Mount Washington Road Race

I am still on a “mountain high”, so I thought I’d share some thoughts with you guys. Lining up at the start of the Mt Washington race was one of the most intimidating experiences of my life.  They ask you to line up where you think you’ll finish so naturally I headed toward the back.  As I passed, I was in awe of the magnitude of world class runners who lined the front into the middle of the pack.  Folks fine tuned and experienced, however unlike other competitive events I’ve participated in, they were all cordial, friendly and up beat. The start was placed on a slight decline which ran about a 10^th of a mile or so.  The guy who started the race announces this will be the last down hill you see for over 7.5 miles and he was correct!  As I ran up hill after hill I hoped at each hill crest a leveling or slight decline would appear, just to catch a break, it never did, it kept getting steeper and higher.. My strategy was to RUN the whole race (not a good strategy) by mile 3.5 I realized I could actually walk faster than I was running.  I was also expending huge amounts of energy, but I continued my “old man shuffle” unwilling to give up my goal of running the entire way.  As the topography changed from tree lined to above tree line an air of calm came over me, instead of keeping my head down and remaining in my own world, while fretting about just finishing, I transformed my mind-set to one of FEELING my place in the beauty and magnificence of what was all around me, majestic landscape & runners …  I ran head up looking across blue skied, cloud and fog–lined Presidential range, speaking with my fellow runners as I encountered them.. From that point on I was experiencing my own private nirvana.  Around mile 4.5 the elite runner who had already finished and decided to run down began lapping me and to a person, each yelled out words of encouragement to me as they ran by. I don’t know their names but these are some great world class endurance athletes and for them to be encouraging me was akin to Larry Bird cheering me on as if I was going up for a game winning jump shot. Then, I looked to my left and saw the ridge at approx mile 5, it was lined with runners and it looked like it was a thousand miles away, I gasped and felt a little sense of helplessness, but then as I passed a water station a guy with a mike said “look those guys up there aren’t going much faster than you guys here right now. For some reason I took comfort in that and got back to feeling my place in the universe.   

The ridge:  hitting the ridge was almost orgasmic, The beauty around me was astonishing.  The runners around me were thinned, as I was now well behind the main pack. I spoke to a guy who has done this race a few times before, he was Jewish and  from Connecticut and he said these words to me “I’m a Jew”  Kind of taken back I said “that’s nice, so am I” to which he responded “ Oh , then you realize our people did this type of thing for survival, we are doing it for ice cream” (we all had a free ice cream ticket for the after party) .. I roared with laughter!!!  Up I went , at around mile 6.5 another runner mentioned that right up ahead there will be a right hand curve and just past that curve will be a 22% up-grade and somewhere over that grade will be a photographer “so run this stretch like you want to be seen in a photograph” I have to say, I was quite happy with my surge up that devil’s hill and sure enough As the grade came down a bit , there kneeled a guy with a camera.  Once the photos are released I will let you know if in reality I looked as cool as I thought I did!..

Final surge to the summit, I can hear people cheering the runners as they came in , lots of people up top, I need to make my final surge I passed a couple of folks (yeah!) and ran up a short but very steep incline to the finish line, where finished runners were yelling” good push, keep it up, ect” I got to the top and a guy with a mike announces my arrival “Neil Lovett of Laconia NH”  I yell back as loud as I could “GILFORD NH!” I hear a couple of chuckles, I am handed a wool blanket to shield me from the famous Mt Washington summit winds (which were cruising at a brisk 20 mph) and I am done, I did it!!!.

I would love another opportunity to do it next year because now that I know what to expect, I know the road “hills” I was training on were not really hills at all. I am fortunate to live next to Gunstock and that is where I need to train, in the Belknaps… Upon my decent I was able to chat with the winner, a Phish-fan looking dude from Colorado, who finished the course in 1 hr and 1 minute, that’s really not human. I was also privileged to speak to a retired Penn State Professor named George Etzweiler . The amazing thing about George is at 91 years of age he not only finished the course but did it in under 3 hours!!!  George is my new hero.

So, with that said I decided to hike Willey on Sunday, the day after the race. 

I am not smart, as midway through the hike, after a ladder climb of about 40 or so steps, my legs turned to jello and what I would normally hike up with good effort became a serious chore! Good news is I gave Karen a wonderful fathers day gift as she beat me to the summit!!!  Oh , that summit was number 33 of the 48 I need to complete my 48 NH 4000 footers.  I report back when I have accomplished that goal!!!!     

