A Beautiful Day in the Mountains!

This past Saturday, I ran in the Jemez Mountain Trail Run 50-miler. What an incredible experience! My plan for the race was to make it to the Pajarito aid station at mile 28.7 in one piece. Afterwards, I would do whatever my body would allow until the finish. It was a simple plan, but plans don't necessarily equate to reality. And, in this case, my simple plan morphed into a run that exceeded my expectations.

I traveled to the race, flying out of Austin, Texas with Moogy. I was excited about going back to New Mexico. I enjoy the familiarity of the state and was glad to see someone else experience it firsthand. I ran this race last year and stopped at the Pajarito aid station in a lot of upper abdominal pain. It was my first DNF. After driving to Los Alamos from Albuquerque late Friday afternoon, we arrived at packet pickup. After sitting down to have some pasta and hearing the beginnings of the pre-race presentation, I scanned the room to see if I saw any familiar faces. I found one, but I'm not that familiar to them--I've only met them once on the Zane Grey course the previous year. I walked over and introduced myself, which immediately resulted in a big hug. It was Olga. We had exchanged a few emails and comments on blogs during the past several months. We spoke for a few minutes and then I went back to my seat to finish up dinner. I went outside after dinner to get some fresh air and, a few minutes later, Olga comes from the parking lot and takes a quick pic of me and we chat for a few minutes and go back inside and visit with Melissa and Moogy. Moogy and I left shortly, thereafter, to head to the Best Western to check in and make final preparations.

The morning came quickly at 3:30am. Moogy and I drove to the race to check in and waited inside the Posse Shack (race headquarters) for the 5am race start. Olga's friend Gail started giving me hell about my bib number. Is that your "IQ", she said? Ha ha!!! Olga pointed to her own, #149--probably not far from the truth. Everyone made their way out to the start line a few minutes before 5am. Not too long after, someone basically said "go!", and off we went in the dark running down an asphalt road and onto a gravel/dirt road through horse corrals. We, eventually, made it to the single track and I settled into a comfortable pace. I checked my heart rate and it seemed low for the effort, especially since I'm a flatlander and haven't run at altitude since the year before at Jemez. I finally made it to the first climb at Guaje Ridge. My plan was to take it easy going up and save myself for Caballo Mountain. I made it down the northern slopes of Guaje Ridge at a moderate pace, reminding myself to save my quads for later in the race.

The trip up Caballo was a blast. It's a 2 mile, 1800 vertical feet climb. The higher we went the more snow I encountered on the trail. At the halfway point up the mountain it was solid snow on the trail and got deeper the higher I went. This was a first for me running on snow. There were several downed trees we had to climb over on the way up. After reaching the top, it was a short jaunt across the sloped, open, snow-covered prairie to tag the tree before descending the same trail. An "up and down" or "out and back"! I chatted with Betsy Kalmeyer for a few minutes during the descent. I commented how running on snow was a new experience for me. She stepped to the side of the trail after awhile and I continued down the slick, snow-covered trail. I knew the next section had another big climb before reaching the plateau that would lead to the Pipeline aid station. The previous year, I couldn't run the flats on the plateau because I hammered down Caballo in under sixteen minutes--lesson learned. I didn't do that this time. I enjoyed getting to run the flats into Pipeline where I resupplied from my drop bag. I knew the next section began with a very steep drop off the face of the earth into the Valle Grande. I focused on staying upright and not falling on my ass, while my shoes filled with all kinds of debris. I knew I would have to stop and empty my shoes at the bottom. No gaiters for me and that's ok. You really can't explain the steepness of the slope unless you experience it firsthand. One guy asked if we had to come back up it later in the race. I told him if we did I wouldn't have signed up for the race again. You'd seriously need a rope to get back up! I stopped at the bottom near a building and emptied my shoes and talked to Kris Kern.

