Ok, so there was not enough snow for the uphill downhill ski race so they ran it as an up hill only snowshoe race. And really, other than me and Mary Jane, no one showed up. Sure we had 4 people on the start line, but one was pressed into service by Jean,one of the race organizers and the other was Jean herself. Also, I was the only one on the start line without poles. My rule is that if you are in a snowshoe race and are wearing poles you are not running, even if you think you are. Anyhow, the other three people were hiking anyway. So I pretty much had to win.
I run to victory
The race started at the bottom of spruce lift and then went straight up spruce to the intersection with bruce's boulevard and then went up bruce's and ended up at the intersection with aspen. It was short and really hard. I ran for the first bit, power hiked up most of spruce and then ran most of bruces. I stopped to take pics a couple times. It took me 20 minutes and 45 seconds. Mary Jane came in second 7 minuted later. And jean and chip finished another 10 minutes later. I am pretty sure I could have run it in 18 minutes with someone pushing me, I am pretty sure ~15 minutes is possible but probably not by me.
Mary Jane and me post race
Then we socialized and hiked back down the treacherous slopes then hung out at Skiesta for a few hours drinking beers and waiting for the awards ceremony while listening to a really good zydechoid band. I won a hoody sweat type shirt with the pajarito mtn logo badly silkscreened on it. There were at least 6 breweries there and I saw about 50 billion people about half of which were endurance athletes. None of whom (excepting 4 of us) did the free race. I am not sure what the hell is wrong with all of you, but beer tastes much better after racing. And even better after winning. So there.
Chip dives past Jean for third
There are a handful of local races that I can reasonably hope to win someday, this was one of them, I am calling it done despite hardly anyone showing up. Anyhow, this is, again, a great free race. More people should do it. Big thanks to the organizers Jean and Karen. See you next year for skiesta, may there be enough snow to ski on.
2010 Pinhead race report
2009 Pinhead race report
2008 Pinhead race report
1 comment:
YES
Post a Comment