Monadnock to Wachusett - Fastest (and Only) Known Time

"When I choose what I do, I ask, 'Does it make a difference?'" - Frances Hesselbein (Former CEO of the Girl Scouts)

This past weekend I tackled a run that I have been eyeing for a while now; stringing together two of the most popular Boston Area hiking destinations into a single run.  

The Route

My route started at the Pumpelly Trail head north of Mount Monadnock, summitted the mountain, went down the White Arrow trail, which connected to the Royce / Metacommet Monadnock Trail, up and over Gap Mountain, and then down into Fitzwilliam.  This represented the first 12 miles. 

After a quick bout on Rt 119, I took the Monadnock Recreation Rail Trail (a dirt path) for the next 7 miles before reaching the Massachusetts border.  After a short stint Rt 12 into Winchedon, I took the North Central Bike Path to the Heywood Branch Bike Path into Gardner (roughly another 7 miles). 

After a quick cut through of Dunn State Park, the next 10 miles were on a mixture of roads as I worked my way through Westminster into Princeton and eventually to Wachusett Mountain.  The final 2 miles were straight up the mountain. 

The Fundraiser

With the Boston Marathon on my mind (and postponed to the fall), I decided that I wanted to do something epic in its place.  Additionally, the Boston Marathon has always had a fundraising aspect to it for me and I wanted to continue that forward with this event.  

With the pandemic, the last year has been difficult on all us and especially difficult on small non-profits.  This run allowed me to continue to give back to NF Northeast, an organization that has already provided us so much support in the past. 

My Run

The run started at 6:38 AM in 30 degree temps.  There wasn't a cloud in the sky and after about a mile of trudging through 3-4'' of snow I was greeting with my first views of the day.  I probably could already see for over 100 miles.  

I caught the first pack of hikers just before the 3rd mile and after a quick chat quickly scampered past them.  As I got a bit higher the snow had accumulated to about 6'', but was packed pretty well on the trail and wasn't slowing me too much.  

I reached the summit just before 8 am and quickly descended to get out of the wind.  1:17:20 (19:20 / mile) to the summit was actually a PR and the 3rd time I've sumitted via that trail.  

The next mile was probably the most difficult of the day as you drop nearly a 1000' and the trail I was on had no foot traffic since Friday's snow storm.  My avg pace dropped to the slowest of the day reaching 21:36 / mile. 

Next up, was the Royce trail which also had not seen foot traffic, but at least wasn't very technical.  After finding a groove for the next couple of miles, I ascended Gap Mountain.  After Gap mountain I found a groove again on a series of dirt roads (some maintained, some not so much) as I descended into Fitzwilliam, where I met Doug for my first resupply (and more importantly dry shoes).  

One of things about planning runs like this is you really don't know what you are getting yourself into when you select a route on a map.  I've gotten better over the years looking up trails when I can (alltrails.com is an invaluable resource and now that Strava's map creator shows a heatmap you can at least see if people have been their in the past), but you still don't truly know what you are getting into.  

As I reached the Monadnock Recreation Rail Trail I was happy to see that it was a fairly well groomed dirt path with only a little bit of snow on it.  For this section, I just started dropping 8:45 - 9 minute miles and began to get my pace back down to something a bit more reasonable.  Additionally, as with any path like this, your mind doesn't need to be as engaged so I turned on an episode of the Fastest Known Podcast and relaxed.  

I arrived in Winchendon around lunch time and made a quick stop at Gourmet Donuts to keep my Donut Series streak alive (now at 12 consecutive weekends).  Following this, I jumped on the North Central Bike Path which had some beautiful views of Whitney Pond and the Miller River.  

By mile 27 the donut caught up with me and the sugar crash was starting to make me second guess if that was really the right decision.  I pushed on hard until mile 30 before I took a quick walking break and tried to put some real food in my stomach; chocolate chips, raisins, pretzels, and half a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  

Shortly there after I was able to get another wind, but by mile 35 I was starting to really hurt again.  The next 5 miles were probably the worst of the run.  Not particularly interesting terrain, wondering when I would make it to the base of Wachusett, and the fact that last time I ran over 25 miles was August began to catch up with me.  

Finally at mile 41 I reached the ski area parking lot and began my ascent.  I took the Midstate trail to Old Indian trail to the summit.  The entire thing was mud, but at this point I no longer cared and just slogged straight through it. 

Just before 3:40 PM, I reached the summit, accomplishing my goal for the day.  All and all a really tough day, primarily brought on due to the level of effort required to get through those first 11 miles, but happy with the result. 

-- 42.91 miles -- 8:59:56 -- 12:35 / mile -- 5000' Climbing -- Only Known Time --

Thank you

My parallel goal for this effort was to raise funds for NF Northeast.  I set a goal of $420, $10 for each mile, and surpassed that raising $817.  I am touched by the generosity.  

To my supporters, Mike Newcomb, Deb Downs, Michael Gao, Mike McNally, Carrie-Anne DeDeo, Gary and Susan DeDeo, Donna Ognibene, Tom Weissinger, Mike Lepore, Twiggy Chan, Chris Botting, Jean Morello, Urvi Mujumdar, Tim Morin, Kate Mueller, Ken Krilla, Jason Dunklee, Deborah Dunklee, Ben Pritzker. and Patrick Phelan, thank you.  

To my wife Amy, thank you for letting me do events like this and picking me up at the end with the kids and puppy in tow.  

To Doug, my crew chief, thank you for supporting this effort.  I really do appreciate it and hope to return the favor some day.