RUNNING ON WATER

RUNNING ON DIRT...errrr, I mean WATER:

Coach Ilg Shows Nordic Spirit In A Quirky Qualifier

Namaste Noble Snowshoe Warriors!

On January 22nd, I qualified for the National Snowshoe Championships. Not in a typical USSSA Snowshoe Race...no siree! I got my qualification in one of the...no...DEFINITELY the most strangest and painful Qualifiers I have ever had the honor of doing!

I ran in my self-designed and approved...yet snowless...USSSA Snowshoe 10k Course clomping about in Snowshoes on bare, rocky ground like a "...wounded Buffalo." I finished the Course in a time of 54:12, and surprised myself at NOT finishing last! I also had another agenda at work during my "dirtshoe" race. "If I wear them the snow will come," I told a Channel Two news reporter who interviewed me after the race, "Today, I ran in snowshoes to appease the Snow Gods."

"Hey, the USSSA Rulebook states that, 'regulation snowshoes must be worn at all times.'

So that's what I did." - Coach Ilg digging into real dryland training fitness at mile 3.5. photo/www.MyRacePics.com

Since no real snow has fallen on my Snowshoe Race Course, I and Flagstaff Nordic Center Director Wendell Johnson, turned the event into, "The Snow Or No Trail Race" which attracted about 40 competitors. Only I was idiotic enough to actually do the race wearing snowshoes!

Here I am proving my insanity and my unflappable Nordic Spirit. This is about a mile into the 6.2 mile race, as I began losing contact with the completely sane runners. I designed the undulating, high altitude (8,300') race course in October to be a USSSA Rocky Mountain Snowshoe Regional Qualifier.

photo by Joy Kilpatrick.

Before the Start Gun went off, I had to get on the Loudspeaker and address the runners explaining, awkwardly standing there in my snowshoes on dirt, that this Trail Race was actually a Snowshoe Qualifying Race. If they wanted, they could join the USSSA and use this Race as a chance to qualify for going to Nationals.

Here is the expression that most of the runners had on their face after my announcement:

Meet Luke and Kerri, two of my HP Yoga students here in Flagstaff. We train for races like this one by doing two of my HP Yoga classes twice per week. When Luke passed me out on the course at around Mile 4, I had been hobbled by painful cramps from jarring my joints on the steel cleats since Mile 2. Luke gasped as he passed me, "Coach...you look like a wounded Buffalo!"

"Student Luke," I gasped among the aspen back to him,...I FEEL like a wounded Buffalo!!!"

Flagstaff HP Yogin, Luke at Mile 4 after passing me on a 800 meter climb...

if you squint, you can see me, 'Wounded Buffalo', still on the hill behind him.

THE WISDOM OF THE CHILDREN...

Before the race, my partner Joy (far left) was elected to start the KIDS RACE

Oh man...HILARIOUS...these kids put Joy into Oxygen Debt by sprinting off the start like Michael Johnson...only to stop the moment they got out of sight of their parents and the cheering crowd. I grew worried at how fast those kids were running! I thought, "Oh man, those kids are gonna put the big hurt on Joy, run off into the forests, and get eaten by Sasquatch! How would I explain THAT to their parents?!" So, I hit the Delete Button on my own pre-race ritual and ran to assist Joy with the Kids Race.

It turned out to be the highlight of my day!

Joy and I "raced" with the kids over their 1 kilometer course...and let me tell you...these little ones canvassed EVERY KNOWN HUMAN EMOTION during that 1K epic race!

Now I would like you to meet Andrew (age 4) in front of Ryan (age 6). I 'raced' with them. Andrew refused to wear gloves in the 12-degree cold. Mountain kids are tough kids. COACHING MOMENT: I want you to sit up and take a close look at Andrew. Why? Because he is your Snowshoe Running Guru in this photo. Notice how Andrew is floating; his feet are not even touching Mother Earth. See his spine position? Superbly elegant. His head is buoyant. His arms are relaxed. His knee/ankle/toe alignment is expressing ideal biomechanics! And, most importantly Andrew is not worried about his "result". Andrew is merely, simply, and beautifully demonstrating to us how to RUN WITH NATURAL CHI! This is precisely the image I want you to recall during your next Snowshoe Race! Relaxed and Alert! Relaxed and Alert! That is a wonderful mantra to use for your training!

Understand that, though the Wisdom of Children is great, kids are not Enlightened Athletes. They lack precisely what a Spiritual Practice is all about; developing equanimity. For instance: At one point, Andrew and I were "racing" toward the finish line after many emotional ups and downs...he looked up at me, exasperated, and said with complete adult matter-of-fact tonality, "I simply cannot take this any longer."

Of course, two seconds later we were racing toward the cheering crowd again, hand in frozen hand

RACING IS NOT ABOUT WINNING...IT'S ABOUT KNOWING OURSELVES...

{HP Yoga student Kerri, cranking past a competitor with less than a kilometer to go.}

{Mile 5; left calf complex is not functioning. every step jams the steel binding plate into my feet, sending scissor cutting pain through my hammered ankles, knees, and hips. my mantra at this point was the Paiute Native mantra,"keep a'goin, keep a'goin, keep a'goin..."}

Racing is not about winning, it's about knowing ourselves.

It's not about having ideal conditions on Race Day...and it ain't about qualifying for Nationals.

It's about challenging yourself.

Racing is about

Beginning

again

and again,

and endlessly again...

So today, Toe The Start Line.

Be as Elegantly Conscious as possible in EVERYTHING you do today.

Why not begin with your Breath and Posture Awareness Right now; Begin. Adjust your posture into a more elegant, functional, and healthy position. Then, take several deep nasal breaths.

And when you forget about your Conscious Breath and Posture Then I want you to do this; Begin Again.

This is the Start Line of Human Awakening;

making Conscious that which is Unconscious.

Until we actually begin our Awakening,

we can never mine that which is deepest within us...

we can never mine the Divine potential which make up

this single most miraculous conglomeration of molecules I have ever

studied...

the precious human life.

Namaste,

coach ilg

SPECIAL THANKS: to my dirtshoe sponsor...errr, i mean, my SNOWSHOE SPONSOR: Atlas... what other snowshoe could have taken a crazy beating like this and come out undamaged? www.atlassnowshoe.com

RUNNING ON WATER: THE SNOWSHOE WARRIOR Archive

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RUNNING ON WATER: THE SNOWSHOE WARRIOR! Edition 4
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