Saturday, June 21, 2008, 10 a.m.

National championship draws largest elite field in race history.

Pichrtova, Low, out with injuries

Men's masters field features exceptional depth and experience

Pinkham Notch, N.H. - June 14, 2008

The 48th running of the Mt. Washington Road Race on June 21 will bring to the White Mountains the largest field of serious contenders ever to enter this storied race in one year. Because the all-uphill event serves as the prime selection event for the national team that will compete for the World Mountain Running Trophy later this summer, the usual group of seasoned New England uphill racers will face record numbers of elite runners from the Rockies, the West Coast and elsewhere, in next week's "Run To the Clouds."

Sponsored by Northeast Delta Dental, with additional support from New England Runner magazine, Bridgton Academy and La Sportiva, the Mt. Washington Road Race is a 7.6-mile ascent at an average grade of 12 percent to the 6288-foot summit of the highest peak in the northeastern United States. Each year the race attracts approximately 1000 runners, who battle not only each other but the sheer force of gravity and Mt. Washington's famously unpredictable weather, in the steepest all-uphill race on a paved road anywhere.

For the third time in five years, the USATF Mountain Ultra Trail Running committee has chosen this race as the primary qualifying event for the Teva U.S. Mountain Running Team. The first four U.S. men and the first U.S. woman to finish this race will be automatically named to the team, which will compete for the world trophy on September 14 in Sierre, Crans-Montana, Switzerland. The first U.S. male and female finishers will also become the 2008 USATF National Mountain Running Champions.

The favorites in the men's field are almost too numerous to mention, while things are only slightly more predictable on the women's side. If there is a female favorite, she is probably 40-year-old Laura Haefeli, of Del Norte, Colorado, who in 2007 won the individual bronze medal in the World Mountain Trophy race and led the U.S. women to the team gold medal.

Haefeli’s top competition includes Chris Lundy, 37, who trains on the extremely hilly roads and trails of Sausalito, California, and who joined Haefeli on the U.S. gold medal team last year. They’ll both have to contend with Alison Bryant, 29, of Elkin, North Carolina, who finished third in last year’s Mt. Washington Road Race; top mountain runner Brandy Erholtz, 30, of Bailey, Colorado; Camille Herron, 26, of Lafayette, Indiana, a 2008 Olympic Marathon Trials finisher; Kasie Enman, 28, of Huntington, Vt., who ran this course in a very strong time of one hour 16 minutes last year, in her only previous attempt here, and who some New Englanders think will beat the Westerners this year; and several others.

Two women who won’t be running are Nicole Hunt of Deer Lodge, Montana, who won the national championship on this same course in 2006 and was the first U.S. finisher here again last year; and Anna Pichrtova, the nearly invincible mountain racer from the Czech Republic. Pichrtova, who has won Mt. Washington a record six times and is the reigning World Mountain Champion, was injured when she was tripped in a marathon in Ottawa, Canada, last month and is still recuperating. Hunt, who was second to Pichrtova in 2006 and 2007, is expecting her first child this summer. One consequence of their absence is that this year the female winner will be someone who has never won either the Mt. Washington Road Race or the national crown before.

The men's field includes several former Mt. Washington winners, the most recent being Eric Blake, 29, of New Britain, Connecticut, who won here in 2006, when the race also was the national championship. The other man with the best recent time up the Auto Road is Rickey Gates, 27, of Boulder, Colorado, who has run Mt. Washington just once previously, placing third behind Blake and Paul Low, of Belchertown, Massachusetts, in 2006. Last year Gates won the USA Mountain Running Championships and the USA Trail Championship. This year he has been running at least as well, his most recent victory being at the Larabar 10k Spring RunOff in Vail, Colorado, on June 8. (Haefeli was the women's winner in that race.)

Low, who himself won the U.S. Championship on this course in 2004 and finished second here again last year - in each case beaten only by world champion and course record-holder Jonathan Wyatt of New Zealand - is unfortunately injured and will not be running. However, Blake and Gates will have ample competition from Shiloh Mielke, 28, and Jason Bryant, 35, of North Carolina, both of whom finished in the top ten here last year; local favorite Kevin Tilton, 26, of North Conway, N.H.; Payton Batliner, 24, of Boulder, Colorado, the top U.S. finisher at the 2007 World Trophy; steeplechaser Joseph Gray, 24, of Lakewood, Washington; Mike Sayenko, 23, of Bellevue, Washington, who has run a very fast 29:07 for 10 kilometers and 4:07 for the mile' and several others with a good chance to claim one of those four spots on the U.S. team.

The men's masters competition may be as tight as for the younger runners, and in fact at least one of the men over 40 years of age, Simon Gutierrez of Alamosa, Colorado, must be considered a possible favorite in the open race as well. Gutierrez, 42, has won Mt. Washington three times - 2002, 2003 and 2005 - and is reportedly in excellent condition. Other top masters will be the 1997 winner Craig Fram, 49, of Plaistow, N.H.; 1997 runnerup Eric Morse, 43, of Berlin, Vt.; Andy Ames, 45, of Colorado; and Dave Dunham, 44, of Bradford, Massachusetts, who has won Mt. Washington three times and has placed in the top ten more times than any other runner.

Since Haefeli is 40, she makes the women's masters race the one easy pick.

Runners entered this year come from 35 states and five Canadian provinces. (This year's race is also a qualifier for the Canadian national mountain running team.) The top runners will contend for the first prize of $1000 for first male and female finisher overall, with a $5000 bonus for breaking the men's or women's course record and a $2000 bonus awarded by New England Runner magazine to a man or woman breaking the master's record.

The men's course record is 56 minutes 41.0 seconds, set in 2004 by New Zealand's Jonathan Wyatt, a three-time World Mountain Running Champion. The women's record is one hour 10 minutes 8.2 seconds, set by Sweden's Magdalena Thorsell in 1998. The masters records are 1:02:12, set in 2005 by Matt Carpenter of Manitou Springs, Colorado, and 1:16:03, set in 1997 by Olympic gold medalist Joan Samuelson of Freeport, Maine.

The race starts at 10 a.m. The Mt. Washington Auto Road is closed during the race. Spectators may hike up the mountain or drive up in cars to bring the runners back down afterward.

NOTE: For extensive additional information about the Mt. Washington Road Race including history, photos, past years' results, and more, visit www.mountwashingtonroadrace.com. For a complete list of entrants that can be sorted by state or in alphabetical order by name, go to that Web address and click on "lottery entrants."

Contacts for more information about the race (not for publication):

Bob Teschek, race director, (603) 863-2537, racetime@gsrs.com .

John Stifler, press and elite athletes' liaison, (413) 585-0924, jstifler@econs.umass.edu