RACE REPORT: Chama Lama – Your newly crowned "King" Speaks on the Spiritual Vaue of Podiums; Ahamvirya into Viryachita

Published on Jan 25, 2010 by in Racing

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all photos except where noted courtesy: – Patrick Hogan with Cumbres Adventures®. click to enlarge the chi hit

Clay Moseley, a National Time Trial Champion, proved my only lure to catch in the 10k Classic during January 17th’s Chile Ski Classic…hecuva lure! Here, Clay demonstrates excellent ‘nordic tuck’ form. In a nordic tuck, the priority is different than in Alpine ski racing. Aerodynamics are second priority; the First Priority of a Nordic Tuck is Skeletal Bracing; see how Clay’s elbows are perched above his knees? This rests the arm and torso muscles, hopefully, recovering them a bit before the next massive onslaught of suffering inherent to this amazing sport. photo courtesy: – Patrick Hogan with Cumbres Adventures®
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Ilg has long felt that the Race toward Enlightenment will be enhanced by competitive athletes. Especially outdoor athletes whose sweat and moments of sacred stillness are grounded by the Divine intoxication inherent to training within and for the outdoor sports. Most of my books, writings, and audio products serve as spiritual seeds to this re-ramping up of the Warrior Caste which – here in the West – has manifested as millions and millions of Fitness Warriors who were Blessed to born realizing the intense necessity of using and refining personal fitness as a Sourcing of our Divine Nature.

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Friday, January 15th, 2010
kissing ‘my girls’ go(o)d-bye, i launch into the 700-mile jaunt from Flagstaff to the remote northwestern gem-ship of Chama, New Mexico. even by southwest standards, this was going to a massive carbon footprint for me and prayers of forgiveness to Father Sky and Earth Mother were repeatedly chanted by myself since i first put this race – the prestigious 37 year-old Chama Ski Classic – on my winter racing calendar in August.

so big was the pilgrimage, i chose to spend night one at my parent’s casa in Rio Rancho, NM. this would leave only a couple hours more driving hours to the venue, tucked away within the vaulted beauty of pine-studded wildness within the massive geologic apron of the Weminuche Wilderness. i’ve been dreaming of this race for months, well braced for the long pilgrimage across pinon mesas and deep ravines guarded by sandstone bracelets glimmering beneath a veneer of lace like snow. i pulled into M(om) and Dad’s house humming from my 4-hour car-driving meditation. the two weeks before this race, thanks in large part to the MAP Amino Acids and SUNRIDER Whole Food Herbs, i had hovered above Joy’s virus infection, business demands, teaching, and winter racing schedules to pull off this big trip. Having not raced in Chama since i was a chi-ld on the Durango Ski Team, you can imagine the Joy Anticipation building in my cells each mile i got closer to the village…

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The self-ish push to attain athletic podiums is known as egoic drive or ahamvirya. Such energy is spiritually useful and can greatly accelerate the spiritually-inclined athlete to overcome his or her genetic, karmic, and samskaric weaknesses, negative tendencies, and habits. The more diverse the outer podiums gained, of course, the more spiritually potent becomes ahamvirya. The spiritual utilitarianism of ahamvirya will not be realized by most conventionally-trained athletes however, until they pass out of their current human consciousness at their Death Moment and are confronted by the hyper-intensities of the Bardo Realm. If left unmatured by a Dharma Teacher during this life, sadly, the athlete’s accumulated aham-virya will be largely impotent; unable to bridge the astral gap which lengthens as we lose the filaments of human consciousness during our Dying Act.

If such competitive zeal is not turned inward, and then, eventually outward for the benefit of all others, the genuine inner podium is left unheld by our heartspace. Worse, accumulated trophies and medals gathered without Dharma leaves black karma untied and can actually intensify one’s deepest karmic knots.

***

Saturday, January 16th, 2010
leaving Rio Rancho after my current version of Early Morning Ritual,
i ate at McDonalds.
i’ll just let that sentence floor you for another second or two.

it had been a go(o)d 15 years since having partaken of such evil.
those of you who are familiar with my childhood/adolescent/young man
addiction to this evility, may well be shaking thy head in disbelief.

pulling up to the drive-thru window, ilg was as well.

ordering a “#1” (McDonald’s no longer recognizes any Divinity within their ‘product line’
and thus assign sterile numbers to the horrible ‘food items’).
using every yogic technique i knew to transform the plasticized molecular muck
they ‘served’ me into something helpful for my body –
which took more energy than
the ‘meal’ provided.
thus, my McDonald’s experience
proved its value; may it be another 15 years before ilg is Directed to
repeat this experiment.

