For the fourth straight year, the Firm Project has loaded up the team vans and headed north to the picturesque White Mountains of New Hampshire. Having participated in the infamous Mount Washington Road Race since 2012, this year’s race would be the first year the Firm Project put together a full scoring team.Certainly it shows an excellent display in growth of the team and everyone wearing the red & white was prepared to take full advantage of the camaraderie.

Blessed with superb weather for yet another year, we would see a strong start and sub 7:00 opening mile at the base of the mountain from our top duo of Matt Rand and Jerzy Eisenberg-Guyot. Behind the two frontrunners, Connor Rose was guiding the two Mt. Washington virgins, Jamie Norton and Marshall Pagano who were just slightly ahead of Erik Antokal.

As this grueling test of mental and physical strength wore on, Matt would seek some reprieve from the beautiful views of the upper summit and continued his quest for that glorious finish line. In the end, Rand would record a Top 20 finish (16th place) in his first time out on Mt. Washington and clock in at a very respectable 71:37. Despite having less than a stellar day, Jerzy relied on his veteran status and hung tough for the rest of the squad to take 32nd place with his time of 75:10.

Relying on Jerzy for motivation throughout the second half of the race, Connor had himself a career day on Mt.Washington by finishing in 35th place and new personal best of 75:31. Rallying together behind our front trio was Jamie and Marshall, who went 42nd – 43rd and stopped the clock in 77:46. Antokal would be the next Firm Project finisher and he walked away from the summit finishing 53rd and new personal best of 79:29. Closing things out for the crew on that glorious morning would be Leah Demarest and Sam Hutchinson. Due to successfully reaching the summit in a strong time of 1:38:53 and donning the red and white proudly, Leah achieved history as the first female racer for the Firm Project. Meanwhile, Hutchinson relied on his Maine strength to reach the summit finish in a time of 2:03:17.

Once we had all collected ourselves, rehydrated / refueled and made the treacherous journey back to the base of the mountain, we would anxiously await the final tally for the team scores. While we figured a Top 5 team finish would be very well in the cards, we were certainly taken aback when we saw “Firm Project” sitting in 2nd place overall. Finishing runner-up to a very tough, Central Mass Striders squad, we had nothing to hang our heads about and went home with some very nice hardware. (FULL RESULTS)

If you couldn’t make it to the summit last Saturday, we got you covered with our highlight reel from our awesome day on the mountain!

LEVELRENNER article on The Firm Project HERE