Wholistic Fitness

“Wear them and it will come,” i told Channel Two News who interviewed me after the race, “i ran in snowshoes today to appease the Snow Gods.” photo by www.MyRacePics.com

Namaste Noble Warriors!

Yesterday, i qualified for the National Snowshoe Championships in one of the, no, DEFINITELY the most strangest and painful qualifiers i have ever had the honor of doing.

Here i am proving – once again – 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 Ananda.

Since no real snow has fallen on the 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!

“Hey,” i told Channel Two News, “the USSSA Rulebook states that, ‘regulation snowshoes must be worn at all times.’ So that’s what i did. I don’t care if there is not any snow…it’s what Yogi’s do..we live out our Truth no matter what!” i finished the 10k Course clomping about in Snowshoes like a “…wounded Buffalo..” in a time of 54:12. hey, i even beat several runners!}

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 using 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, Ananda (far left) was elected to start the KIDS RACE…

Oh man…HILARIOUS…these kids put Ananda into Oxygen Debt by sprinting off the start like Michael Johnson…

only to stop the moment they got out of sight of the adoring crowd..
i got worried that the kids would put the big hurt on Ananda, run off into the forests, and get eaten by Sasquatch.

so i wrote off my pre-race ritual and ran the Kids Race with Ananda…it turned out to be the highlight of my day!

Ananda 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!

this is 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. Notice how Andrew is coaching you in true CHI RUNNING! he is floating; his feet are not even touching Mother Earth. his spine? superbly elegant. his head is buoyant. his arms are relaxed. his knee/ankle/toe alignment is ideal. most importantly, he is not worried about his “result”. Andrew is merely, simply, and beautifully demonstrating to us how to RUN WITH NATURAL CHI!

of course, kids are not Enlightened because they lack precisely what the Spiritual Journey is all about; developing equanimity. 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…

..and that, My Noble Warriors, is what racing is all about.
{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…

Racing is about
going beyond your ego limits and tapping into that part of you that is Unlimited…

So today,
Toe The Start Line…
be as Elegantly Conscious
in EVERYTHING you do today…

my coaching counsel is to begin with Wholistic Fitness� Lifestyle Principle #1; Breath and Posture.
Right now; Begin.
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
qualifier/USSSA 2006 National Sport Snowshoeing Championships

***
SPECIAL THANKS:
�) to my dirtshoe sponsor…errr, i mean, my SNOWSHOE SPONSOR: Atlas… what other snowshoe could have taken a crazy ass coach ilg beating like this and come out undamaged? buy the Best; buy ATLAS! www.atlassnowshoe.com

�) Wendell and Tim at:
http://www.flagstaffnordiccenter.com/

�) Mark Elmore at:
http://www.snowshoeracing.com/home.htm

�)
and heap big thanks to my Beloved Ananda; baby..i bow in wow to your amazing support of this Wounded Buffalo stumbling across the alpine forests of Arizona…we’ll do fine in the Bardo…just fine…

� for more photos of this race and other awesome race pics:
http://myracepics.com/mrp/findpictures.asp?raceid=112&RacerNumber=228