***
The compassionate wish to attain Enlightenment for the benefit of all others through training for and competing in (outdoor) sports can be known as Bodhivirya. i’ve had to arrange the term, since no such term exists yet in Kali Yuga. Bodhi refers to our innate enlightened essence, and virya -as discussed earlier – means “sweat.” So we could translate it as “the heart of our enlightened sweat.” To awaken and develop the heart of our enlightened sweat is to ripen steadily the seed of our Buddha or Christ-like nature, that seed that, in the end, when our practice of compassion has become perfected and all-embracing, will bloom majestically into our Enlightened State(s). Bodhivirya, then, is the spring and source and root of the entire sweat-based spiritual path.

This is why, for my WF Tradition, i pray with such urgency:

Those who haven’t yet given birth to precious Bodhivirya,
May they give birth,
Those who have given birth,
May their Bodhivirya not lessen
but increase further and further.
May all athletes quickly reach their inner podiums
and polish their trophy of Enlightenment.

***

The glorious drive from Rio Rancho to Chama was spent in audio meditation with Paramahansa Yogananda. Auspicious Signs of yet another Blessed Pilgrimage through
my h(om)eland bounded at my ratcheted up Awareness like the sparkle of the snows winking at me as Cami – Ananda’s and my Toyota Camry (which gets 45+ mph on the highways) soared up past Ghost Ranch and began the climb onto the Colorado Plateau.

Upon entering the township of Chama,
a magnificent Bald Eagle – the Medicine of Illumination –
nearly hit Cami on the passenger side…i thanked the WF Deities for Their
Messenger but also told them that even such a feeble yogi as ilg
can take Their Benevolent Signs a little less dramatically than sending a Bald Eagle
in the middle of a high desert to smack my vehicle!

The race venue would actually be two miles into Colorado, not New Mexico, along Cumbres Pass just east of Chama. wishing to get in my pre-ski of the race course close to actual Race Time (11:00 am) for waxing reasons, i began my pre-ski at 11:15 am.

Pulling into the small Parking Lot, i saw my old friends; National Road Time Trial Champion Clay Moseley (far right), and stalwart road racing and multi-sport enthusiast, Dave Wykoff (center). They, along with Denny, did the High Karmic work of grooming this race course which must begin two weeks before the race. The trio, who nordic race for Southwest Nordic, did a heroic job; the course condition was as impeccable as possible up here. ilg bows and applauds their veracity to Serve in such as noble effort.

during my pre-ski, i felt horrible. legs as heavy as molten lava and my breath as haphazard as a CrossFit® Workout Of The Week.
must have been the McDonalds karma.
i attempted to purify the evil with two laps along the Race Course as i previewed
the dastardly beautiful course; a 5k serpetine line through the rolling steep hills and alpine meadows pillowed by snow. i recalled my childhood races up here…when we would finish our races, take our racing cross country skis into the powder backcountry and jump off cliffs, hanging moons in the bottomless powder which is childhood itself. Go(o)d times those…i smiled. These days, ilg attempts to keep his skis on the ground, not off. one section of the race course featured nearly a kilometer of a false flat uphill along a narrow-gauge train track trestle! Chama, besides Durango, is the only town left on Turtle Island that still has a narrow-gauge train. if i were you, i’d google Chama, New Mexico and before you leave this incarnation; get here. no finer solitude equalized by such scenery can be found.

***

The Dharma of competitive outdoor sports as a guru is (k)not known among most Western fitness athletes. The WF athlete however, is trained to Toe The Start Line, not to achieve an outer podium, but to explore the unique Enlightened Energies which lie in the trek toward our inner podiums, our inner medals.

A WF athlete won’t distinguish between sports. He just offers his sacred sweat and listens for the Inner Teachings. She attempts to sow seeds of go(o)d will while training and race. WF Athletes are ambassadors of Sweat and Spirit directed toward a Higher Podium. Our duties, Noble WF Sangha, is to sow sweat toward inner stillness.

above photo; you can probably see my Alpine Ski Racing seeds desiring to bloom during this downhill section of the Chile Classic…speed is relative, and flying down snowy slopes on tiny cross country skis makes speed VERY relative! FUN!

