 4th overall in Saturdays half marathon ascent of Vail pass, followed by another 4th 10km spring trail run-off on Sunday was satisfying for me. It was the best finish I have had since 2003 and considering the high level of competition, it was good to feel that all my training was starting to pay off for 2009.

Next stop ( June 20) was THE Mt. Washington Road Race held in New hampshire. A grinding 7.5 mile race, ascending 4500 ft with literally no flat sections to be had.  It was my 10th time to the starting line and I had high expectations.  My first goal was to run under my existing PR of 60.54 and my dream tiime was a sub 60 effort. Last year I set the existing "masters" course record time of 61.34 and my workouts had been faster than ever this year  !

The mystic of running or any sport is that no matter how well prepared one is, you never know how the body is going to perform.  I found myself at the mile mark, in the lead pack, feeling comfortable and optimistic.  By 2 miles I felt like I had just sprinted an all out mile ?  My quads burned and my breathing was off. With 5.5 miles to go I had two choices, stop or slow down ........the next three miles were the most difficult miles I have ever run at mt washington. Struggling in 6th place and feeling exhausted, despite the slow pace i was looking for any reason to keep going..escept for the fact that walking would take longer to end my misery   .....Prize money goes 5 deep and in 9 races I have never finished worse than 5th.  That seemed like a reason to keep pushing to the summit.  For some odd reason with a mile to go , my breathing improved and I felt better than the previous 4 miles...I moved into 5th and mentally started to plan my return in 2010.  My time of 64 min and change was well off my goal, it did not help to hear the easy excuse of....Simon , you are getting older.....after thinking about the race I  know that it was just one of those day's and in fact I had run 64 min in 2004 , coming back for my PR in 2005.....It is the 50th anniversary for Mt Washington Road Race in 2010 and although this year did not work out, what better time to run a huge PR next year :)

Back to Colorado, I had one week to shake off a bad race and prepare for our National Mountain running championships. Not only that, I was one of four athletes selected to represent the USA in the North American Championships.  I was home for 4 days and had a great speed session on Thursday ( further proof to me that the weekend prior was a fluke, I ran one of my fastest sessions of the year feeling easy). 

Flying back to New Hampshire for the second time in 10 days , I had mixed emotions for the upcoming race...the course  was up a ski mountain and back down again, 2 laps. Downhills not being my favorite type of racing, I was hoping that my legs could handle the steep descents. Determined to run a good race with my USA teamates, I was in third at the end of the first lap, but by mid way up the second climb my quads had taking too much of a beating in the first descent and I could feel myself slowing...the  last 2.8km all downhill , well that was a painful experience. The second time in my career where you can literally feel your muscles getting sore and strained with each step.

A seventh place finish overall, the USA beating Canada and Mexico left me feeling much more optimistic for the rest of the mountain running season. 

More stories later.......cause recovering from this race proved more difficult than expected ..

 Happy Trails

Simon