Mt Washington RR...To sign up or not!!

Well we only have 2 more days to sign up for the lottery for one of the toughest road races in America. I've only run this race 3 times, and each time I swear that I'll never do it again.

The first time I ran it was in 1990. I remember it was a very warm day at the bottom and I had not gotten a very good nights sleep because we were staying at the Eagle Mountain Nest and our room had to be in the 90's the night before and my new born son decided that he was going to cry most of the night. So I put him in the car at 2AM and went for a 1 hour drive to get him to sleep. It worked but it also knocked the snot out of me. To add injury to insult...I was running with a groin injury and was not able to take full strides. I don't think that really mattered that much because you can't take full strides in that race. That year I think I finished in 1:20 and right as I finished Mike Beeman who finished just in front of me grabbed his head and started yelling that he couldn't see. I guess that the strain and the altitude had cause his sight to go. DD and I grabbed him and helped him out until his sight returned. At that point I was cold and needed to get of the rock pile. So I jumped in the back of a pickup truck and was carted down. That night I DD and his wife and Me and my wife were hanging out in the bar watching a replay of the race. At one point the camera shows DD waking. It was priceless because DD immediately started squawking that "that was the only time I walked....REALLY" To funny.

Fast forward to 1999 and I wasn't in good shape but I figured I could gut out the race. A group of us went up and raced as teams against each other. It was Keith Spinney and Ken Rousseau against Joe Karner and myself. The losers would have to buy dinner for the winners. Joe ran a 1:25 and I ran a 1:30. While Keith ran a 1:25 and ken ran a 1:32. Thanks to Joe those steaks tasted wonderful that night. But once again when I reach the top I was very cold. I don't think I spent more than 5 minutes up there and I turned around and ran back down in 50 minutes. Boy did my quads hurt after that.

My last attempt was in 2007. However 1 week before the race I pulled a muscle in my lower back and was in an incredible amount of pain. After crawling around for 3 days my wife convinced me to go to the doctors. The doctor looked me over and decided it was just a muscle pull and I was to lie down for 2 weeks. Right after he told me this I asked him "Is it OK for me to run up Mt Washington in 3 days"? He shook his head and said, "you're a runner and you're not going to rest, are you"? Well I showed up to the race with Joe Karner and at the base of the mountain I was laying in the grass trying to figure out how I was going to run this race. I was in tears from the pain. I even had 800mg of IBP in me. So as I walked very slowly to the starting line I went directly to the back. This was a first for me. The gun went off and I was the last person to cross the starting line. All the way up the Mt I was in pain. For the final push to the finish I gave it everything I had and the picture of me crossing the finish line is priceless. I'm almost in tears. I ran a 1:50, and was very happy with the results.

Well a group of my buddies (Team ROAG) got a hold of that finish line photo and had it put on a Wheaties box and now give it out as an annual award at their holiday dinner. It's call the PHAT award (Pain...Heavy At Times). It's given out to the member of the group who pushes themselves way beyond all reasonable means. So far I've won this award for the past 2 years. However this year we have a member who pushed them self through a 90Km cross country ski race with little training. I think he owns it.

So what should I do? Sign up and take a chance at getting the PHAT award one more time or sit back and enjoy life? What would you do?