Wholistic Fitness

Start of the 2026 Langlauf Nordic Marathon (30k) this morning at Durango Nordic Center – despite the hellish race course conditions due to low snow;  13 racers signed up…more than a few would not not make it to the Finish Line…

Event: Langlauf Nordic Marathon 30k (one our nation’s longest running Nordic Marathons at nearly 50 years)

Date: Saturday, Feb 28, 2026

Location:  Durango Nordic Center

Elevation: 8,793′

Snow Situation:  58% of recent snowpack decimated in past 78 hours

Race Course Status: Extreme – the first lap of the 4×7.5 kilometer course absolutely terrifying for all the most highly skilled and seasoned Nordic Skiers;  the very marginal snow coverage means extremely fast speeds on the renown technical downhills peppered by rock patches and ice dams/seepages.   As the snow on the course quickly heats,  icy patches will remain while slugging through spring like mashed potato snow on all south facing sections will continue to add drag to the skis ability to glide.

***

Two Days Before Race Day:
pulled into the Durango Nordic Center (DNC) parking to pre-ski the Race Course of the Langlauf Nordic Marathon…yet, had harnessed pensive dreams and chronic anxiety about what way too many Nordic skiers are now going to bed thinking, “Omg, the overnight low is barely tickling freezing in February!??!   How can this be!??!   Will they be able to even GROOM the course?!?”

Departure/Vent (do NOT read this paragraph if you’re sensitive to real shit):  You see dear reader,  if you’re like a Texan or a Rump voter/cultist) or someone equally as inept in all things actually compassionate, inwardly turned, and uh, well, cool?  you may not stand-under (aka; understand) that in REAL SKIING (the actual act of schussing across and down and UP sacred snow covered hills which glisten in a bijillion diameter deep diamonesque canopy with your heels FREE) if the sacred snow at a Nordic Center does NOT reach a hard freeze at night? the grooming machines (google; Piston Bully Nordic Grooming Machines) can’t even produce their renown strands of pure cord (if you know what that term means you just know) and instead, sink and get stranded in a mire muck of damp, unsupportive snow.

Saw from the Parking Lot, ilg’s worst fears confirmed.  Jessie – our precious magician/snow groomer – was not able to groom and instead along with others – ilgself included – chose NOT to groom the track yet shovel snow onto the dozens of dry patches and hopefully be able to save the remaining snowpack (maybe 3″ thick at many points) for the Langlauf race … it was emotionally dismantling for ilg to speak true.  grew up with this race.  a true Durango outdoor athlete testpiece along with the other Southwest test pieces of Imogene Pass Run, Iron Horse Bicycle Classic, Mt. Taylor Winter Quadrathlon, and Kendall Mountain Half Marathon.   Do all 5 of those in a calendar year like ilg did for 14 consecutive years, and get back to me.  It’s not all the happy smiley moments that Patagonia and the rest of the corporations that make $$$ off of a once humble outdoor athlete tribe that ilg first wrote to you about in my first book:  THE OUTDOOR ATHLETE (johnson books, 1985).

Race Day:
pulled into DNC  hours before race start (mostly?  just to make sure ilg got the top tier parking next to the lodge, which used to never be a thing, now is, locals?  am I right here?!?!).   Jessie;  may ALL GODS BLESS HIM, pulled another rabbit out of his Grooming hat and was able to groom the Race Course – RIP the Classic Tracks… only Skate Skiing the newer insanely more popular bastard child of true Nordic Skiing (aka; kick-and-glide).  This fact petrified feeble ilg even more than ilg already was, for, in a true Freestyle Race (which Langlauf says it is) you have a choice to Skate ski or Classic Ski…though the Series Points Standings of the Southwest Nordic Race Series only rewards points for fastest times – Classic Skiing is not an option for those of us competing for Series Titles.  Yet, at least during downhills and false flats,  ilg can use my Classic Ski strengths to rest my skating muscles and find quicker lines yet, today, this would not be an option.  No Classic tracks available.

