Bypass the Mount Washington lottery system

Photo by Random FactorI wrote last week about how the winners of the Mount Washington race get to bypass the lottery system for future races and obtain a guarenteed entry into the race. Now that the 2007 lottery has closed, and the lottery winners announced, did you make the list? If you have been trying to get into the race and never seem to be chosen as one of the lucky few, there is good news.

You can bypass the Mount Washington Road Race lottery without having to win the race. In fact, you do not have to win any race; you just need to run in a few of them. You need to run in 6 races, to be exact.

The Mount Washington race director, Bob Teschek, has offered to allow all 2007 Mountain Goats to bypass the 2008 lottery. A Mountain Goat is anybody that runs and completes all six of the USATF-NE Mountain races. Three of the races are trail races, and three of them are on roads. They range from 3.8 miles up to a half marathon, and have cumulative scoring from race to race. The winner of each race is awarded 100 points, and everybody else is awarded points based upon the percentage of how much their time trails the winning time.

Right now, Emer O’Donaghue has the longest streak of consecutive races in the circuit, having run all 30 of them since 2001. Dave Dunham has won the most points with 3708.07, and Fred Ross has finished the most races all time with 40.

This year’s mountain circuit consists of the following races:

1. The 15^th Wachusett Mountain Road Race (4.3 miles / May 26^th)
2. The 17^th Pack Monadnock 10 Miler (June 3^rd)
3. The 5^th Northfield Mountain Race 10k (June 9^th)
4. The 20^th Annual Mountain Cranmore Hill Climb (14k men / 9k women / June 24^th)
5. The 2^nd Loon Mountain Race (6.2 miles / July 8^th)
6. The 7^th Mount Ascutney Run to the Summit (3.8 miles / July 14^th)