- - John Stifler
The best mountain runner in America and the Kenyan who may be the fastest uphill runner in the world met on Saturday in the 39th running of the Mount Washington Road Race, and from the starting gun to the finish line, the matchup surpassed expectations. For the entire 7.6-mile all-uphill course, Matt Carpenter, from Manitou Springs, Colorado, and Kenyan Daniel Kihara, who trains in Royersford, Pennsylvania, battled back and forth. Neither was able to gain any distance on the other, until finally Kihara outkicked Carpenter in the final half mile to win this storied race in 59 minutes 3 seconds, with Carpenter 13 seconds behind.
Meanwhile, the women's race was a surprise, as Barbara Remmers, a New York University graduate student who trained for this race by running on a tilted treadmill, overtook the favorite, Russian marathoner Tatiana Titova, just above the halfway mark and took the victory in one hour 13 minutes 52 seconds.
"This race is so bizarre," said Remmers, "you can make all kinds of mistakes you can't make anywhere else. When I passed Tatiana, I was hopeful, optimistic. The mental aspect of this race is tougher than the physical." Titova, who last month won the Pittsburgh Marathon, relied on her endurance to hold on to second place in 1:14:57. Perennial bridesmaid Julie Peterson of Beverly, Massachusetts, finished third in 1:16:36, well ahead of three-time winner J'ne (Janey) Day-Lucore of Denver (1:20:20).
Race conditions could hardly have been better for the runners. The often horrendous Mount Washington winds had died to a 5 mph. breeze, and temperatures were moderate -- low 70s at the base, high 40s at the 6288-foot summit -- while visibility was 90 miles in all directions. Many in the field of 1000 runners commented on how their times were faster than ever before. Remmers was nearly eight minutes faster than last year, when she finished third, and although Carpenter was beaten here for the first time today -- he won in his three previous appearances, 1992, 1993 and 1998 -- his time was his personal best for the course.
In all, seven men finished in under 1:04:00; the previous strongest finish was four men under that time. Kihara was one of the few exceptions; in his only other appearance here, in 1996, he set the still-standing course record of 58:21.
"I think the way (Carpenter) was going, we could not break the record," said Kihara afterward. "In some places I thought he was running slow, but when I moved to pass him, he would speed up."
"I was just hoping I wouldn't drop," said Carpenter. "I thought for sure one of us would make a move on the flatter section" -- the usual 11.5% Mount Washington grade drops to below 3 percent for 200 yards in the seventh mile -- "but neither of us did. Maybe it was a tactical error, but I think I was getting tired."
"Anyway," continued the three-time champion and now runnerup, "nobody can say Kihara just ran away with this one!"
Three years ago, Kihara dropped the rest of the field in the second mile and finished more than four minutes ahead of his nearest competition, Mount Washington veteran Dave Dunham of Bradford, Mass. This year Dunham, who also won the race three times in previous years, was delighted to finish third, reaching the summit in his own personal best time of 1:00:37. Fellow New Englander Eric Morse from Berlin, Vermont, was fourth in 1:01:09. Simon Gutierrez of Albuquerque, N.M., started quickly with Carpenter, Kihara and marathoner Joe LeMay of Danbury, Conn., but he and LeMay dropped off the pace and finished fifth and sixth respectively.
Tops in the masters (over-40) division were Tony Bates, 40, of Salisbury, Vermont, who placed 21st overall in 1:10:50; and 48-year-old Rebecca Stockdale-Woolley of Chaplin, Conn., who placed seventh among all women in a time of 1:23:54.
Sponsored by Healthsource, with additional support from Citizens Bank and Bridgton Academy, the race awarded Kihara $1250 -- $750 for the win and a $500 bonus for finishing in less than one hour. Carpenter won $1000 ($500 for second place plus the sub-one-hour bonus). Dunham won $300, Morse $200, Gutierrez $100. Tom Anderson of Keene, N.H., won $100 for being the first male finisher from New Hampshire. He placed eighth overall in 1:04:36. Remmers won $750, Titova $500, Peterson $300, Day-Lucore $200, and Suzy West of Putney, Vermont, won $100 for fifth place among the women. Karen Tripp of Deerfield, N.H., was 20th woman overall and also won $100 as first female New Hampshire finisher, in 1:30:47.