Since we'd just been to Mt Washington, I thought this story I saw in the Messenger at the Steeple Market was interesting:
Ask a serious runner about fundamental tips for success, and you might doze midway through a lengthy lecture about proper biomechanics, shoe science, and electrolyte replenishment.
Then ask Gerald Barney, of Swanton. Three-plus decades into his running career, he could write a one-page runner’s guide with seven simple syllables: “Get out the door. Stick with it.”
That philosophy – along with an admirable, consistent determination – earned Barney the course record among 65 to 69 year olds at the grueling Mt. Washington Road Race in 1999. His time was 1:34:59. He was 65.
“It didn’t mean much,” Barney said Thursday, in his gentle, soft-spoken manner. “Records are just something that someone else is going to break. I just like to run. And I like to race.”
Today, at a young 75, Barney will run back up the mountain. He is one of two Vermonters to hold a Mt. Washington record; the other is John Pelton, of West Rupert, who broke the record among 60 to 64 year olds in 1999, with a time of 1:24:32.
“I’m a little apprehensive,” Barney said. “But I think I’ll make it up there.”
The Mt. Washington race is like stretching the steepest part of St. Albans Hill for 7.6 miles and then running up. The course has an average grade of 11.5 percent, with extended sections of 18 percent. The last 50 yards is a 22 percent climb to the finish. Walking is expected. Downhill doesn’t exist.
The course is almost 5,000 vertical feet from start to finish. The race motto?
“There’s only one hill.”
I'll stick to driving up the auto road.
ntodd
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