Flying through mud, loose leaves, and slippery roots, Grayson Murphy took the win at both the vertical and up/down races at the USATF Mountain Championships hosted by the Sunapee Scramble in New Hampshire this weekend.
In the vertical race, held on a technical course which climbed 1,900 feet over roughly four miles, Murphy finished in 35:47 and qualified to represent the U.S. at the World Trail and Mountain Running Championships in Austria this June.
In an Instagram post, Murphy gave an apt description of the race: “If you haven’t run a VK [vertical kilometer] before, it basically feels like running an 800m for ~40 min.”
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Rachel Tomajczyk finished in 40:28 for second place, and also qualified for Worlds, as did Alexandra Lawson in third (41:03). Reigning world champion Allie McLaughlin has an automatic bid and will also be on the team.
What began as a light rain during the vertical race turned into an overnight downpour, and temperatures dipped into the low 40s, with wind gusts of over 30 miles per hour by Sunday morning when athletes lined up for the up/down race.
The up/down race was held on a nine mile course with more than 3,000 feet of ascent and descent, and Murphy won handily in 1:08:56 with a nearly three minute lead on McLaughlin, who finished second in 1:11:53. The top four in this event made the World team; Murphy and McLaughlin will be joined by Tomajczyk, who finished in third (1:16:35), and fourth place finisher Kasie Enman (1:16:40).
Murphy and McLaughlin stayed close through most of the first climb up the mountains, but on a flatter section near the summit, Murphy opened a gap and gained about a minute’s lead. From there, Murphy remained aggressive on the steep, untracked ski-area glades which tripped up several other runners. In a post-race recap on Instagram, she wrote, “The downhill was like running on a vertical bog wall and then ice skating on mud and snow, but it was still quick with my final mile of descent being 5:16.”
Race co-director Paul Kirsch says the two-lap course was designed with the World Championships in mind. He told IRunFar, “We pride ourselves on designing challenging courses that will give the U.S. the best team possible, and these courses are a great test for selecting our top runners for Austria.”
This year’s Team USA women’s classic team will include three World Champions—Murphy, who won the 2019 World Mountain Running Championships, McLaughlin the 2022 World Mountain Running Championships Uphill winner, and Enman, the 2011 World Mountain Running Championships winner.
On the men’s side, Daniel Curts took third place in the vertical race—behind Canadian champion Alexandre Ricard—and woke up on Sunday looking for redemption in the classic up/down race, which he won in 1:01:04.
He told IRunFar, “Honestly, my legs felt terrible when I got up. I actually had doubts about finishing, but as we got closer to the race and I warmed up a little, it all came back pretty well.”
Following Curts was Ricard in 1:02:43, Morgan Elliott in 1:02:51, and Liam Meirow in 1:03:16.
Dan is a writer and editor living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and before coming to Runner’s World and Bicycling was an editor at MileSplit. He competed in cross country and track and field collegiately at DeSales University.
