Jemez Mountain trail 50K. By Phil Sparkes
Here is what this race looked like from the back…..
I’ve always considered myself a sportsman – where I grew up in England that means I played team sports all through adult life and put a lot of effort into it. I was never an athlete. The athletes were the ones that wore Lycra, turned up at the track two hours before my team got there, ran 300 meter reps for the entire two hours that my team was there, and would still be at it when we left.
Maybe not an athlete then – I was one of those people that loved every physical activity I ever did: flying over rocks on the beach as a kid; racing up and down hills on mountain bikes and working out at the gym. I still love this stuff, and that is why I chose to answer yes to the probing question at packet pickup ‘Are you still planning to race tomorrow’ . I have a knee injury, as yet undiagnosed.. under control and my training for the last 5 months included a lot of cross training to preserve it.
Minutes to go
The race day broke nice and early for me – I was up at 3.30 to see a hotel full of activity as people fitter than me got ready for the 50miler. They looked fit ready and relaxed – when I grow up I hope to be one of them someday.
The start was good and chilly, but the sun played golden highlights onto the mountains and we were off onto the trail. Even though I was a Scout (Eagle Scout / Cub Scout) and can read a map, apparently I’ve forgotten a lot. Mitchell Trail was impressive to see as it was painful to stumble up. Despite the injury, Rachel and I were prepared. We trained a lot, both on trails, at altitude and cross training in the gym.
Over the top and down into the canyon we ran into heavy tree cover and it got cold with the wind whistling through the trees. The climb up Caballo cured that problem. I didn’t think anything could be steeper than Mitchell, but that trail was just awe inspiring. I was pretty much mid race when I started, and almost at the end when I got to the top. To get such encouragement from the runners as they raced down was humbling – ‘good job’, ‘way to go’, ‘not far now’, ‘do you want me to call the paramedics..’. I hope I set a record down Caballo – it took me longer to come down than go up, and I hope I provided a distraction for the folks still on the way up – I was the guy with the tree limb and the frankly colorful language as I tried to maneuver my one good leg down the slope.
I talked about quitting then but decided against it. The climb out of the Caballo base aid station was sneaky steep, but once over the top I crisscrossed people in and out of aid stations all the way to Pipeline, Ski Lodge and back to Pipeline. My watch quit at that point – that was ok, I didn’t particularly appreciate the news anyway .
Major thanks to the organization and volunteers – the aid stations and organization was fantastic on this race I thought. I didn’t have any problems locating trails, the signs on the trail and aid stations were a welcome distraction.
At Pipeline I had 11 miles to go, most downhill. From that point on – you all know how it goes. This was the point I knew I was going to finish. I was going to have to walk much of the downhill – my knee wouldn’t let me run any appreciable slope and my left leg was concrete from its extra effort, but all of this was just a distraction -Pain to be welcomed for its transitory nature and the benefits it would bring in the future, not the alarm bells you sometimes hear in your head. In case you were wondering – I do listen to my body.
I had plenty of role models to keep me going on the long dusty, quiet downhill into town. The flyers finishing the 50 mile with their white numbers; anyone who I could recognize as being older than me and a group that I tried my best to keep in front of. There were the earlier trail companions – the lady who said ‘Where would you rather be?’; the couple running this as a training run for 100 miles who optimistically said ‘Would you like to get past?’ while going up Mitchell; everyone in front of me.
Almost at the finish line
At the last aid station (thanks again for the encouragement, support and Ginger Ale) I walked off with Jim. Jim was good conversation for a good half mile, I hope I was for him and then my long dormant competitive spirit got the best of me. That last mile plus was flat enough that I could run up and down most of the slopes so I slogged it out.
I think if anyone wanted to capture my race on film then a picture of my face as I found the last surprise in the climb back to the Shack would have it nicely – I won’t spoil the surprise for anyone doing it next year.
10 hours, 10 minutes – next year I’ll be back Caballo.
‘Fill each minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run’ – with apologies to Rudyard Kipling
Jemez Mountain trail run
The Jemez mountain trail was my first trail half marathon – well 13.3 miles so just more than a half, and before I go further I really don’t like the term “half” so this was my first 21k trail run – that’s better. I decided to do this race mainly because my husband made me, but looking at last year’s photos it looked beautiful and trying something different appealed to me.