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Race Day:
Sunday, January 17th, 2010

i wasn’t gonna pollute Father and Mother for this big of a trip and not try to win the KING OF THE MOUNTAIN competition. This combined event, which i had encouraged the new Race Director, Mary Ann DeBoer, to not only keep on the Schedule of Events but to highlight. This ski-into-snowshoe duathlon should be amplified, since it was the only Winter Duathlon around this region and given the fact that this event served as an important training race for the Big Daddy of All Winter Multisports; the Mt. Taylor Winter Quadrathlon.

the Chama Ski Classic KING OF THE MOUNTAIN competition requires the Winter Warrior to race the 10k mass start Classic Ski race, then, afterward, do (what i thought) was a 10k Snowshoe Time Trial on the same course. The racer with the least accumulated time spent in the ski race and the snowshoe race would certainly prove the most versatile and fit ( and thus King) of the mountain.

i knew it would be fast morning when Al Unser, the car racing icon, sat down beside me at the High Country Inn for the Breakfast Buffet. The Unser family is well known in New Mexico. I guess Al has a killer mansion-cabin up in these mountains that he uses for fishing and getting away from the difficulties associated with being a Legend in one’s own time. A nordic racer asked Al if he would be racing today on the ski or snowshoe race to which i understand the Legend responded,
“Uhhh, no…that ain’t gonna happen. I don’t think I have the right ‘vehicle’ for that race course!”

***


i still get tingly when i lay out my racing gear the night before a race; it’s hard not to feel edgy about the inevitable hellish dosage of pain upcoming. It’s a distinctly Warrior thing; racing. You just gotta be a Warrior to understand, i reckon.…note the MAP Aminos and the DURANGO skin suit…more on why, later in DL!
photo by ilg

The transpersonal role of sports in the life of a spiritually-conscious human is as misunderstood as is the role of a traditional guru. one should not expect expertise in any one sport to take them to an Enlightened Grace. that is not the role of a guru; be it sport or otherwise. any sport is just a spiritual signpost along the Higher Way; perfection or mastery within a sport is not Enlightened Activity (the recent fall from outer world and sport grace through Tiger Woods is just another sad example of this Teaching). As Swami Satchidananda points out, “If you see a signpost that says BOSTON-200 MILES, do you prostrate yourself before the signpost, deck it with garlands, and pray, ‘Please take me to Boston?’ No. The signpost simply points the direction and indicates the distance. You must do the walking.” Our sweat within our beloved sports, is the same as the signpost to Boston; our sweat just directs us – again and again and endlessly again – to the most appropriate route which is, of course, all-ways within.

***

Clay Moseley describes the Race Course to the racers while Mary Ann, Race Director, looks forward to starting us.

THE START LINE
for the 10k classic race was nervously filled by shivering skiers thinly garbed in racing skinsuits. looking around me, i found myself surrounded by an ocean of SOUTHWEST NORDIC racers and then, further back from the actual Start Line, were another throng of folk a bit more timid, that wanted no part of the chaos of sharp ski pole tips flying like swords once the Gun goes off. i knew from experience the Dude for this ski race would be Clay. Besides being a National Champion on a road bike, Clay has steadily worked on his nordic racing over several years.
The gun went off. Clay, another racer Denny, and i immediately shot out from the field like three cannonballs, determined to make the most of the mandatory double-poling technique before we could diagonal stride up the first of dozens of short, knee-cracking, lung-punctuating hills which dotted the rambling course like gremlins of threshold inducing pain.

Looking down the ‘false flat’ along the Train Track Trestle, you can see a railroad sign at photo right. photo by ilg

one of the many knee-popping uphills on the Race Course…remember, this is at over 9,000′!
photo by ilg

i felt Eagle Medicine within me…i hadn’t skied since a 10k skate race in Durango the weekend before – aside from yesterdays confidence-withering pre-ski – yet, i had been focusing on endurance backbends in my asana practice. the backbend fitness was paying off handsomely today; no spinal pain from my broken back, my lungs felt free and spacious, and my body radiated a profound sense of bodily lightness (laghuva). what a difference from yesterdays slugfest! let this be a Teaching to all of you; don’t judge your Race Day on how you feel on your pre-Race Day workout!

at the first downhill techy section, where the Course shrieked back onto itself like a Cobra smacked by a stick, Denny took a faceplant into the snow and i nearly skied right over him. Clay, whose skis must have had Divine Elixir applied on them, was already 15 seconds ahead of me. my work(out) was cut out for me; my target? The National Time Trial Champion’s backside…a most familiar target to many other warriors, i am sure!

upon reaching the false flat, i could see that Clay was diagonal striding. this was my Ilg Moment and i seized it; i channeled Petter Northug from Norway and calling upon all my HP PROP WORKOUT® fitness, i dug deep into my core strength and pummeled away the snow, churning my arms up and down in a Double Poling technique instead of kick-and-gliding. Time came for me to cash in on my upper and ab strength! with heart rate hammered, my piston bullying on the long uphill was paying off; i got close enough to Clay to hear him breathing.

at the end of the false flat, Course Designer Clay planted a viciously steep headwall; the thing must have been 28%. Clay was entering the headwall when he quickly turned around and saw Train Engine Ilg pumping up the snow-covered train tracks toward him.

that, my Noble Friends Along The Path, was about the last good look ilg ever had of Clay until after the race! as a National Time Trial Champion can do, he simply shifted into a new, higher gear and pulled away from me…it was a Gear that ilg – at age 47 – no longer has. Bye Bye Clay. It was fun while it lasted. By 5k, i timed his lead over me by 90 seconds. By the finish, it would be nearly four minutes.

my second place overall in the ski race was never really threatened. i was pleased yet i knew i still had the 10k snowshoe in front of me and Clay was not competing in it.