The Voice inside my head

"wow a lot of people here look like they've done this before.. don't worry about that..run your own race"
"fucking cold, did I dress right... that would suck if I am totally uncomfortable.. I hope not"
"ok, this is good.. I'm going at a good clip"
"wow, this is cool Manch looks great from this venue"
"Is that a band I hear, how cool.. good tune.. thanks for coming out"
"Not so bad, i can do this"
"cute butt, I'll stay here for a while"
"running up that road..I 'm running up that hill"
"just finished a 5K, 8 miles to go"
"I thought their were lots of hills during the first 6, this isn't bad.. I think I can finish in 2 hours"
"Chia now"
"hummm.. thru the park.. trail run.. legs are a little heavy, groin .. dam..  no surprise"
"looks like lots of people hanging in Livingston Park.. awesome.. good energy boost.. groin tightening"
"running up that road, I'm running up that hill"
"Mile 7, Dee & Mon giving water.. come on Neil run fast, look good"
"down hill.. nice"
"Running up that road, I'm running up that hill"
"This chick keeps walking the hills, yet she catches up on the downhill.. groin hurting I'm slowing down.. come the fuck on.. lift your legs"
"I've run further than i've ever run.. uncharted territory"
"God Dam Groin.. call on The Bonds, Owlshead, Isolation.. you know the dill.. run thru the pain"
"Oh fuck I know this hill Derryfield Park!  Fuck!"
"Come the fuck on Neil .. I'm running up that hill"
"legs won't move like before so you need to move them with your mind.. come the fuck on"
"The finish is like the last legs of a hike.. it will come but not soon enough, but it will come"
"Shit, the walking hill girl is well in front, loosing time, but still on personal pace... move forward"
"Dan..hi.. nice.... 2 miles to go"
"Last hill.. come on Neil ..come.. the.. fuck.. on"
"Elm St... cool, looks awesome down there,, that's where i want to be.. dam.. I'll finish where I expected,  "finish!"
"finish!"
"finish!"
"On the runway..need more cheering peeps.. thought there'd be more here... but run as fast as you can.. pass that asshole ....and that one... and that one.."
"Fucking done!  Give me my aluminum thing"
"Yeah!!!!! "
(smile)

An Interview with Phil The Hiking Dog

A conversation with Phil:

Blogger:  So Phil, what got you into hiking?

Phil:  I had nothing to do with it, Neil.. oh excuse me, Capt. Guyot, he makes me call him that now.. stupid fucking name..  anyway, Capt. Guyot brought me to this short but somewhat steep hike around the Lake called Mt. Major.. the territory marking opportunities were endless!

Blogger: So a chance to piss on the land got you interested in the mountains?

Phil: No, not at all it was the ease at which i was able to negotiate the trails that got me interested


Blogger:  Humm, so ..(Phil interrupts)

Phil: Actually , it was realizing how much of a superior hiker I was over Capt. Guyot and anybody else he brought up the hills...  While they were huffing and puffing up the rocks, I was running and jumping like an Olympian!  Human intellect allows them to build to destroy stuff  and I think that stems from the fact that in a fair fight, we animals would kick their asses, so humans need to build in order to destroy...  humans have made their lives way to mechanized and if they were to loose their toys and machines, we animals would destroy them.. macho pricks!


Blogger:  Fuck you Phil, you four-legged fur-covered asshole


Phil:  Typical.....
Stay Tuned:  next week we speak with Maggie, The Hiking Golden

Friends Of Mount Guyot

I am disgusted and angry! Mount Guyot (pronounced Gee-o), standing at a majestic 4,580 is estimated to be the 16th tallest mountain in The White's of New Hampshire. The iconic AT (Apalachian Trail)runs right across it's magnificent summit. Yet, The Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC)refuses to recognize this beautiful summit peak as one of The NH 48 4,000 footers!

Why does a 4,580 foot mountain not count as a 4,000 foot mountain you may ask..Good question my inquisitive reader... Well it has something to do with some bullshit-egghead calculation that says a topographic prominence of 200 feet is required for the mountain to be considered a NH 4,000 footer. Huh??? What the fuck is that about?!?!?! So, I started reading about Topographic Prominence and as boredom oozed out my eyeballs I then realized, who gives a shit! The head of this wonderful hunk of stone and granite touches the sky at 4,580 feet..Big fucken deal if some topographist ( is that a word?) and AMC pinhead decided to exclude peaks based on some ridiculous formula... If it looks and smells and tastes like a chicken, it's a fucking chicken!!!

