The final race in the USATF-NE mountain series took place in North Conway, NH last Sunday. The Cranmore Hill Climb was the culminating event and served as the US and NACAC Championships.
In the men’s race, Joseph Gray (aka Joe Geezi) started out conservatively and overcame a late surge from Zachary Ornela to secure another championship. Joe talked to us shortly after the race:
Glenn Randall got the better of his old Dartmouth teammate Chris Zablocki in their head to head match up on the mountain. The mountains are a whole different animal than the roads, but Chris still did pretty well for a first timer on this terrain. Glenn ran real well and made Team USA again. Here are the two of them talking about the race and competing against each other:
For more on the men’s race, we compiled a raw footage highlight video (well, there’s some editing):
One of our favorite shots from this is of a wobbly Eric Macknight crossing the line. A lot of people had that look going through the finish chute that day and it was a testament not only to how hard the course was but to how hard they worked out there. We finally had Christin Doneski on camera for an interview, but we cut it short to go make sure Eric was okay (he was). Christin’s a tough competitor (2013 mountain series champion) and also a pretty good teammate too.
Speaking of Christin, we had already put up some coverage of the women’s race, but here’s some more. Afterwards we got an interview with Meggan Franks, the top finisher from Team Canada and also the top foreign finisher (13th overall). She’s totally #OnTheLevel:
All this mountain series coverage left you with a case of mountain fever? Well start training now and maybe you’ll be ready to take on the series in 2014. Complete the whole circuit and you’ll attain Mountain Goat status and be able to bypass the Mt Washington race lottery. There’s still the world championships coming up in Poland too, so you’ll see more from the mountains on the Level. Be sure to also check out Scott Mason Photo and Joe Viger Photography for some absolutely amazing shots from the race.