Pajarito Pinhead challenge 2011 Race report.

I won. Boom! End of report.





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

Santa Fe Snowshoe Classic race report 1/9/10

I love snowshoe races. You need to be able to turn your heart rate up to 11, keep it there and not die too badly. Strapping ungainly boards to your feet favors the power runner over the finesse. High altitude racing only sweetens the deal and the pain.

As such, intrepid race hater Paul and I trekked up to the norski area in Santa Fe last weekend for the Santa Fe Snowshoe classic. This was my third time doing the race. The last two times were pretty successful with me taking third in the 5k in 2006 and 4th overall in the 5k in 2004.

We made it to the start with an hour to spare, registered and shivered a bit. As we were milling about before the race they made a pretty significant announcement: You must run the distance you signed up for. In the past, you could make a decision on whether to run the 5k or 10k in the middle of the race. The 5k is one lap of the course, the 10k two. What had happened in past years is that fast people who signed up for the 10k could just stop after 5k if they were placed well and reap the benefits of their place without doing the second lap. The race has always been pretty low key and odd, but with great prizes and raffles, so it was never a big deal, although it had cost me a few places over the years.


This year there were about 60 people on the starting line, which was about double the last time I ran it. I ran around and warmed up a bit, took a small swig of hot apple cider and headed to the start line. I lined up on the front row, so I could use my patented run real hard and blow up technique without getting impeded by other racers. As the race official was making last minute announcements it warmed up considerably. I was a touch overdressed, but no time to fix it, so I waited for the gun. However, one dude behind me whipped his shirt off and ran bare chested. I did not hear a hulk-like roar.

Me in the foreground


As we started I felt decent so I took a flyer on the slightly downhill starting stretch and got the hole shot leading to the first big climb. I felt decent on the climb and kept pushing it and lead for about half the climb. At this point Matt (orange jersey in the background of the photo above) blew by me and opened a huge gap on his way to winning the 10k decisively. I think he looked back at me and either laughed at/pitied/mocked me on his way by. I was starting to blow up something fierce. By the time I got the top of the big first hill, I was completely blown, but still in second place with no one too close behind me.

The course then winds through a long down hill. As I was running down, four more people passed me. Usually I am a great downhill snowshoe runner, but I was completely cooked. I set to the grim task of slogging along and slogged. I also set to the grim task of attempting to not vomit up the apple cider I drank pre race. What was I thinking?

I could hear three more runners coming up behind me as we went through the middle rolling section of the race. Two passed me and started pulling away as we entered the long last climb toward the finish line. I started to recover somewhat and was able to pull away from the runner who was on my heels and started to haul in the two in front of me.

The course ends on a long downhill, so I opened up my stride and tried to sprint past the two in front of me. They did not seem to be speeding up so I thought I could take them, then suddenly they turned off to do the 10k as I sprinted to the finish line. I felt a little sick, but glad to be done. The finish line timer told me good job! No one even near you. And I looked at him quizzically and then it dawned on me. I won the 5k. All the 7 people in front of me were in the 10k. Hooray!

I finished in 26:16, which I think was about the same time as 2006 give or take a few seconds. I still can't believe I won the 5k. I am happy the fast runners did the 10k and let me win. I am also happy the race organizers made people run the distance they signed up for. Thanks fast runners! In the post race raffle I won a $25 gift certificate to the local running store. For winning the race I got a nice handmade bowl and a pair of gaiters. We also got nice embroidered winter hats as a part of the entry fee. This race has enormous payback for those who actually do it. I would encourage more people to show up next year. I think everyone got a raffle prize.

bowls I have won over the years at this race


Fellow SWNordic Ski club members PaulG took 2nd in his age group in the 5k and LisaD took third overall woman in the 10k (in her first snowshoe race ever). DaveW also did some pre-race grooming to get the course in shape for the race.

A good day was had by all. Paul and I hit a restaurant in santa fe for some sammiches salads and beer and then headed home. I was sore for almost a whole week afterwards. I need to run more...

race results
2006 Santa Fe Snowshoe Classic race report

Chama Chili Classic Ski and Snowshoe Race Report 1/18 2009

Sunday morning (January 18th) I awoke early, made a to go bowl of oatmeal a couple of sammichis and a thermos of the tarik-patented-french-no-press coffee and hopped in my uncharacteristically packed the night before car and drove up to Chama to race the Chama Chili Classic xc ski race. I did this race two years ago as my first xc-ski race ever and I internalized a few of the lessons learned for this edition. 2007 report here. Due to baby induced dithering we made no motel reservations and decided since Aida hates schedules I would just zip up and do the race and then come on home in one day. I am getting a bit aged for such shenanigans, but lets do it for the children.

