A USSSA COLUMN
by
COACH STEVE ILG,
ryt/uscf/nhca
Click Here for
Steve's Bio
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RUNNING ON WATER:
THE SNOWSHOE WARRIOR!
Edition 12
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A USSSA COLUMN
by
COACH STEVE ILG,
ryt/uscf/nhca
Click Here for
Steve's Bio
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OFF
SEASON Racing...
To
Become A Disciple of "The Light"
First Published on 8*7*08 on steve ilg's DIRECT LINES blog...
my race report from The 43rd Annual La Luz Trail Race...may this
benefit your own Practice as we
edge closer to the start of the season of the falling snows...
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get out there and train because,
"you never get a second chance at your off season."
- coach steve ilg, THE OUTDOOR ATHLETE (Johnson Press)
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Sandia Peak from the Rio Grande Bosque. by ilg. a big Sacred mountain and
at the Start Line. by Craig Ilg. a humble mountain yogi....
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just
toeing the Start Line among hundreds of sport-specific runners, many
of whom are wearing "Hardrock 100 Mile" t-shirts and speaking in
cavalier terms of coming off 90-mile-per-week running volumes can
be, i admit, downright scary for us Wholistic FitnessŪ warriors who
refuse to specialize for the sake of wholeness.
350 runners gathered. we've got 2 miles of 12% uphill pavement until we hit the La Luz singletrack; a sinewy snake of an ancient footpath that takes as direct a possible line up the gut of Sandia Peak to the Finish Line on the summit rim; elevation 10, 678'. |
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The Start
Gun fires.
"There is no self-mastery without discipline," the Simone Weil
quote comes to mind as i start my chronograph watch in sync with the
"BOOM" of the Gun. i take third row, knowing from my feeble
running volumes this summer that i only have a quality 1 hour and 45
minutes of steep uphill running in me.
after
an hour and a half?
unknown
territory. it'll be a tight squeeze for my run fitness. the winner
in my Age Group is gonna crack 1:45. there are 35 in my Age Group.
the average age of racers in this classic race is 42 years old.
Simon Guiterrez who has won this thing 9 times in the past 12 years
is precisely 42. he'll win again this year in another remarkable
time of 1:22. dat's right; 1:22. he'll soar up and over the 9 mile,
4,680', 6 -climate zone, single track course covering each
horrendously steep mile in 9 minutes and 11 seconds. Ananda figured
i could capably run 15-minute miles. i figured she was about right.
ilg
just wonders if Guiterrez bleeds red. would love to put him in a
Downdog, see what his flexibility is like. wonder what he can Bench?
how many pull ups can he crank? then again, that's just ilg...a
die-hard Wholeness Professional. i respect sport-specific athletes.
i do not, however, worship them. here is what ilg worships:
Wholeness, versatility, balance, symmetry.
my
Sacred Duty today, being a La Luz virgin is to gun it for what i
know i can do; an hour and 45 minutes of uphill suffering, then,
hang on. i figure my gas will run out close to the summit where,
since everyone is hurting anyway, i can rely on my mountaineering
experience and just speed walk the rest and limit damage.
"There is no greater source of discipline than the effort demanded
in overcoming obstacles," wrote Weil. As i hit the singletrack
in the top 75 of the 350 peleton, i thought; okay; i've got myself
my obstacle; 7 more miles of single track up a Sacred Peak. let's
party!
my new
running shoes:
Nitrus
Trail Running Shoe (web link)
are
gripping the Lower Sonoran singetrack like crazy good. this trail is
something like Vishnu Himself created while being intoxicated on
whatever it is that the Deities get off on...this thing switchbacks
so many times in her first three miles that i was getting nauseous.
and high...airplane high. the canvas of the Rio Grande Valley was
dropping like a granite boulder away from my flying feet. passing
slower runners was an exercise of dynamic and dangerous yoga...
"On
your left!" i would huff at my next victim in front of me and
then accelerate, shrug my right shoulder and torso past him like an
alpine skier brushing past a slalom gate. if misstep? the plunge
straight off the narrow path and down the cholla cacti covered slope
would be brutal.
back to
Discipline.
the
word itself means to be a Disciple.
so, i
make myself a Disciple of La Luz..."the Light".
to be
Disciplined...to be a Disciple requires no wisdom. no talent, nor
intelligence. Discipline requires not strength, beauty, or bravery.
to be a
Disciple requires but one shining quality; listening and, here comes
the hardest part; acting appropriately.
as Yogi
Jesus's Disciples gathered at His feet, they Listened to His Dharma.
they
then attempted to Act Appropriately...and well, you know how the
Story goes...turns out that chillin' at the Master's Feet is one
thing, getting off on His DharmaTalks...but then, as the
you-know-what hits the fan, well, the gig turns suddenly sour and
too steep as the resistance becomes greater.
