[GRP Snow] Athletes race up Loon Mountain
A group of GRP Snow athletes traveled to Lincoln, New Hampshire last week for the Loon Mountain Race (LMR). The LMR doubled as the USATF Vertical Mountain Championships this year. The race is about 6 miles, with just over 3,000 feet of vertical elevation gain. And to top it off, the last kilometer of the race climbs a black diamond ski slope called the Upper Walking Boss (UWB) which reaches a 48% grade. It is brutal - but it’s also a great fitness test.
Alex Lawson, with a stellar race, placed third with a time of 1:00:30. “I didn’t have any expectations for the race and it honestly went a lot better than I could have imagined,” Alex said. “The highlights were probably all the people cheering on UWB and getting to duke it out with Rachel [Tomajczyk].” Alex also shared some thoughts on how races like this can fit into a summer of ski training: “Running races can be great hard efforts to complement ski training. It can get a little tricky to balance though, because racing a lot limits the number of hours/base you can put in (which is probably my main goal in the summer). That being said, I really enjoy running races. I think doing something that isn’t skiing gives me a bit of a mental break from ski training itself, while still working in tangent to some degree.”
Retired GRPer, Caitlin Patterson, placed 7th (1:03:40), Margie Freed was 8th (1:04:41), Tara Geraghty-Moats 18th (1:11:45), and Annika Landis 23rd (1:14:29).
Alex entering the homestretch
Jake Brown was the top GRP guy to finish, placing 9th with a time of 51:03. Jake had the second fastest time out of anyone for the UWB. “Loon is a great event; well organized, well attended, and challenging,” he said. “The race is tough - no other way to say it - you start at the bottom of an alpine area and 50 minutes to 1 hour later you’re at the top. It was a slightly different course than when I had last run it in 2019 so when I realized that I tried to keep an open mind about how much further I had to go. Once we hit the downhill before the legendary Upper Walking Boss I knew where I was. I dug a bit deeper to the finish, and a bit more when I got to the top and our women's team was cheering for me.”
Sean Doherty, GRP training partner, was 15th with a time of 53:32. Raleigh Goessling was 20th (56:52) with Luke Brown in 36th (1:00:32).
Jake fighting for the line