2012 pajarito trail fest 10k race report 9/22/12

Oooooof, it hurt. Race was run counter clockwise instead of the traditional clockwise. Typical start and end at the ski lodge (~9000 feet), with a 10,400 foot summit betwixt. I will give you the super abbreviated race report.
1. Go out too fast on the downhill with fast people
2. Go lactic on the first climb straight up a ski slope.
3. hold off the rampaging hordes on the single track climb
4. suffer on the going straight up the ski hill parts again and again
5. Crack badly just before the summit
6. Hit the summit of the ski hill
7. Take a picture and get passed by a bunch of people

8. Suffer on the initial technical descent
9. Pass a few people back on a bit of rollyness
10. Suffer the second part of the initial technical decent
11. Hammer hard on the less technical descent
12. Hold off more rampaging hordes of descenders
13. Wait, whats this? A mile of climbing to the finish? Crap.
14. Let 4 people pass you as you have lost the will to live
15. They are kinda passing me slow
16. Crap, they are not pulling away.
17. Double crap, they are right there in front of me.
18. I resign myself to sprinting past all of them
19. Accomplish number 18.
20. Spend the next 20 minutes trying not to vomit.
21. Eat breakfast burrito.
22. Help daughter run kids race.
23. Go home, take nap.
24. Deal with intense quad soreness for 5 days.
Other thoughts. It was hot. It was challenging. I hated it when I was doing it, but in retrospect it was pretty fun. Even with all the super steep fire road sections. Good job on the trail fixing post fire. I might be in shape for this one day. I finished 10th overall in the 10k race, 9th among mens, and 3.875th in the 30-39 age group. Time was just under 1 hour and 11 minutes. I can do better. I need to remember not to take 3 weeks off running right before a race. results here

last year it was not hot and covered in snow:

I did this race in 2009 too:

So thanks to the organizers for putting on the excellent race and all the volunteers that got the trails ready for the suffering. And great job to all the 15 mile racers and all the people that came out and did the duathlon the next day. Due to ridiculous quad soreness, some knee swolage and intense desire to do nothing I skipped it. Maybe next year.

2011 Pajarito Trail Fest 10k Race Report

So last friday night (10/7) my plane touched down in the pouring rain in Albuquerque at 9:40pm. I grabbed my luggage, got to my car and drove 2 hours home in more pouring rain. I pulled into my driveway around midnight just as the rain was turning to snow. I went in the house, had some leftover pizza and crashed hard.

My alarm awoke me at 7am, I got my oatmeal and coffee on. Found some runny gear and some warms, looked out at the bright cold sunny day and saw the snow line was at 7700 feet or so, my house is at 7200, the race would start at 9200 feet and go up and over pajarito mountain at 10,400. Before my brain woke up Coach K and hubby were in the driveway to pick me up.

Some freshies at the lodge pre-race


We drove up the ski hill and found the road snowy and very icy in spots. Got the lodge to find 3-4" of fresh snow. The 9am start was postponed till 9:15 to accommodate the people who had to park on the side of the road and hitch up. Mood in the lodge was apprehensive, but the turnout was excellent, especially given the weather. The race organizer, Petra, made an announcement saying she had run the whole course and the trails were completely snow packed and slippery and snow was chin deep in places. Panic ensued until we collectively realized chin and shin sound pretty similar in charming accented english.


The course is pretty similar to most of the races I suffer in on the ski hill. Up singletrack to the top (east side this time), over the very top of the mountian, and then down singletrack on the other side of the mountain. I did this race in 2009, the course was pretty similar, but the bottom half of the downhill was changed due to fire damage and possibly the snow.

I decided to not warm up at all. I wore shorts, a wool tank top, a bike jersey, arm warmers, wool socks and a visor. It was a bit cold sitting there at the start line, but it was sunny and I had 1200 feet of climbing ahead of me to get me warm. After some joking and greeting at the start line, I lined up in the second row and the gun went off. I cleverly did not go out t oo hard, nor it seemed did anyone else. I settled in to the back of the lead group as we initially descended slightly on the Aspenola trail. Course was slick indeed and the wind was kicking up making it kind of unpleasant. The lead pack stretched and spread out immediately and I settled in to around 10th place or so (probably about half were 10k runners, half were in the 2 lap-12 mile race).