So, during ilg’s pre race visualizations,  made two unusual tactical decisions for a Feb nordic ski race:

tactical choice 1/2:
Ski Swap.  at the end of my second of four 7.5k laps during the race,  I was gonna swap out my skis;  waxed my Laps 1&2 skis with Swix 8 (never used before in Feb) and then I’d trade my 8-waxed skis for Swix 10 (literally ilgs warmest ski wax I have..DEF NEVER used before in my 6 decades of nordic ski racing in FEB!?!?!).  Pic above:  setting up my Transition before the race gun

Tactic 2:  race as naked as possible yet, with a retro 80 vibe cuz!?!?  well?  ilg in the 80’s outta Boulder, Colorado? could free climb 5.12c when 5.12d was America’s hardest route,  free solo’d 5.11d before Alex Honnold was even born while able to race a 32-minute 10k while able to crank off 62 consecutive pull ups, and 3 one arm pull ups, while ice climbing VI Grade 5.   Squat 320lbs at a bodyweight of 148 (which, ironically?  was ilg’s weight this morning). Dat shit?  should be honored.  try it.  get back to feeble ilg.  We’ll have a convo then.

Lap One (7.5k) of 4:
Gun goes off.  Have mathematically NEARLY securing another SW Nordic Cup Series Masters Win if ilg just stays upright,  ilg moved thankfully towards the back of the pack on the icy, technical first lap… managed to keep it upright through the horrid conditions and had two racers shadow ilg, one of them in my 55+ category… couldn’t help but TAF that they were using ilg as a guinea pig to handle the high speed, super technical sections than pounce on me as the track softened…

Lap 2 (through 15k) of 30:
the two racers used ilg as a guinea pig to handle the high speed, super technical sections than pounced on me as the track softened…oh,  did ilg forecast that?   was pretty proud that these two younger racers respected my ski skills/fitness to use to forward their own tactics… love endurance sports… ilg bows to them and their use of feeble ilgs capacities without ever coming up on my skis or being anything other than a respectful c(om)petitor… sacred warrior sweat at it’s highest in the hardest of all sports… made my ski transition onto my Swix 10 (yellow) waxed skis… omg!  HUGE GREAT CALL!   in the insanely hot heated sections of the course?  could actually glide instead of feeling friction… tbh?  reckon feeble ilg has been waxing too cold for my whole life at DNC races…learning never stops if you are Aware and willing to be open to what intense suffering can teach.

Lap 3 (through 22.5k) of 30:
the fresh skis had ilg SOARING on this most precious lap of the four…was gaining time on those who passed ilg (was in literally last place in this elite field yet stayed within myself mentally using Mantra, Mula Bandha, and Offering for Dewa – my daughter – as She would race the first leg of a 4x800m indoor Conference in Decorah, Iowa)… Lap 3 for ilg was monumental, bc ilg’s final 3 races of the season are 25k, 25k, and 20k…the second 25k being my strongest skiing skill;  Classic Technique…. so,  ilg wa totally stoked this leg felt so strong.  at Transition took a sip of water and a bite of beef stick.

Lap 4 made it to 30k:
ilg’s h(om)etown crowd was soooo wildly cheering for ilg as I skied through the Lap line for the final time… most saw an old man in jean shorts and wild hair struggling gamely to just get across the Finish line of this insanely hard course in the hardest of all sports in extreme heat and course conditions. they were not wrong.  So bouyed by the screams of GO ILG!!!  FINISH HARD!!!   by the young kids of Durango Nordic kids who started and finished their much shorter races earlier then the 30k… rocketed ilg’s emotive brain back to all the years when I raised Dewa, my own daughter, through Durango Nordic… just KNEW that as a parent had to impart the notion and practice and spiritual import of ADVERSITY…God Bless Durango Nordic Youth… it literally saved my life from an abusive upbringing and?  Well, if you follow Dewa?  Durango Nordic def seemed to have served the same measure of self esteem, self reliance, and notion of team spirit/community. in her as she begins her long current Pre Med journey soooo many thousands of miles away from DNC…

Final TAFs:
ilg is typing this to you on supremely tired legs, happy sacred heart, and just praying that in some way, some manner?

ilg s(om)show managing my umpteenth time onto either the OA or 55+ Podium of the SouthWest Nordic Race Series since ilg was my daughters’ age?
inspires s(om)e kid… getting passed by an old guy… inspires someone s(om)eone s(om)ewhere… perhaps my age or younger who is struggling with health issues at 63?
ilg gets you, babe.
ilg can help you…
got a Proven Pathway Higher…
so YOU can still be a baddass at 63+…

we ALL got this…

c’mon!!!

follow my social,  cuz, ilg is rebuilding my once pioneering brand of all the internet when it first began…. wanna be a part!??!   lmk…

GET OUT AND DO
SO AS TO BE!!!

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