Fighting Gravity
Trail Runner|September/October 2019
Why is vertical racing on the rise, and what does it mean for trail running?
By Doug Mayer
Fighting Gravity

The majority of the participants that morning were experienced mountain runners. “Most were either hardcore or trying to make the USA mountain running team,” says Dave Dunham, a long-time Northeast trail runner. Still, the course ground them down, with each ascent harder than the last. Dunham recalls more than few runners saying, “Just when I figured I’d gotten past the worst of it, it got much worse”.

“In a typical trail race, if you see someone just ahead, that’s 10 seconds. On Upper Walking Boss, it’s so steep, that time is a minute,” explains Paul Kirsch, one of the course designers. “It messes with your brain.”

The scene was informal and fun. “It was all very low key, small-time and low tech,” says Kirsch.

This year, Loon Mountain hosted just under 1,000 runners.

“You can’t say it’s the same event,” says Kirsch. A staggered start is used to avoid crowding. There are EMTs, radio communications and electronic timing. And, in a nod to the growth of uphill running, the types of runners taking part have changed, too. “We now have a lot of people who had never done a mountain race before,” says Kirsch.

In 2006, 96 trail racers toed a starting line in a quiet valley at the base of a ski area in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. The new Loon Mountain race was one of the steepest trail races in the United States, rising 3,200 feet over 6.6 miles. On a section called Upper Walking Boss, the course angled to a grade of over 40 percent—steep enough that you could reach out and touch the grass in front of your eyes.

This story is from the September/October 2019 edition of Trail Runner.

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This story is from the September/October 2019 edition of Trail Runner.

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