As we started climbing the exposed switchbacks I felt really good, taking it easy, watching my footing but I drifted off the back of the lead group and lost sight of them pretty quickly. A group of three was closing in behind me, but I paid them no mind as there was lots of climbing left to do. I settled into a rhythm of running as fast as was comfortable and slip free on the steep stuff and opening it up when it flattened out. We went in and out of the woods and across ski slopes over aspen leaf dappled snow covered trails. The next time I looked back I saw no one close behind me and perhaps one runner off in the distance.

Further up the hill the snow was approaching a foot deep, slightly deeper in drifts and I was reduced to some sort of weird toe kick in climb on the steeper slope. It was hard going but I felt amazingly good. The runner behind me had closed in, but was clearly breathing much harder than me. I snuck a look back and was surprised to see that it was a young kid (12 it turned out). I was able to drop him as we hit some steeper bits toward the top. As we came out of the woods on the back side of the hill I could smell roasting chiles. Some of the ski hill workers were having a little barbecue overlooking the valle.

Me at the top of the mountain



The views were spectacular on the back side of the hill overlooking the caldera and the snow covered Jemez mountains. I took a few cell phone photos here and kind of lost my impetus a bit. We descended briefly and the kid caught up to me and then blasted by me as we started seeing some of the front runners come down the trail from the top. We ran up a steep singletrack scramble to the very top of the hill, looped around and descended into the field behind us. I still felt pretty good and tried to open it up on the slick trails to catch the runner ahead.


As we turned off the top loop to the descent we hit some off camber trails that traversed the ski hill. It was really hard to see where the trail really was. So I slipped badly a few times and took a pretty big fall in the first parts of the descent. Further down the hill I could see I was not the only one, all sorts of scrape marks leading down off the trail where people had biffed. Most of the descent alternated between offcamber singletrack to really steep little drops through the woods. It was insanely sketchy and really really fun.

Alas I am a pretty crappy downhill runner in good conditions, I was really crappy this day. The runner ahead of me was not seen again and two runners ran by me like I was standing still. I had many near spills a few real ones and lots of unstable foot plants. It was a blast. The further we got down the trail the more mud there was in the sunny spots where the snow had melted away. I had to stop to tie my shoe and saw two more runners closing in fast and I said basta and took off. Fortunately the trail leveled out a bit with some long straight trails. I was able to decisively drop them and close a bit of ground to the runners ahead of me.

The end of the race got a bit squirrely coming straight down the grassy snow covered ski slope toward Mother lift. I fell three times in quick succession, flat on my ass, but bounced right up and kept on rolling to the finish. I ended up finishing in 6th in the 10k race, one minute back of the kid and one of the guys who passed me on the downhill, but well back of the top three. My time was 1hour 13 minutes 15 seconds. 5 minutes slower than when I did the race two years back, but given the conditions and how good I felt during the race and afterwards, I think I was much faster. I was sore for 4 days or so, mostly in the hips and inner leg from trying to stabilze myself on the snow, but otherwise no big deal. There were nice raffle prizes at the finish, a good cookie and muffin spread for snacking on. Alas, the kitchen was not open so I was denied the traditional post race burrito. Overall 65 people finished the 10k and 25 did the two lap 12 mile race. The turnout was excellent given the crappy weather. results here.

Aida (pink hat) runs towards the cookies and beads


Aida and Elena came up to watch the finish and to have Aida run in her first race the 100 yard kids race. The kids race was great, featuring approximately 10 kids, much pushing on the start line and much excitement about post race cookies and rewards. Aida actually started running when the starter mentioned the cookies and juice post race. Fortunately there were no DQ's for the first false start and she was allowed to line up again. The race went off and she ran the whole way to the end. I am pretty sure she was torn between picking up interesting looking rocks and running the whole way, but her racing instinct held out. She ate some cookies and got a shiny orange bead necklace for her prize. She was mildly irked that her older friends ran the 1k bigger kids race too, but that was soothed by more cookies. Hurray cookies. We returned home and I took an epic nap.

Ruby K Yum Run 10K trail race report

Got in from colorado late last Friday night, got up early saturday and saddled up the breeze and rode downtown for the Ruby K yum Run 10k trail race. It was cold on the way to the race, i was barely awake enough to eat, but I got an espresso, a banana and a couple of blue flavored gummi cliff blocks down the gullet before the race.

I had not really run in a month, except for Friday when I ran up and down the sand dunes at the great sand dune national monument. Barefoot.

So when I woke up for the race my feet hurt a bunch, my quads were sore and I had less than 5 hours sleep. But I was ready to go.