Mile 7
comes fast as i lead a small group toward an water station headed by
Boy Scouts. sadly, i must stop at each of these three Water Stations
and do my Yogi Squat (aka; the Ilg Wheelchair) to
energetically vent the most searing of my broken-back and
bone-on-bone hip joint pain. as i squat and drink, the group of six
that i was leading fly past me, bewildered why i would stop. little
do they know that they have followed a broken-back yogi all this
time.
up
ahead and the resistance of Sandia Peak is growling. i am
approaching the "Landslide Section"...a mile of traversing into and
out from a huge boulder-sized talus field. each of these rocks are
1.4 billion years-old. that alone turns me on and i find a new,
higher gear...i'm at about an hour and thirty-five minutes and feel
like Cinderella approaching midnight...i wanted to be higher on the
mountain by now. i use nimbleness to dance up and over this section
through which several of the runners are now delicately walking up,
scared of turning an ankle.
if
being a Disciple requires acting appropriately in the face of great
resistance, then ilg figures uphill mountain running is perhaps one
of the greatest resistances available to a yogi. Just a glance
upward and still seeing how far away is the summit - and knowing
that animals like Guitterez have already been finished for several
minutes - is humbling at a time when confidence is needed. so, i
force my egoic escapades to return to the Mantra and am at it again;
one foot in front of the other.
sometimes walking.
sometimes lunging like a Sasquatch...
sometimes tiny-step jogging...
yet
always upward, upward, upward.
the
altitude is noticeable as is the vista sprawling beneath me...i lean
on my Mantra.
the guy
who i've been pacing from this entire race suddendly pulls over and
lets me pass.
this is
surprising. he has done this race 18 times. dat's right; 18 times.
looks like a runner; wiry and maybe 105 lbs sopping wet. i basically
walk past him, this time, it is i that is bewildered.
knowing
that the final half-mile is the most steep of all and includes a
100' staircase i ask him, "is the final half-mile anywhere
close?"
"yes," he replies, "after exiting the Landslide, a few
switchbacks, then, when you hit the Aspens, you're almost home."
aspens,
i lingered with the word and invoked their image. love aspens. from
Lower Sonoran Desert up and into the thick, lush foilage of the
SubAlpine Zone of aspens and firs. you guys have GOT to do this
race!
an hour
and fifty five minutes. Despite my resolve, this Sacred Peak is too
big today for my racing capacities. my legs turn turn to stumps.
Every cell, every organ is now reporting in:
"Overload! Overload! Overload!"
past
the Landslide and i face the final half-mile. i realize it's gonna
take a world-class achievement to stay close to 2 hours and i
ain't got it.
minutes
pass more rapidly than my 180 HeartBeats per minute driven breath.
breaking the 10,300' mark and the air seems to get no further than
my throat before exiting.
Lightheaded.
i now
scamper up the staircase and hear the shouts of the gathered crowd
on the Finish Line.
my
wheels have come off and coordination of breath and running
mechanics has long since left my body vehicle. behind me, a former
champion of this race, Ben Wakashige, now age 60, is slobbering on
my heels. his 6-decade old breathing apparatus a monster roar up my
spine. we have been sharing a religion of Uphillism for the past
hour, encouraging each other from within our own Pain Caves. "Hills
make all men brothers," is a favorite quote of mine and here on this
Sacred Southwest Peak, airplane high over the rest of mediocrity, i
and Ben - regardless of age - are indeed brothers...forever and
endlessly linked by our Shared Sweat.
Now,
with the Finish just one switchback away,
i find
myself stopping, reaching back and offering a hand to a staggering
Champion whose effort is Herculean...i want him to take the glory of
the final summit yards.
i back
off, giving the former Champion some space in which to bask in his
well-earned applause and recognition.
Though
my limbs were as heavy as iron and my tortured body hard and massy,
i guess
my ego was still fresh and alive for i saw no reason to throw my
head back and slosh myself across the Finish Line in front of all
these people...so i straightened my spine, put some grace in my
steps, and relaxed my face as i hit the Line.
If i
created Wholistic Fitness,
and if
Wholistic Fitness means nothing if not:
"Elegance in Difficulty,"
then,
by God,
i damn
well better cross the Line with some degree of Elegance.
and i
did; i let my body self-correct and i let go into the Finishing
Crowd...
the
mountain,
this
mountain,
my
mountain
smiled
at me
through
all those faces...
the
cheers like a aspen wind given voice.
at the
summit, i looked out over the Land i love so much,
and
smiled.
there
is not a race when i do not learn more about myself,
nor the
Dharma.
age,
you see Oh Noble Seeker of Union, is an asset.
Wisdom
Mind, Wisdom Body.
"If
you're lucky enough to be a runner," the Hopi say, "than you
are lucky enough."
special thanks to my little brother Craig, and his Clan; Gwen,
Ella,and Alazar and my mom and dad for coming out to support my
pilgrimage up the Peak!
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 from the Can Do Clan to your Clan...
May you drive yourself in the sacred toil of being a Disciple
and believe that your life is full of meaning. May Pain be your
Teacher,
and may it give you True Marks to measure your ascent to your
personal
summit...
and may your Glory be Go(o)d...
that is all,
from your coach who still does the do for you
the La
Luz Race will run it's 44th annual race next august. be there. only
350 runners are allowed to compete in this race which Trail Runner
Magazine ranked as one of the top 12 Most Brutal Races In America.
website:
La Luz
Trail Run
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to order
Coach Ilg's "Introduction To SnowShoeing" DVD,
click here:
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