Randolph Ramble 10K

 Randolph Ramble 10k 

I first heard about the Ramble through social media and the more I looked into it I knew I had to participate in the event. Since it's very far from my home we decided to make it a multi-day trip, we spent a couple days hanging out in the North Conway area visiting Crawford Notch, Pinkham Notch, The Willey House, Silver Cascade, Flatbread Company, Delaney's, And The Tilton Outlets 

Race Day: I woke around 6:30ish, after a solid nights rest. It was about a 50 minute drive from North Conway to the Mt Crescent Trailhead. We were one of the first people to arrived, immediately you could tell that there was a awesome community. Almost every person we talked to was from Randolph. I started warming up about 40 mins before the race and I could already tell that heat was going to be a issue, which shocked me a far bit, sense I had saw online that in former years they had a foot of snow, freezing rain, and a bunch of other miserable conditions. Everyone lined up about 5 mins before the race start, the race started very abruptly with the verbal command GO!, the steepness started more abruptly. The first 0.25 was on wide and steep snowmobile trails, then you take a sharp turn up Mt Crescent at this point I knew I screwed up on a couple things first being my choice of clothes I picked a long sleeve shirt and a hat, BIG mistake, second, on the Randolph Ramble website they said you needed to have mandatory gear, 25% of people there did not have mandatory gear so the extra weight definitely slowed me down, third, I went out the gates way to fast and I was passed by a lot of people. The first climb was brutal just brutal, the whole climb had big step-ups, wet leaves, and wet slabs but the worst part is that it was all in the sun, I struggle to believe I've ever been hotter in my life. the whole climb I was pausing every 20 steps, I finally reached the the summit of Mt Crescent with no time to enjoy the view, I finally started running this section in between Mt Crescent and Mt Randolph was a literal gift from god. It was very easy running filled with wooden planks, false paths, and two people that surprised me out of nowhere in the middle of the woods ringing a massive bell that scared the living hell out of me. When I reached the base of the climb up to Mt Randolph I was prepared for the worst, thinking it would be a repeat of the first climb, it wasn't. It turned out to be a couple easy hills that I'm guessing didn't compile to be more than 200ft of elevation gain. The descent from Randolph was tricky the start of it had big drop off's and slippery roots, the bottom part had piles of leaves that I slipped on about 72 times and a couple annoying river crossings, after that it was one last big brutal climb to the finish line.

I ran a 2:05:03

I hope to come back next year and smash this time!

Photos By: Timothy Mather