After running along the dirt, and sometimes muddy, road through the caldera, I made it to the Valle Grande aid station. I could clearly see the line of people, more like ants, heading across the bunchgrass, off-trail, route in the distance. I decided not to run this section because it would equate to doing tire drills to avoid the grass clumps and hidden rocks. At the treeline, we encountered a boulder field where I scraped up my leg pretty good on the granite. The climb continued relentlessly to the top of Cerro Grande. WTF!!! Anyone ever heard of a switchback??? I made my way down the the saddle north of Cerro Grande and on to Pajarito aid station. My lower ribs and gut started hurting terribly. It was the exact thing that took me out of the race last year. And, then my left hip became very sore for some unknown reason. I did my best to relax and run most of the downhill when I could. I laughed when I came to a barbed wire fence going across the trail. It took me a few moments to figure out how I was going to get over it, but me and another runner figured it out. Funny! We both come from a farming background and were unexpectedly perplexed on how to get past the fence. I made it to Pajarito and restocked from my drop bag. I spoke with Betsy, who had just arrived, and said this was where I dropped last year. I was happy this year was different. I wasn't stopping. I was running on fumes because I ran out of water after beginning the descent from the saddle north of Cerro Grande. I got way behind on nutrition, too. I left the aid station with Betsy and tried to hold her crazy powerwalk pace but couldn't do it and let her fade away in front of me.

I, finally, made it to a flatish section and ran when I could and walked when I couldn't run. After awhile, I heard someone behind me screaming. I turned and looked. It was Olga. I was so happy to see her. She explained she puked back at Pajarito after trying to take a caffeine gel. Regardless, I wasn't certain if I would be able to hold her pace because I remember how strong she came back at Zane Grey when she passed me there. We continued on together and talked endlessly about all kinds of topics. Actually, so much that we missed a few turns on the course that resulted in either bushwhacking or backtracking to find the trail. No big deal. We were having a blast. We made it to the Townsite aid station where Olga's friend Rita was waiting with tomato juice. Olga offered me some, but I balked since I've never taken any during a race. After Olga got cleaned up from a gel explosion before we paired up, we were off to make it to the top of the ski area. The trail began in a docile fashion, but soon, began aggressively climbing in the trees between the ski slopes in the snow. Again, no switchbacks. Olga kept apologizing for making so much noise going up the steep stuff, but I didn't mind. Whatever it takes to make the climb more bearable. After making a few false summits, we began our descent. We missed the turn that went down a double black diamond--another engaging conversation topic! ;-) We double-backed and tried to figure out how to get onto the slope. We finally figured it out and made our way slowly down the mountain and ran the lower parts of the slopes into the Lodge aid station. People commented how fresh we both looked coming in smiling and laughing. We were having a blast. Olga spent just a few seconds before heading out. I had to take off after her. She was sprinting. At the time, I didn't know why, until I asked and she thought we only had 10 miles left. I explained we had more miles than that. Her pace sheet wasn't correct. We finally made it to Pipeline where my drop bag was. We saw Moogy sitting in a chair and I told him to get up and run. No slacking! Only 10.9 miles left, according to the chart I had taped to my water bottle. Olga took off while I was getting my stuff out of my drop bag. I thought, "screw it!" and left most of my powders and gels there. Olga was long gone. I took off in a sprint at almost 10,000 feet elevation trying to catch her. I had to run up some crazy climb and finally caught her after a few minutes. I was surprised I had the strength to run so strong at this point in this crazy race. After making the climb, Olga handed me her camera and I took another "Catra" pic (the previous one I took was with her on a big, blue bench on Pajarito Mountain) with the ski area in the background.



Afterwards, I said to Olga, "I'm going to see what I can do.". Meaning, I wanted to see how strong I could finish. I took off and ran almost all the uphills to the finish for the remaining 10 miles--my best running of the day. I wanted to break twelve hours, but knew it wasn't possible. Then, 12.5 hours. No dice. I, then, decided to try and make it in under 12:40 and pushed as hard as I could the last mile. I like to set mini goals near the end of races to keep me entertained. I made it out of the last climb and onto the road for the last few hundred yards to the finish just under my new goal. I was happy, so content, and full of energy. Olga came in not too long after with camera in hand taking a pic of the finish clock. I gave her a big hug and kiss on the cheek, called her my "angel", and thanked her pushing so hard. She made my race for the 10+ miles we were together the best. Moogy came in not too longer afterwards.

My feet were almost perfect, thanks to my all-time favorite trail running shoe, Brooks Cascadia's, that I discovered during my short 3.5 year running career, 2.5 years of that running ultras. When I first began running ultras, all I cared about was the distance. I've slowly, however, began to take on a different perspective and this race sealed it for me. I could care less about the distance or how difficult the course may seem. If it weren't for the wonderful people I've met while participating in this crazy sport, it wouldn't be the same and I probably wouldn't have the inspiration to do it. Simply the best!!! Until next time...