I talked to a few friends at the start. They did a fun line up where there was one start line in front of the post office. The 10k trail runner lined up on one side to go down central and the 5k pavement pounders lined up on the otherside to go up central. The gun went off and maybe 15 10kers took off down central.

The course took the trails behind the aquatic center and dropped into acid canyon and came back up and did a loop by the golf course and dropped back down the canyon more or less to the bridges trail back up and into town. I understood the course in theory, but the exact nature of the trails was unclear. Nor were they particularly well marked, but most of us made it back OK without getting too lost.

Anyhow, the race starts downhill and I am sort of running and chatting with aerobic monster Hans. He is chatting gregariously while I am breathing hard. A group of three of us drop into the canyon first. The initial switchbacks are pretty steep and I am higgledy piggledy going down. I look up and Hans has gapped me something fierce and the second place guy is also a fair bit ahead of me.

As we cruise along the bottom of the canyon a little fast feller blows by me and sprints way up past #2 over up to Hans in a short bit. I settle in to a rhythm and get dropped by the frontrunners. There are about 5 people coming up behind me, but I am cruising along OK.

We hit the nasty switchback climb out of acid canyon and I drop two guys who were closing in on my. The top two women blow by me here and I watch Susan put a good gap on the second placed woman in short order. I put my head down and run on. We hit a trail I have never taken before, which should prove useful for future cross bike rides. I turn my ankle quite well on the low part of the trail and then climb up a stair steppy technical climb to the north golf course side of the perimeter trail. A bearded fellow closes in on me and I wait for him to pass, but he never does. After some smooth trail I look back and I have dropped him pretty good. We hit a feed station with delicious chlorine/soap water served from large gatorade coolers of uncertain age and head south on the upper rim of canyon south golf course side. See?

As we descend technically demanding terrain into the canyon the feller I dropped comes back right on my back and I am forced to pick it up a bit. It smooths out and I open it up and then forget to get my leg over a rock and stub my toe and hit the dirt hard. I get up somewhat surprised that I am not passed. It dawns on me that bearded fellow is great at technical running, especially downhill, but not so great at running fast on the smooth stuff. Fortunately I realize, but for a few bites, it would be all smooth and climbing all the way back to the finish. I just needed to not pack it in and push it.

Easier said than done as my utter lack of run training plus soreness in the quads from the previous days sand running adventure has left me feeling like I need to just walk on home. But with the dulcet tones of the shitty Rufus Wainright cover of halleluja echoing through my head (the one where he enunciates "do you" at the end of each verse instead of the original Cohen rhyming "do ya", it is Hallelujah, not halleluyou, moron. Alas it is Aida's favorite song so we listened to it 400 billion times on the way back from colorado the day before) I press on.

I am delighted to discover that the sewage treatment plant in the canyon is completely gone replaced by a wildflower meadow with a nice clean bit of new single track in it. Discovering two new trails within a couple miles of the house is a great bonus to racing. I see the second place woman up ahead of me while I attempt to drop the guy behind me. We loop on this trail over to bridges and I am on the home stretch. One nasty climb out of the canyon to the finish to go.

As we climb out of the canyon, instead of going straight out of the canyon on the fireroad we turn onto twisty little trails, all alike, but without any course markings. Again, I know what we are trying to do, but the exact mechanism of staying on course out of the canyon is not really clear. I am pretty sure I do it right and motor on back to the pavement to the finish. Turns out I am the fifth overall finisher, fourth among males. The dude behind me finishes a minute or so back and the second place woman magically appears a few minutes behind him after getting well and truly lost on the twisty little singletrack all alike. She still finishes second among women though, or so it would seem...

I stick around for awhile, watch the finishers, cheer for pal Siobhan on her first 10k race ever finishing strong on a tough course, watch the kids race, chat with pals, find that my evil sister "Saleh Tarik" has finished second in the women's race. I protest the results and find myself relegated to 6th place in the mens race due to age grading of the results. Alas, I am old and slow, but not old enough apparently. I am working on it.

Overall great race, needs better water, more runners and better course markings. The course is surprisingly tough but excellent. I will try to do it again next year. I am, as of 5 days post race still enormously sore. I should run more, and get older and faster as well. My back is killing me to the point of not sleeping well due to a tweaked rear back lung brace muscle pull I sustained upon falling. Racing is good. Where the hell were you the rest of you real runners? Until next year.