The Posse Shack
I didn’t want to read too much about the race, especially after the first couple of statements said “I didn’t think it would be that hard!!!!”. When people use a lot of explanation marks, is always a bad sign. I was aware that the trail went all the way up, then all the way back down again. I did lots of training for the race, I live in Colorado so had trail runs close by. But I don’t think I did enough training at altitude, mainly because those trails were covered in snow – I know, I am just not hard core enough, who would let snow stop them?
Excited to get going
So the start of the race was here, and away I went. I was running with my friend, this was her first 21k trail race as well. I was feeling fairly confident at the start line – not sure what I was confident in, maybe just finishing, but that first mile was tough. How can this be? I am fit, I have trained, I should be used to the altitude. Confidence gone. Luckily once on the trail and settling into my small stride I felt better and was enjoying it. Scenery was beautiful, weather lovely and thinking what a way to spend a Saturday morning.
Then I heard and saw a bunch or people clapping and cheering – I love these people, they make you feel great, they get your adrenaline going even more, they even make signs. And what does that sign say “Welcome to MitcHELL”. I smiled at that, then saw another similar one, “Oh, I see what they have done, putting the last 4 letters in capitals” I thought. Then I saw another sign, wait, how bad is Mitchell, maybe I should have read more about the race. And then MitcHELL was here, and it was bad, so very very bad, real steep, steeper than those silly little trails I “trained” on in Colorado. However, I felt better when I saw the top, it was further than I was hoping but then again this was supposed to be a tough trail. Oh, you can imagine my surprise when the “top” was not in actual fact the top, just a horrible trick in the landscape. What I saw was higher and steeper trails. I followed the line of runners to find the top, and I kept looking and following them and the single file kept going and going and going. I finally saw the end and was completely demoralized. This is ridiculous. Why would they make us do this. This is un-runable. I can hardly hike this. And looking up again to see if I was any closer to the top, I though it was such an eerie sight seeing a single file of people slowly gliding towards the top of the mountain in a zig zag pattern. I kept thinking stupid, stupid MitcHELL, but then in parts I got glimpses of the view. Wow, amazing, I just wish I could have seen more of the scenery without the worry of falling down the cliff edge. Thank you to stripy sock person, looking at her bright socks made me focus on something else, for a while at least.
We finally made it to the top and couldn’t wait to get away from it. Just 7 miles to go, and down hill. 5 of those miles went quickly and I was loving it. My friend and I were still together, she is much better at running up hills than me, but I am a bit quicker going down hills. We managed to talk a little bit, we were doing OK, loving the trail but didn’t dare mention MitcHELL.
The last mile for me was a killer. I didn’t think I could finish it, the energy just drained away from me, I don’t know where it went, but I was done. I was shattered. My friend waited for me at the top of that “fun” rock climb, and reassured me we were almost there – thank you for not leaving me behind! People were cheering me on, and clapping and I found that last bit of energy to get across the finish line. Hurray. I have never felt so tired, and I have been playing sports all my life. I did it in 2 hours and 50 minutes. I couldn’t believe that I felt great until that last mile or so, all that training and I felt that bad at the end. I didn’t eat during the race. I didn’t feel like it and now feel silly saying that I couldn’t understand that my energy just went away. I didn’t eat, I had food with me to eat…why didn’t I eat anything? I just thought my energy drink would be enough. I feel so stupid.
After the race, 2 hours and 50 minutes
The evening after the race my body was feeling surprising well, not many aches or pains at all. And now, Monday I feel great. No aches or pains, which I am thankful for.
Now I am thinking of when my next one will be (maybe 14.4 mile trail run in Vail in July) and I am definitely doing this again next year. But my training will consist of more steeper trails and eating whilst training (I really hope that the lack of food was the reason for my loss of energy).
I can see the finish
This was an amazing experience, it was organized well, it was nice to have a tough trail despite what I was thinking at the time. As a newbie to this and seeing so many runners know each other, I got a sense of a community, maybe one day I will be part of that.
My company www.rs10designs.com was a small sponsor to this event, and I am grateful to have been part of it as a sponsor and as a runner. See you next year and thanks to all the volunteers and organizers.
