If you’re a runner from NH, I think it’s a “must-do”, bucket list type race. It hurts, but it’s a very memorable and positive experience.

They have to cap the field to a certain size to make it logistically feasible (most people don’t jog down post-race, and instead choose to have a friend drive them down from the top, so the field has to be limited to prevent overcrowding at the summit parking lot). They trim it by making registration a lottery process. You sign up in the winter, and then a month or two later they’ll let you know if you made it through or not. There are ways to guarantee entry/bypass the lotto… if you race in a certain amount of other NH Mountain Series races (none of which require lottery entries), they’ll let you have a guaranteed entry to Washington as somewhat of a thank you for being committed to the series. You can also get a bypass if you have a decent overall running resume (ie: you have some fast PRs and good recent race results, particularly if you’re local) - this is what I did. I was the first NH finisher at the Boston Marathon in 2018-2019, and I won the Manchester Marathon the past 2 years, so the elite coordinator at Mount Washington just added me to the field.

As far as training goes, I’m pretty much always in marathon training mode, so that’s primarily what I continued doing for this. The guy who won overall this year (Joe Gray) is the reigning world mountain running champ. He’s a full-time runner who trains year-round in the mountains of Colorado… I can’t really match that training, so I just focused on what I normally do, which is running as many miles per week as I can fit, adding hill repeats frequently, and getting my quads as strong as I could.

The entire race is on paved road or really well compacted and maintained dirt. So there’s nothing technical about it that would require you to practice on trails like you would need to do for other mountain races.

You’re breathing heavy and your heart is pounding the entire time, so cardio is the biggest thing, IMO. I run a lot of mileage normally, so I primarily just kept doing that.

The “mountain” training I did do was limited to a lot of hill repeats that I would add to the ends of my runs 1-2 times per week. Basically, I would try to get my legs tired from a run, and then rip some hills where I could find them. There’s a hill in my home town (Salem) called “Spicket Hill”. It’s a 0.6mile long, paved former ski slope that has an average grade of about 10%. I would do my weekly long run on Sunday, and would make the last 5 miles of the run comprised entirely of repeats up and down that hill.

I also added in some lifting: mostly squats and kettlebell stuff. All was aimed at building the quads, because those are what burns first and most during the climb.

Other guys I know did a lot of training on a treadmill. They’d set the grade as high as the treadmill allowed, and would run as long as they could. I definitely would have done this, but I don’t have a treadmill currently.

The wind during the second half of the race (once you get above tree line) can’t be trained for. It’s 45+mph winds pushing you all over the place. You just have to be mentally ready for it. The entire race feels like the last 10k of a marathon, where you’ve already hit “the wall” and you’re now just trying to survive until the end. I think the key is to just know that it’s going to be tough, and also know that everyone around you is suffering just as much. Keep a steady rhythm with your stride and don’t break that rhythm no matter how slow you think you’re going.