Black Mesa on the way to Española at the break of dawn


The racing schedule has expanded to 5 and 10k classic ski races and 5 and 10k snowshoe races as well as a combined King of the Mountain class for the best time in the 10k ski race and 5k snow shoe. Naturally I signed up for that as I am an idiot. The reasoning was that most of the xc ski racing I do are "half marathon" 22 odd kilometer skate races, so I needed to get some longer racing in. I am pretty decent on snowshoes, so there we are.

One of my lessons from the last time I did this race was that I should get some waxable classic race skis so I can actually go faster on the downhill portions. Waxable skiis take some getting used to techniquewise and there are some nasty intricacies with waxing to get on top of, but I watched lots of people zip away from me on long downhills last time and I was determined not to let that happen again. I bought some used classic race skiis from the Dark Lord of Waxing last month and I have been out on them 4 times total including the race. In the non-race practice sessions I can get going classic style pretty well with speed replacing technique. Failing that I just double pole or herringbone. So there was my race plan. A mixture of fitness over technique and a default of poling and running on my skiis. Also coasting real fast on the downhills.

Anyhow, I got up to the race site with some extra time so I could check out the course and see if my wax worked. The race site is 12 miles north of Chama just into colorado in a nice big basin that tends to be a sun dish and get really warm. Warm is hard to wax for. I got a quick lesson from my pal ken on applying klister. The hive mind of experienced skiers decided the magic kick wax was Swix blue klister with swix violet hard over top. I checked in with my buddy Clay and he confirmed the choice. So I applied the tubular glue like klister over my kick zone and then attempted to get the hard wax on top, with limited success. I said, eh, fukkit, and went to warm up. The wax seemed good. The turnout was decent maybe 35 people in the 10k ski race, 45 in the 5k and another 30 plus snowshoers. There were three of us idjits in the combined 10k ski 5k snowshoe competition.


Sort of near the start line, it is purty here


When I did the race 2 years ago, the race started with a huge climb and scary descent. This year the first big hill was dispensed with. The course did roughly the same thing with much more gradual climbs and descent. The loop was a bit over 5k and length and since I did it twice on skis and once on snowshoes, I mentally divided it into 7 parts.
1. Flat start loop with a small climb and a faster twisty descent through some trees and some rollers leading to
2. The long gradual climb on the Cumbres and Toltec Railroad grade with a sharp climb at the end
3. A long fast fun downhill
4. Part one of the long steep stair step climb and then it is done
5. Oh no its not, that was a false flat and then it keeps going and you can't see straight.
6. Another long downhill with a sharp climb exclamation point and then
7. Twisting down back through the trees with a fast downhill to the finish.


Shack near the start line. Why is there a shack here?


So my ski race went a little something like this. Double pole in the tracks in the frenetic start. Ski up on the person in front of me, try to get out of the tracks to go around. Crash. Get up, go up the climb, crash. Go through the fast twisty part in the trees. Nearly crash into trees, but instead crash in snow hard enough to have bruises. Look up to see the next group ski neatly away from me. Get up, ski frantically, crash. Have my teammate Dave, who is probably worse than classic skiing than me, come up upon me and inform me that if I keep crashing that he will beat me. Get up and then crash in front of Dave again. Get through the rollers and then, I am now on part two.


I finally get into my rhythm and end up in the front of a small pack with no one in sight in front of me. And that was pretty much it. I sort of maintained my place ahead of two other people for the rest of the first lap. I was slipping out a bit as I got tired, I had some issues with my already sketchy classic form and the fact that I did not do a great job getting the wax spread evenly did a number on my ability to kick. Stupid xc skiing. I got through the first lap OK with only a few more falls. I do have to say that my skiis were fast, much much faster than my touring skiis. Last time I did this race I was double poling furiously on the downhills in the tracks and still getting dusted. This time I had to step out of the tracks on the downhills as I was far exceeding my ability to stay upright in the soft tracks.

A nice meadow that is surrounded by the course that you can't see, see?


