Check out this article from todays Salem Evening News!
‘Team Touchette’ Salem family tackles Mount Washington Road Race today
By Mike Grenier
Staff Writer
Liz Touchette of Salem has discovered that one of the best ways to bond with her parents is to run with them.
What started out as a casual exercise six years ago for Liz, 25, and her parents, Steve and Deb, has turned into a more serious pursuit. The Touchettes ran the Boston Marathon together in 2007, and they completed 42 races in one year.
“That was too much,” Steve Touchette, 53, said of the number of races. “We’re going to have to back off a little bit.”
The Touchettes may become more selective in the future, but no one will ever accuse them of going soft. Their schedule today calls for them to run the Mount Washington Road Race in New Hampshire, a 7.6-mile climb to the summit, where 231-mile per hour winds were recorded on an April day in 1934.
“We’ve run for distance,” said Liz Touchette, who graduated from Salem High and Merrimack College. “Now we’re going to see how high we can run.
“It’ll be by far the toughest race we’ve done in six years.We’ll probably be arguing and saying, ‘Who signed us up for this thing, anyway?’” she joked. “Well, that would be me. I signed us up (for the lottery) — and now we’re in the race.”
Race organizers are up front about the difficulty of running Mount Washington. They talk about the capricious nature of the weather and how brutal it can be at the top of the 6,288-foot mountain, no matter how tranquil it might be at the base. They don’t want to scare off runners; just make them properly cautious about the conditions.
The Touchettes won’t take foolish chances. They’ve been doing a lot of trail running at Lynn Woods this year and tuned up for the Mount Washington event by participating in the Mount Wachusett Road Race in Princeton, Mass. last month. Deb Touchette, 52, finished third in her age group in the 4.3-mile race.
“We’ve done a lot of flat road races,” said Deb, who’s been running with her husband since 1979. “We’ve been doing some hill work (recently), so we said let’s try something harder. Let’s see if the three of us can beat the mountain.
“This will be bigger than the Boston Marathon for us because I think it takes a lot more strength to get up that mountain. It’s something to strive for.”
A crazy test
Liz and Steve Touchette agree that Deb is the driving force of the running family. She’s the one who pushes them to get out there on days when they might not be so inclined to run. They affectionately call her Sarge — for sergeant — because of her toughness.
But Liz is the one who’s always been intrigued by the Mount Washington Road Race and sold her parents on the idea of trying it.
“It’s been a goal of mine,” Liz said. “It’s one of those crazy tests. It’s like when we first started thinking about the Boston Marathon and you finally say you’ve got to do it. So now it’s Mount Washington and you’re thinking, ‘Can I make it up there?’ I’ve been thinking about it for the past few years, and now we have our chance.”
The Touchettes are members of Salem’s Wicked Running Club, which has dubbed them Team Touchette, and they’re enthusiastic about what they do. They’re also creatures of habit.
Part of their regular training routine in Salem takes them on an eight-mile loop that goes past Witchcraft Heights and The Willows, and they always end up at the McDonald’s on Boston Street, where they are well-known customers.
“We walk in there and they have the cups ready for us for the (giant) diet Cokes,” Deb said. “Then we walk home.”
Wardrobe additions
The family has also made a hobby of collecting T-shirts from all their races. They have bins loaded with T-shirts, some dating back to the 1970s and early 1980s. Liz Touchette has one from the Short Wings Road Race in Swampscott when she was three or four years old. The T-shirts are a conversation piece — some of them were converted into a quilt — and a source of credibility.
“We only wear T-shirts from the races we finish,” Liz said.
Considering all the possible obstacles in the Mount Washington Road Race, it might be the most hard-earned T-shirt they’ll ever own.
“It’s a little intimidating,” Steve said, “but you have to push yourself. It it was easy, everybody would be doing it. But you challenge yourself personally, and we’re going to do this as a family. Running like this has kept us close.”
Seeking the Summit
What: 48th annual Mount Washington Road Race
Where: Pinkham Notch, N.H.
When: Today, 10 a.m.
Mountain Peak: 6,288 feet
Running distance: 7.6 miles
Famous quote about the race: “It’s only one hill.”
North Shore entries
Name Age Hometown
Steve Calder 49 Ipswich
Hugh Collins 54 Hamilton
Dan Cooper 35 Salem
Stephanie Cooper 40 Salem
James Gilford 51 Topsfield
Martha Gilford 49 Topsfield
Lori Lebel 35 Danvers
Bart McCarthy 35 Beverly
Deborah McHugh 36 Beverly
Kelley Philbin 45 Salem
Kevin Rich 62 Hamilton
Zona Sharfman 31 Beverly
Timothy Smith 46 Boxford
Sarah Thomson 28 Salem
Deb Touchette 52 Salem
Liz Touchette 25 Salem
Steve Touchette 53 Salem
Randy Wetzel 43 Danvers
Dennis Whittmore 58 Boxford
John Wigglesworth 55 Ipswich
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