Teammates Gates and Erholtz share Mt. Washington victory

GORHAM – Coloradans and U.S. Mountain Running team members Rickey Gates and Brandy Erholtz headed their fields through dense fog at treeline and emerged victorious at the 49th annual Mount Washington Road Race here Saturday.

Gates became the second American to run to the summit of Mount Washington in under one hour, and Erholtz won for the second straight year, besting her previous time by 15 seconds to post the fourth fastest women's clocking up the serpentine 7.6 mile Auto Road.

Gates, 28, finished his sub-hour run in 59:58 in bright sunshine at the 6,288-foot summit, well above the undercast that gave specators a view similar to one an airline passenger experiences when flying above the clouds.

New Zealanders Derek Froude and Jonathan Wyatt, Kenyan Daniel Kihara, and Matt Carpenter, a fellow American and Colorado runner who has won a number of Pike's Peak Trail marathons and registered the fastest non-winning time here (59:16, 1999), have eclipsed 60 minutes. Wyatt's 56:41 in 2004 stands as the course standard.

The 31-year-old Erholtz posted at 1:10:53 and fell 45 seconds shy of her bid to top the women's course record of 1:10:08 (Magdalena Thorsell, 1998). Only Sweden's Thorsell, 2005 winner Melissa Moon of New Zealand and six-time winner Anna Pichrtova of the Czech Republic have completed their mountain runs more quickly than Erholtz.

Rickey Gates, left, and Brandy Erholtz enjoy the view atop the highest peak east of the Mississippi after winning their respective divisions in the 49th Mt. Washington Road Race. (DENNIS COUGHLIN)

Plaistow veteran mountain runner Craig Fram, who won this race in 1997 (1:04:48) and broke the men's masters record twice, set a 50-54 age group record of 1:06:58, shaving more than six minutes off the previous mark. He also owns the 1:05:44, 45-49 age group record.

Gates' closet challenge came from two-time winner Eric Blake, 30, of New Britain, Conn., who finished more than a minute behind at 61:19. Erholtz outdistanced women's runner-up and masters winner Tara Cardi by nine minutes.

As the race unfolded, the one-mile frontrunners included Gates, Blake, Joe Gray of Lakewood, Wash., Scranton, Pa.'s Matthew Byrne and current masters record-holder Simon Gutierrez of Alamosa, Colo. At the second water station, 2.5 miles into the climb, the leaders were beginning to string out and only Gates, Blake and Gray maintained pace, with Gates in front by 15 seconds.

"Rickey pulled away before three miles and I just couldn't hang with him," said Blake.

Gray noted, "Two miles in I knew I was in for a tough day. Rickey took off. I tried to stay with Eric but I fell off."

►Complete race results

The champion acknowledged running with Blake for a while, but said, "I pay attention to someone's breathing, and I could hear him panting at two miles. I put on a little surge."

Clouds below treeline

The clouds shrouded the course at treeline and Gates reached the halfway point, just under 3,900 feet, in 28:55. At Government Sign, 100 feet of elevation later, visibility was 50 yards and diminishing rapidly. But Gates was accelerating.

"When I was in the clouds, I couldn't see more than 20 feet in front of me," Gates said. "It became a mental race."

"I tried to go with him," said Blake after the run, "but I fell back and had to regroup. The last two times I've won this race. It's tough when your goal is to win, and it's a whole different mindset running for second. It's tough when the guy's beating you by a minute and you can't see him."

Kevin Tilton of North Conway runs above the clouds as he nears the finish of the Mt. Washington Road Race. (AP)

At Cow Pasture at 5,500 feet, just beyond the notorious Hairpin Turn, the sun broke through the clouds to reveal Gates ahead of Blake by more than a minute, 52:25-53:32.

Running up the challenging final 50-meter, 22-percent grade to the summit and the finish line, Gates, with the race clock ticking down, staged a remarkable sprinting burst to snap the tape in under one hour.

"It was awesome in the clear, and I sprinted to reach one of those milestones," the winner recalled. "Running this race under one hour -- it's hard to describe the feeling."

Gray, Byrne and Gutierrez, once again the race's best finishing master, rounded out the top five men.

Near record for Erholtz

Erholtz, meanwhile, who finished 23rd overall, said, "I'm bummed I didn't get the record, but as I got closer to the fog, I knew. My goal was to go out fast and win. I heard other runners around me, but in the fog I didn't know if they were men or women, so I ran. It was hard to focus in the fog and see the road or a tangent. I live at 9,000 feet in Colorado, so I just visualized my mountain road back home. When I broke into the clear I could see again and get my bearings."

Both division winners, along with several others, will remain in the state this week for next Sunday morning's Mt. Cranmore 12K double-loop which serves as a qualifying race, along with the Cheyene Mountain, Colorado Springs race, for the upcoming U.S. Mountain Running Team. Gates was the top finishing American at the World Championships in Switzerland last year, while Gray was second and Blake third. Erholtz, who previously trained primarily for qualifying for the 2008 Olympic marathon, changed her focus last year and was a first-year women's team member.

Notching a third place finish in the women's division was Jennifer Campbell of Newmarket in 1:20:58. Alison Bryant of Eklin, N.C., and Lisa Goldsmith of Nederland, Colo., ended fourth and fifth respectively.

Amherst's Cathy Merra, Littleton's Bonnie Ritchotte and Wolfeboro's Katja Fox bunched at 12, 13 and 14, while Plymouth's Ann Rasmussen was 21st.

Following Fram in 12th place was Juan Guillermo Jaramillo, a Columbian who resides in Milford. Local favorite Kevin Tilton of North Conway was 19th, and Salem's Jim Johnson was 23rd. The only other Granite State male runners to crack the top 50 were David Quintal of Salem who ended 32nd and Bryan Marotta of West Chesterfield who was 46th.

Except for the dense fog at 4,000 feet, weather was not a factor in the race. The base temperature at the cannon's firing was 64 degrees, while the summit finish mark was 55 with 5.9 mph winds and 130 miles of visibility.