Here is a brief grooming interlude. The course as it stands is untouched snow most of the winter. My fellow SWNski club teammates Clay and the aforementioned Dave spent two full days grooming a course and setting classic track for this race. They do a spectacular job. I would estimate there was at least 6-8 feet of untracked snow on the course that they hack into a course with two set classic lanes. Spectacular grooming fellows. I swear I will be better at skiing next year and I will not have to use soft tracks as an excuse...

One of the SWNski club snowmobiles with its cover off presumably cooling off after two days of grooming


Anyhow. I get through the first lap and no one is anywhere ahead of me, there are two other skiers that are sort of close behind me. Unfortunately I was so off pace in my race that they started the 5k race in between the group ahead of me and me. I started wending my way through the tail end of the 5k race. I get to the railroad grade with a minimum of falling through the woods. As I ski up the railroad grade I loose alot of my grip, so I alternate between a weak kick ski, a weakening double pole and occasional falling. One of the skiers behind me passes me after a particularly good fall. The only good news is that I pass one of skier ahead of me who is sking with a broken pole. Coincidentally it is one of the other skiers in the ski-snowshoe KOM competition. Sweet I think, at least I have not broken a pole! I feel buoyed as I pass him, but this is fleeting as I more or less fall completely apart on all the uphills remaining. I get passed on the long up hill by the only other skier near me and then finish in 55 minutes. Not without wiping out hard again on the final descent to the finish line. This was good race as it was 15 minutes faster than two years ago, but bad as I kind of had a disaster of ski, lots of crashes and form issues and no grip in the second lap. Bah.

Now I had to go and run a lap of the course on snowshoes. I figured that I had crashed so often and so violently that I probably needed to get the snowshoes on ASAP and start running before the soreness kicked in. I was perturbed to see that I lost my sunblock chapstick from my pocket during a crash. With the snow bowl reflector effect, I was worried that I would fry. But the race must go on. They had already had the main snowshoe race start, so for the KOM competition they had us start whenever we wanted after the race time trial style. I did a relatively quick turnaround and strapped on the snow shoes and started running. The first part of the race was slow as my body was not completely on board with the idea of continuing racing. As I got through the woods I felt more into it, and despite the lack of anyone near me, I focused on keeping the pace high and close to my limit rather than just jogging it. As I ran up the railroad grade I was pleasantly suprised to see a purple tube smack in the middle of the trail. It was my sunblock. I scooped it up and then continued on my merry way. I played mental games to keep myself motivated, this is where I divvied up the course into sections and tallied completed sections while I pushed myself harder. I really ran hard on the course parts 4 and 5 up the big hill and then powered on to the finish. The thing I like about snowshoe racing is that you can sort of glide down hills by skating on your heel tips with exaggerated long heelstrike strides.


I finished up the race, sort of enjoyed a beer (stupid overly hoppy beer not so good after racing) post race with the rest of the club racers and felt the soreness kick in. I ate a sammich, changed and talked to some more people before heading back down the hill. I took some photos of trains in the railyard and headed back to the High Country for the post race chili feed and award ceremony. I ate a heaping bowl of chili and realized I would never stay awake for the drive home if I waited much longer. So I decided to booger off back home and had an uneventful if scenic drive home.


Choo choo like trains in the Cumbres and Toltec Railyard


Turns out that I won the King of the Mountain decisively. Broken pole George was about 5 minutes in back of me in the run and a minute back in the ski. If he had not broken a pole, it would have been closer, but that's racing, I am surprised I did not break a pole myself given all my crashing escapades. I won a nice chile ristra and some other goodies. Yay me. I was very sore the next week but it was probably worth it. The ski was, as I said, rough, but all in all a good day.

The University of NM team showed up and dominated the race, but they graciously declined to include themselves in the awards. Thus Los Alamos skiers had a great day with most of the skiers placing somewhere in the age groups. Good job everyone.

results here.

This is a great low key short race that is well worth doing if you live in the general area.

Black Mesa on the way home, you see, it bookends the story for everyone who is still reading.

More gooder...

Much like the last 10 years or so my new years resolution is as follows:

More Gooder Less Badder, More Thinner Less Fatter


That and ride more.

Allrighty have a good new year everyone.

Elena and me up there on the mountain on a new years eve snowshoe hike

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Sandia Crest Snowshoe race report

So before the report a bit of a preamble...

SO no fooling there I was in the hospital last night bleeding away happily when the doctor comes in and looks over the wound. The conversation went something like this:

Me: So, can I do a snowshoe race tomorrow?
Dr: I don't see any reason why not.

