Joseph Gray continues to do things no one else can.
On Saturday, June 28, the Colorado-based mountain runner beat the Mount Washington Cog Railway to the summit during this year’s Race the Cog, finishing the steep 2.75-mile climb in 39 minutes and 54 seconds. He was the only runner to outpace the 9 a.m. train this year — and the only runner who’s ever done it at all.
According to Northeast Delta Dental president Tom Raffio, which sponsors the event, this marks just the second time a runner has officially beaten the lead train to the summit.
Both times, it was Gray, first in 2022, and now again in 2025.
The course climbs over 3,500 vertical feet from the Cog Railway base station in Bretton Woods to the 6,288-foot summit of Mount Washington, tracking the train tracks nearly the entire way.
While the distance is short, the vertical gain, over 1,200 feet per mile, makes it one of the most aggressive uphill race profiles in the country. The steepest stretch, Jacob’s Ladder, pitches up to a 37% grade before giving way to the loose boulder fields of the Presidential Range.
Weather often complicates things. On Saturday, runners dealt with fog, light rain, and slick rock. The climb also comes with rapidly changing temperatures, with warm conditions at the base often giving way to near-freezing wind or fog at the top.
Gray’s sub-40-minute effort earned him a $1,000 bonus from the race’s sponsor. He’s a longtime U.S. mountain and trail standout and has dominated uphill races for more than a decade. But even by his standards, this is rare ground. Outrunning a train to the top of Mount Washington — a tourist rail line that’s been running since 1869 — isn’t just a clever race hook, it’s one of the toughest physical benchmarks in New England trail running.
Race the Cog is one of several races that climb Mount Washington each year. The more established Mount Washington Road Race took place two weeks earlier, though its course was shortened due to icy summit conditions.
That race featured strong performances from regional runners, including Amber Ferreira, who was the top New Hampshire woman, and Sean McCauley, who won the men’s Crossan Cup in his first appearance.
Both races count toward the Delta Dental Mountain Challenge, a seven-event series held across New England. Christin Doneski currently leads the women’s series rankings just months after undergoing surgery for breast cancer, and Justin Freeman sits at the top of the men’s leaderboard.
But on Mount Washington’s upper slopes this past weekend, the spotlight belonged to Joseph Gray. In the history of Race the Cog, no one else has ever outrun the train.
He’s now done it twice.
