The 58th edition of the Mt Washington race takes place Saturday, June 16, 2018, at 9 AM. Former champions Sage Canaday & Eric Blake will race head to head. Shannon Payne, Kim Dobson and Brandy Erholtz lead the women’s field. 1000 runners will conquer “Only One Hill” climbing 4600′ over 7.6 miles.
The top two men planning to race Mt Washington are both former winners – Sage Canaday of Boulder CO and Eric Blake of West Hartford, CT. Canaday won this all-uphill race in 2012 and placed second behind 4 time winner Joseph Gray last year; Blake has won it three times (2006, 2008, 2013) and was third last year. Both men are veterans of the US Mountain Running Team with extensive international racing experience.
Eric Blake on the steepest section of the Mt Washington course.
The women’s race promises to be equally intense, as defending champion Shannon Payne of Franktown, CO, returns to face four-time winner Kim Dobson of Eagle, CO, and two-time winner Brandy Erholtz of Evergreen, CO. Dobson holds the second-fastest time ever recorded in the women’s race here – one hour 9 minutes 25 seconds – and is the only woman to break 1:10 twice on the extremely steep 7.6-mile course. Erholtz won here in 2008 and 2009, then finished second the next four years (including once when four months pregnant) and again last year.
Kim Dobson shows her suffer-face at the nearby Loon Mountain Race.
Sponsored by Northeast Delta Dental, the race ascends the Mt. Washington Auto Road from Pinkham Notch, N.H., to the summit of Mt. Washington, the highest peak in the northeastern United States. Canaday and Blake are two of just eight men who have broken the one-hour barrier in this race. Not running this year is Joseph Gray who holds the American men’s record of 58:15 in 2015.
Dobson’s 1:09:25 is the American women’s record for the course. The women’s open course record, 1:08:21, was set in 2010 by Shewarge Amare of Ethiopia. The men’s record, 56:41, was set in 2004 by six-time World Mountain Champion Jonathan Wyatt of New Zealand. Last Summer “Jono” was elected as President of the World Mountain Running Association.
Several other top mountain runners, including newcomers from Europe who are yet to be announced, will join the 1300-runner field this year. The rest of the field includes members of sponsoring teams, elite runners, previous winners of the race or of specific age-groups within it, and — the largest part of the field — runners whose names were chosen last month in the annual lottery that selects runners at random from all who apply. This year 2657 entered the lottery; 921 were chosen.
Now in its 58th year, the Northeast Delta Dental Mount Washington Road Race will be held on Saturday June 16, starting at 9 a.m.
Names and hometowns of all registered entrants can be found on a list at this link, sortable in alphabetical order by name and by state, province, or foreign country: https://www.runreg.com/Confirmed/7664