The good doc pokes around a bit and then looks up thoughtfully, conversation continues:
Dr: So, where do you go to race horseshoes.
Me: Uh..
Dr: er snowshoes...
Me: Up in the mountains, usually where there are hiking trails covered in snow.

some more poking about:
Dr. What kind of horseshoes do you race in.
me: Uh...

Me: Smaller snowshoes than the backcountry ones, which are lighter...etc.etc.
Dr. Hmm, horseshoe racing..
Me: Uhhhh. So if I go SNOWshoe racing at 10,000 feet tomorrow and my heartrate gets to 200bpm there will be no problem, right?
Dr: no, should be OK.

Doc leaves me, a RN comes in a bit later to clean the wound.
RN: So what kind of race are you going to tomorrow?
Me: Snowshoe
RN: Ah, because the Doc told me that you were horseshoe racing...

So in conclusion I was definitely allowed to race horseshoes at 10,000 feet today, but I am in still unsure whether snowshoeing was OK. Onwards to the longwinded report:

So the race was up there at the very tip of sandia mountain overlooking Albuquerque. Zach and I left Los Alamos at just before 7 and made it up to the top of the peak via 14 (the Turquoise trail) in well under 2 hours, not too shabby and a beautiful drive. I had never been up there before, it was pretty damn cool, but cold as crap. Maybe it hit 20 by racetime, but not too much more. The peak is pretty bare sporting an impressive array of radio towers:


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and a damn good view all over the place, looking SW over the fog enshrouded ABQ:

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Looking east, or north east, or something:

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Me and Zach prerace overlooking ABQ. We should form a band and use this as a cover photo. It turns out we both play Ukelele a bit, so keep an eye out:

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Anyhow, the race. Lets see, cold, maybe 100 people (going by the bib numbers), pretty great turnout. The race consisted of a wide start, and then essentially singletrack snowshoeing in a big loop around the top of the peak. It was beautiful and there was a ton of snow. The race started fast, but I got a good start and ended leading the race briefly when Zach postholed and nearly bit it.

A short time later, two really fast guys blew by us and dissapeared up the trail with zach shortly behind. I was feeling OK in 5th or so for the first kilometer or so. We dropped down a fairly steep offcamber hill and I noted that without heel crampons, I could not go down as fast as the rest as I was sliding off the trail. Then, essentially, I exploded in a big mass of falling down repeatedly. I think what happened was that the trail was off camber and my snowshoes were pivoting on the toe spikes and getting the tail of the uphillside over the nose of the downhill side causing me to fall suddenly and violently often up to my elbow in snow. I was cleverly protecting my wounded hand, by landing on my right forearm and left hand. Getting up was harder than one would expect. Needless to say, I started going backwards. I may have fell 30 times over the next few km. Sheesh.

After the top 5 or so, the guys who were passing me (digging myself out of snow) were not faster than me, they just were not crashing to the snow. So I caught and passed a few of them a bit as the race ended with a long gradual up hill. The last hill was relatively level, so I finally went full throttle and only fell once. I think the final position was 10th-15th in a time of 41 minutes, results might be here at some point.
Zach finished at 36 minutes in third a few minutes back of the really fast guys, well done Zach!

I am a little disapointed in the race, I think I would have been easily in the top ten, maybe duking it out for a top five without the repeated falling, but overall it was a good workout at 10,000 feet on a beautiful course and a pretty good morning. They had a nice spread of coffee, hot chocolate, bagels, Odwalla juices and bars and a hilariously frozen cheese platter at the end.

Some more photos from the rest of the day:


The guy in the car next to us was kicking it super old school:

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From just south of Madrid, NM, some good use of boxcars:

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Santa Fe Snowshoe classic 2006 race report

Got up somewhat early saturday and drove to santa fe for the annual pending snow Santa Fe Snowshoe classic. I had mild misgivings due to a lingering bad stomach from something thjat is going around and a thoroughly tweaked back from some overzealous yoga on thursday.

I had a peanut butter and honey on toast, an espresso and a handful of advil and hopped in the car for the suprisingly short drive up to the Santa fe nordic ski "center" up there at 10,000 plus feet over santa fe. I always budget at least 1 and a quarter hours for the drive, but again, it took just under an hour and I was among the first racers to have arrived.

