Saturday, June 20, 2009

Rickey Gates takes Mount Washington Hill Climb

International mountain running superstar won the Mt Washington Hill Climb today in a time of 59:58. Congrats Rickey!

Overall results are here http://www.newenglandregisters.com/results.aspx

Rickey is one of my running heros. His ability to perform at the international mountain running level is astounding. He races back to back days and weekends all summer, taking the time to enjoy bike touring, a bit of wine, and occasional videography.

Other top 10 runners for the women include Lisa Goldsmith for the women and my UNH college buddy Tara Breed was right up there too. Congrats ladies. Many Coloradans like Goerge Zack and John Tribbia ran as well.

9 comments:

  1. Word is that Rickey SPRINTED all out into the wall to break an hour. F'n awesome. Or as they out here, wicked cool.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Awesome accomplishment. And if he can get within a minute of Matt's PR on Mount Washington, it begs the question: how close could he get to Matt's PR on the PP Ascent? How hope you're considering it Rickey!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. It's highly unlikely Rickey could break Carpenter's Ascent record at Pike's Peak. He couldn't beat 44 year old Matt at the Teva 10K in Vail a couple of weeks ago. Matt's specialty is high altitude racing. Big congrats to Rickey though. Gets on the most recent cover of Trail Runner and then wins Mt. Washington. If I'm correct, Dave you were on the cover last year. Now go and win Western!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Well he beat Matt Carpenter at the half marathon the day before. I asked Rickey if he had any thoughts about Pikes, and he thought it could be in the card next year given its World Championship status.

    Matt's ascent record is not soft by any stretch of the imagination. And it came in the marathon!

    Galen - we going to see you there next year?

    ReplyDelete
  5. The Teva half marathon was on a paved trail. The following day in the 10k when the hills were twice as bad and the terrain was tough Matt prevailed. Pikes Peak is a lot different than the bike path on Vail Pass.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Okay - I will admit we are speculating.But it is worthy of comparasion.

    I will be the first to say that Matt's record is crazy tough.

    I'd also like to think that under the right conditions Matt could have gone under 2 hours, particularly since his Ascent record came in a PPM.

    Matt was 28 when he ran that PPM. He ran 59:48 that year at Mt Washington. Rickey is also 28 and has now broken an hour ... becoming the only other American man to do that.

    So - to say it is "highly unlikely" that the record would be broken is a bit of overstatement. I'd throw in only a few folks names out there to be possibilities ... Wyatt (which might actually be a lock if he ran it), Gates ...

    ReplyDelete
  7. After reading about Rickey and seeing him run personally, I would have to say that if he set his mind on Pikes, he would come very close to Matt. I don't know whether 'very close' would be a little bit behind or ahead but it'd be close. Personally, I think he is a better mountain runner (slightly) than Matt. Matt seems more disciplined, though. I'll certainly make the trip to watch if the showdown emerges.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hear hear Justin! Go get em Davey!

    ReplyDelete