06/07/2025
With less than a week to go before the running of the 64th Delta Dental Mt. Washington Road Race, the elite participant roster is shaping up to be a competitive group including a group of Canadian elite runners. The elite field will also include last year’s winners, Joseph Gray, 41 of Colorado Springs, Colo., who won for a record setting eighth time, and Kayla Lampe, 32 of Shelburne Falls, Mass., who won in her first attempt at Mt. Washington. Both Gray and Lampe won last year by close to two minutes each.
Gray is already considered to be one of the best American mountain runners and is undoubtedly the greatest champion in Mt. Washington history. Gray has won the World Mountain Running Championship in 2016 and 2019 and finished 5th in 2023. Gray also just won the USATF Masters 10K Championship in April in a time of 30:58. After winning in 2024 by close to 2 minutes, it is hard to imagine anything other than a win.
Hoping to make it a race is a good group of elite men who are all capable of winning. Leading the list of the returning elite runners is the ever present and legendary Eric Blake, 46 of West Hartford, Conn. Blake, a four time winner, has perpetually finished in the top 4 and usually top 3 over the past 17 years or more. He is always consistent, and he was still good enough for 3rd last year. Last year’s second place finisher, Remi Leroux, 28 of Waterloo, Quebec is also back. Leroux followed up his second place finish at Mt. Washington with a second place finish at the Canadian Mountain Running Championships in both the vertical and the up/down race.
Among those runners making their Mt. Washington debut is Alex Ricard, 36 of Squamish, B.C. Ricard finished 1st in the 2024 Canadian Mountain Running Championships vertical race just ahead of Remi Leroux and is a member of the Canadian Mountain Running Team. Ricard also won the 2023 Sunapee Scramble and edged out Joseph Gray in that race. There are two other Canadian Mountain Running Team members making their debuts; J-Philippe Thibodeau, 35 of Saint-Ferréol-les-Neiges, Quebec, and 20 year old, Anselme Poher, of Sherbrook, Quebec. Thibodeau has plenty of experience in trail and mountain running, with wins at the 2023 Ultra-Trail Harricana of Canada 125K and a 4th place finish at the Squamish 50 Miler in 2024. Poher finished second in 2024 in the Sunapee Scramble and was the first runner under the age of 20 at the Loon Mountain Race in 2023. Poher also competed in the 2023 World Mountain Running Championships as a junior. The last debut runner to be highlighted is Tristan Williams, 39 of Lancaster, N.H. Williams is considered “the best mountain runner that you have never heard of.” Williams will likely be a contender for both the podium and at least the Crossan Cup which goes to the top finishers from the state of New Hampshire.
On the women’s side, the 2024 champion, Kayla Lampe, 32 of Shelburne Falls, Mass., is back to defend her title. After her win at Mt. Washington, Lampe finished 7th at the US Vertical Mountain Running Championship at Loon Mountain in 2024. Lampe is a two time Olympic Marathon Trial Qualifier with a personal best of 2:36:58 in the 2023 Philadelphia Marathon and clocked a winning time of 1:15:30 in the Revel White Mountain Half Marathon this year.
The women’s race returns the rest of the top seven finishers from 2024 plus the second place finisher from 2023. Finishing second last year and breaking the 50-54 age group record by three minutes and forty seven seconds is Laura Manninen, 52 of Etelä-Savo, Finland. Manninen continues to perform at an elite level despite her age, and she just clocked a 9:59 3000m at the Finnish Indoor Championship in February. Last year’s third place finisher, Amber Ferreira, 43 of Concord, N.H., is a favorite to win the Crossan Cup for the top NH finisher. Ferreira is currently tied for the most top ten finishes at Mt. Washington, with ten and notched her first win at Mt. Washington in 2023. Hannah Rowe, 32 of Boston, Mass., finished thirteen seconds out of third place last year. Rowe was a stand out track athlete at Dartmouth College and George Washington University. The fifth through seventh place finishers from last year were Jenna Gigliotti, 32 of Amherst, Mass., who just ran a 1:15:49 half marathon, Kasie Enman, 45 of Huntington, Vt., who has had nine top ten finishes and Rena Schwartz, 25 of Middlesex, Vt., who won the 2019 Loon Mountain Race at the age of 19 years old. Rounding out the returning challengers is Marybeth Chelanga, 34 of Colorado Springs, Colo. Marybeth raced to a second place finish in her debut at Mt. Washington in 2023 and recently finished 23rd at the 2024 US Olympic Marathon Trials in February with a time of 2:33:33 after qualifying with a 1:10 half marathon time in 2023.
There are a couple of debut runners both from the Canadian Mountain Running Team. Anne-Marie Comeau, 29 of Saint-Ferréol-les-Neiges, Quebec, competed in the 2018 Olympic Games for Team Canada in the 15km skiathlon. Comeau competed in the 2023 Mountain Running World Championships finishing 15th in the vertical race and 17th in the up and down race. The second runner from the Canadian team is Melodie Gilbert, 30 of Bromont, Quebec. Gilbert has extensive trail and mountain running experience including finishing 10th at the 2024 Canadian Mountain Running Championships and competing at the 2023 World Mountain Running Championships in the Short Trail Team event.