Me triumphantly posing after the race wearing the tights I won at this very race 2 years back:

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The race was really underattended. Maybe 30 total racers. Given that there was obviously going to be snow, I was expecting it to have more racers. They usually have an excellent prize list and raffle too. This race was a running race last year due to lack of snow, but last time I raced it in 2004 there was less snow and lots more racers. But there were a few fast looking guys and my friend Zach showed up who is definitely a faster runner than I.

Before the race, the Kahtoola snow travel system company had a tent and demo snow travel systems to try. They consisted of a neoprene overboot with nasty looking crampons that stood on its own as a running/hiking shoe OR clicked in, spd style, to a snowshoe base. It was pretty slick and worked pretty well. They had enough demos that pretty much half the field ended up racing on their boot/snowshoe system. Pretty cool. They also had some light weigh strap on crampons for running/hiking shoes that looked really nice and light, but I did not try them. Over shoe and snow shoe:



Anyhow, the race was one or two 5k loops around the nordic ski trails, ranging from stamped down snow to crusty untracked powder to hard ice ski track. There was about 95% coverage with a few bare spots and lots of rocks and stumps sticking out. There were also 4 or 5 trees down across the course which are much more tricky to negotiate on snowshoes than you would think.

Zach looking fast post race:

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The race starts with a fairly significant hill and I managed to be up with Zach and the two other leaders at the top of the hill. Running at 10,000 feet is not so easy, nor is running in snowshoes uphill. By the top of the first hill my legs felt fine, but I was cardiovascularly about to pop. I looked back and saw a huge gap to the rest of the pack, so I vowed to stick to Zach for as long as I could. At this point, one of the older guys took off andnone of us ever saw him again.

The course from here went through some rolling hills for a couple of kilometers with lots of obsticles and hairpins. Unlike last time I did this race where I fell at least 10 times, I actually had some running snowshoes that I borrowed and only fell twice the whole race. I felt pretty good through this middle section and watched as Zach and one other guy slowly gapped me.

From here the race had a long climb broken up by short downhills that seemed interminable. Here I lost focus a bit and watched/heard a tall fit guy also from los alamos named jason slowly sneak up behind me as I plodded miserably up the hills, with my heart about to explode. Fortunately, he was a slow steady type and my downhill speed put a big enough gap on him for him not to catch me on the up hill.

Also fortunately for me, the end of the race came with an icy downhill which I sprinted to finish the 5k race in 3 overall behind Zach in second and the first older guy. I think my time was around 26 minutes, which was pretty swell as I think it was faster than 2 years back, despite the fact that I did not run nearly as much this year. One guy ahead of me continued for the 10k, as did Jason behind me. Jason ended up overhauling the leader and winning the 10k in 52 minutes, which is really impressive as he negative splitted on the second lap. If I had to keep on going, I am pretty sure I would have run a 35 minute second lap.


After the race the winners in the mens and womens 5k and 10k ended up winning crescent moon racing snowshoes or those boots from kahtoolie. The rest of the podiums got nice pottery and waterproof sealskin socks.

My second place under 40 mug:



So now that I have raced snow shoes twice, here is my advice for new racers:

1. Just do it, borrow any snow shoe and go try it, it is pretty fun.

2. That said, running snowshoes make a huge difference on packed trails and shallow snow. They are lighter and thinner profile and you don't trip as much.

3. Never wear shorts. I did that two years ago and had lots of cuts on my ankles from hitting the snowshoes against them and even more on my knees from falling repeatedly on crusty snow. Tights are good.

4, I am ambivalent about gaiters, your feet do get soaked, but in a short race when it is not miserable out, it seems to be more trouble that it is worth.

5. That said, bring spare socks for after the race. I forgot to and would have suffered mightily had I not won a pair of waterprrof socks as a prize.

6. After two whole races, I think running snowshoes with heel crampons are a bit better. I did not have them this year, and the shoes got a bit sideways as I ran on off camber stuff.

7. Make sure you have your shirt tucked in at your waist and have a tight fitting upper layer. When running fast on non-packed snow, you kick up an enormous amount of snow which seems to hit you in the neck or the small of the back and tends to be unpleasant.

8. Don't overdress, snow shoe running is really hard and generates lots of heat. I can't imagine wearing snowpants or rain jackets. Do wear gloves though, to protect your hands as you fall.

9. Try not to step on soft stumps with your crampons, they don't come out easily.


Anyway, thats the long winded report. More photos from the rest of the day later maybe.