So I am starting a grassroots organization called "Friends of Guyot".. I plan to petition the AMC powers that be to include Guyot and maybe Little Haystack (4,800 feet!!!) as 4,000 foot mountains. If successful, we can change the name of the "New Hampshire 48" to The New Hampshire 50... 50 states, 50 mountains! Or if the AMC doesn't want to change it's 48, we can take a pick-ax to Tecumseh (4,003) and chop 4 feet of of the summit, making it only 3,999 feet, it's a shit hike anyways!.. and/or we can have them dump Owlshead all together, making many a peak-baggers life that much easier!!! 

To show my personal commitment to this project, I ask my trekker friends to officially dub me the trail name of "Captain Guyot". If the request to include Guyot as an official 4,000 footer is not granted, I will organize a protest and, complete with cool signs and bare-breasted woman (for media grabbing purposes only) we will picket and chant "INCLUDE GUYOT.. INCLUDE GUYOT" in front of the AMC building during the April patch award ceremony, disrupting the proceedings and making my qualifier friends, Meena and Ruby the Dog a bit angry!

If you are as passionate as I am about this quest, please pass this post along to like-minded folks.. Your help is greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Neil Lovett

aka: "Captain Guyot"

A True Story

Don't know the names, so I don't need to protect the innocent, er' I mean ignorant.. but this conversation really took place ( I wrote down as much a possible)..These people thought they were talking intelligently, I swear they did!

Guy: If Obama wasn't born in The United States, how the hell is he President

Girl: I'm not saying the KKK did things right, but I think this wouldn't be happening to us if they were still a group.

Guy: I wouldn't go down south if I was him

Girl: He was just in Deleware

Guy: Well at least he's brave

The Day The Music Died

on september 11, 2001 fucking crazies attacked the town i was born in

and they killed everyone

and we all cried

and we all changed

i watched as the towers fell, crumbling like fiery cidadels in hell

and soot-covered businessmen wandered aimlessly home

i watched fireman run up the molten stairs of death

and cnn's elizabeth cohen cried as she interviewed 100's of fragile, confused souls

whose lost family members would never return

and live fathers mothers sons and daughters jumped from skyscraper buildings and became insignificant ingredients in a hideous rubble-stew

i watched that on tv

like the nameless, faceless fireman who ran up to death's door

nameless faceless airline passengers did the same in the skies above pennsylvania

we couldn't see that on tv

but we all cried

and today september 12 2010 this scene will play out again

not in new york city or

washington dc or in pennsylvania america

but maybe in mogadishu

or bagdad

or london

or off the gulf coast of louisiana

it will happen again

it always does

and nameless faceless people will die

and fragile/confused souls will wonder when their loved ones will come home

and they won't

and they will cry

and change

these times.. it won't be as personal to you

to us

but it will be to them

Modern Time Dharma Bums

"Try the meditation of the trail, just walk along looking at the trail at your feet and don't look about and just fall into a trance as the ground zips by. trails are like that, you're floating along a Shakespearian Ardin paradise and expect to see nymphs and fluteboys, then suddenly you're struggling in a hot broiling sun of hell in dust and nettles and poison oak... just like life"

I'm adding.. "just like life and marriage"

The original verse are the words of Jack Kerouac from "The Dharma Bums", one of my favorite books. I just read that verse again, this time in "Born To Run" by Christopher McDougall, one of my new favorite books.... Those words inspired me to write this..

Marriage, like life is a vision of sea nymphs and fluteboys.. but as the verse says, it can also be fucked up like the boiling sun of hell and poison oak... So, what better place to hold a wedding than the stage of Kerouac's above written prose, the trail! Brilliant Meena and Dan!!... without knowing it or maybe with knowing it, you kicked off and staged the rest of your lives like any good Dharma Bum, on the road, and on this particular day.. the road/trail/mountain was inclusive of potential good and bad.. a possible hurricane, ever-changing skies.. one minute beautiful skies colored in aqua-grey-black-white and teal.. the next moment damp, black and menacing.. breathtaking panoramic landscape.. nasty fog and wind. In fact hurricane Earl actually looked on.. realizing his wrath wouldn't dampen spirits, only add to resolve and because of that he hovered, just a benign observer.... Humm..The fluteboys/sea nymphs and the hot broiling sun/poison oak Kerouac spoke of....

The hike to the destination was not easy, in fact it was hard and steep.. it taxed your physical and mental self.. but it was a journey set out to be conquered because the potential positives far outweighed the the potential negatives.. and that included weathering whatever Earl decided to throw at us...

So my friends it won't always be sea nymphs and fluteboys, but always remember this union started on a rocky trail wrought with potential disaster and it ended in euphoria and a greater sense of accomplishment about what was done....

You can be truly Dharma Bums, modern day Buddha's, searching together for.............