Wholistic Fitness

pic;  your feeble teacher speaking up for the Dharma-based athletics shouts out again…this is ilg enroute to another podium in the IHBC in my hometown of Durango, CO a few years ago

so, tonight, our newly crowned Race Director (non-local) shortened tomorrow’s Iron Horse Bicycle Classic from Silverton to Purgatory Ski Resort…where, supposedly, our heroes like Ned Overend, Todd Wells, Marisa Asplund, et. al… are entitled to enjoy “tons of things to do” at Purgatory/Durango Mountain Resort” or whatever they are calling it these Kali Yuga days…well,  here’s my take on it…

this is my fervently penned Letter to the Editor of the Durango Herald….it probably won’t get published, so you read it here first…

***

To The Editor,

so,  chalk one up for The Train, while denying hundreds (thousands?) of warriors and warrioress’s their chance at their (well paid for) chance at the battle dance?

when the few warriors come to my yoga class?  they don’t do so to stay within their comfort zones…we come to yoga to dance outside our comfort zones…and THAT, my Noble Friends,

is precisely why racers toe the Start Line…to transcend our comfort zones.

feeble ilg only takes quill during high-chi m(om)ents and tonight?  on the Sacred Eve of our precious Iron Horse Bicycle Race to the town of Silver-by-the-ton?

our new Race Director shortened the race to Purgatory, even before Race Day dawned….it’s a decision made by a non-local that ilg sees this as yet another step in the chronic degradation of our Human spirit and tenacity…all for “liability reasons.”

whatever.  so QUICK to take a warriors money….so FAST to deny the Warrior’s battle dance to Silverton!

the real race?

is the race toward Enlightenment, and that is PRECISELY why the Warriors (aka: athletes) of our current epoch Toe The Start Line for…

the Battle.

no matter WHAT!

each race, if done from a spiritual perspective is a Dance…a Battledance…toward elevating our inner spirit,  our verve…that’s why we train in the cold of March, and persist our pedaling  into the high winds of April…

so WHAT if it’s snowy!!!!   OMG!!!   our high passes are sooooo beautiful to ride through during snowstorms!  to deny warriors and warrioress’s  of their expensive Race Entry fees just to pedal up to Purg?!?!  after all their training!??!!   oooooh!!!   slap in our faces.  ugh.  give me a high summit wind instead of some paltry, ad-libbed ‘finish line’ at….Purg!

my personal highest place finish in the Road Race to Silverton? 6th place as a Cat.3 racer as the heavily-clothed officials slammed the gate shut to Coal Bank after our group passed the old Mill Creek Ski Area (remember that sacred place?).

sure, I’ve finished as high as 3rd Overall in the IHBC Omnium, yet?  that one day, suspended high and alone with our Warrior Pack as we pedaled upon snow crusted roads among our treasured snowy peaks?  THAT is the memory i, for one feeble warrior, will take to my grave and recount to the wide-eyed stare of my 6 year-old daughter.   to deny others such Sacred M(om)ents?  tis a sad, sad sin* of our times.

you know what happened on that precious day as i cycled up and over Coal Bank and Molas in the high winds and blowing snows?  sure,  i suffered like a three-legged dog caught in an arctic whiteout…i was convulsing on my bike on the descent to Silverton, my ONLY focus was not a podium or some tepid “Finisher Medal”….it was to warm my frozen fingers beneath the automatic hot-air hand-cleanser at the Conoco Station in Sliverton!   this is a story i tell my daughter and others to this day…

i’ve raced the Mt. Taylor Winter Quadrathon when the road surface was nothing but a veneer of ice and used (read it) BIKE SKILLS to navigate it…just as I did during that snowy/icy/windy IHBC way back when…before Fear-based liability issues prioritized true podiums already held within.  the IHBC Road Race is a day that all Warriors train toward;  Sliverton or bust!   that’s why we sign the Liability Release…that’s why we pay the $$$ we do…so let us RACE!   no matter what!

racers race in order to test our Highest Self  ALL THE WAY to Silverton,  no matter what!   not to be pulled off at Purgatory like some child, unprepared….

head bowed,

spirit vowed,

coach steve ilg

durango, co

* sin – in traditional Buddhist linguistics translates to ‘spiritual laziness’.