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Posted Saturday, 21 June, 2003 Pinkham Notch, N.H., June 21, 2003 - Simon Gutierrez of Alamosa, Colorado, ran hard today to prove that he could win the big one, while Anna Pichrtova of the Czech Republic became the only woman ever to win the Mt. Washington Road Race three years in a row and called the race easy.  Easy? The race is 7.6 miles of constant uphill on the Mt. Washington Auto Road, which rises at an average grade of 11.5 percent. It was hard enough last year, when severe weather at the summit forced organizers to shorten the race to half the distance, for the safety of runners and volunteers. Today he did, holding off a fierce challenge from a pair of runners in the over-40 masters division, Craig Fram, 44, of Plaistow, N.H., and Kenyan super-master Andrew Masai, 43, who has dominated his competition in the U.S. for three years. The three ran together for the first two miles, at which By the five-mile mark, however, the unrelenting climb took its toll. Gutierrez, who has run this race three times previously, saw that Masai was gaining no ground. "My legs were hurting, but I knew I was fit," said the 37-year-old Gutierrez, who overtook Masai and surged ahead to win the race in one hour two minutes 54 seconds.  As Masai slowed to a walk, Fram also surged past in pursuit of both Gutierrez and the $2000 cash bonus awarded by New England Runner magazine to any male or female runner over 40 who could break that age-group record. Gutierrez was too fast for Fram, but Fram was fast enough for the record Pichrtova meanwhile floated up the enormous hill in what she called the easiest of her three consecutive wins here. "It was fun," said the 30-year-old mountain ace. "The weather was better this year. I think if I train more, I might be able to get the record." The women's record here is 1:10:08, set in 1998 by Gutierrez's wife, Magdalena Thorsell of Sweden. Pichrtova won today in 1:12:50, a minute faster than the time in which she won on her first try here in 2001. The men's open record is 58:21, held by Kenyan Daniel Kihara.  Pichrtova's most determined competition came in the early stages, as triathlete and marathoner JulieAnne White of San Jacinto, California, tried to keep Pichrtova's pace. "I went for it, and I burned up," said White, 41, who found herself eventually overtaken by Nikki Kimball of Elizabethtown, NY (2nd in 1:17:35), Kelli Lusk of Manitou Springs, Colo., (3rd in 1:19:40) and Suzy West, a 40year-old dentist from Putney, Vermont, who finished fourth in 1:20:18, and whose presence was a special treat for the race's sponsors, Northeast Delta Dental. White was fifth in 1:21:35. Masai, whose times on level ground were the fastest of anyone's in the field of 1094 runners, agreed that nothing had prepared him for the steepness of the course. "It is very tough," said Masai with a good-humored smile. "At four miles I thought I would win. At five I was completely dead. It's my first time to run a race like this. Next year I will have to prepare more." For their efforts, Gutierrez and Pichrtova won the Foster Cup, named in honor of George Foster, who in 1904 became the first person to complete a timed run up Mt. Washington, and $750 apiece. Fram won $500 for second place plus $250 as first master, on top of the $2000 bonus Mt Washington veteran Dave Dunham, 39, of Bradford, Massachusetts, overcame nagging injuries to take third place in 1:06:37, just ahead of his Central Mass. Striders teammate Richard Bolt, 32, of Manchester, N.H., who finished in 1:06:58. Michael Danahy, 24, of Princeton, N.J., was fifth in 1:07:52. Men:
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