THE SNOWSHOE TIME TRIAL
After a quick change from ski into my Kahtoola customed-designed racing snowshoes, and a sip of water plus 4 caps of MAP Aminos and a PowerGel®, i toed the Start Line for the Snowshoe Time Trial. The Race Course was still busy with skiers racing around it like rabid dogs and it was fun to mingle the shoes with the skiers – an all too rare occurrence in winter racing.

thankful that i could slowly pace myself for a 10k effort, i worked things internal; mula bandha, the Mantra, some chakral field work, breathplay, etc…the sound of my snowshoes upon the firmly packed snow was a emotional balm for my racing mentality. the barbarian nature of classic ski racing juxtaposed with the more yin of snowshoe racing produced a Divine glow within me. as body warmed up to the snowshoe, i applied a bit more tempo however, 10ks on this Course was a lot, and i wanted to run negative splits; i wanted my second 5k lap to be faster than my first. upon reaching 4ks, i caught sight of another snowshoe racer; he was FLYING! a big rooster-tail of snow thrown up from behind his webs triggered my instinct. i ran faster as i thought, “Wow, he must be in the 10k ski/5k shoe division with a pace that fast.”

Little did i know that there WAS no 10k snowshoe race distance; it was ALL 5k!

i did not know this, of course, until i politely approach the Start/Finish line and headed onto the part of the Course that read; LAP
i was ready for my second lap…
when,
Mary Ann and the other cheering crowds and Race Officials, were frantically trying to wave me into the Finish Chute…
“No, no…” i explained, “I’m doing the 10k!”
imagine my dismay when back came their collective reply;
“There IS NO 10k!”

in the weeks before this Race, i had contacted Mary Ann who – i thought – assured me that the KOM competition would be a 10k ski/10k shoe.

for a Racing Warrior, there is no worse feeling than doing what it takes to train for, spend money toward, sacrifice for a Race and then, for some reason, NOT being able to ‘leave it all out there.’
that is what we live for…to spend so much of ourselves on the Race Course that we open astral gateways which allow us to become all better because of the racing. Racing is not about winning, as i have Taught you, its about knowing Our True Selves.

reluctantly walking across the Finish Line, i pretty much accepted the fact that i had blown it.

the next few hours until the Award Ceremony i spend alone in my room; doing yoga, meditating…doing my best to make it okay to lose. had i known i only had to snowshoe race 5k, i would have RIPPED that course to shreds instead of lolly-gagging.

this killer bluegrass band; Unstrung Heros, was as hot as the Green Chili Stew that was comp’d to all the racers at the Awards Ceremony at High Country Inn. photo by ilg.

Oh well, i figured, there is always next year…however, at my age, Overall Victories are rare things. ilg was pensive as i pulled once again into the High Country Inn which was jam packed with tired racers and a killer band from Taos – Unstrung Heroes – crushing some tunes. a beer-tasting was going on and the Playoffs were beaming from two televisions slung above the saloons bar. i was surrounded by several old faces, including another National Champion (MTB) Deborah Kidd and John Boland from my old h(om)etown of Santa Fe. i even had a few fans of mine come up and introduce themselves as readers of my books. such Brother and Sisterhood soon dispelled my gloom…this is what racing is all about; Tribal Love. How does the saying go, “Hills make all men brothers.”

Before the flaw was found:
i was called three times that evening up to the Podium; a Gold for my Age Group win in the ski,
a Silver for the King of the Mountain competition – apparent proof that my snowshoe slog ruined my chance at being King, and a Bronze for the Overall Snowshoe; more apparent proof that my slow pace in the snowshoe allowed others to beat me.

the fellow who went up to get his impressive Ristra as KING OF THE MOUNTAIN looked genuinely happy…and i felt happiness for him. ilg has had more than his fair share of such limelight. Dewa and Ananda were my real podiums now, as a Householder yogi, and my applause for the Champion was genuinely from my heart.

***

The drive back to Rio Rancho that night included a quick meditation beneath “Nana Tha” (Dewa’s phrase for ‘mother moon’) as She rose like a Lotus sliver over the Rio Chama near Abiquiu. I held an Ai Imawa posture and was quickly flooded by a Divine Grace as the sound of water rushing over icy rocks held fast my spirit in prakriti pranic enfoldment…what a BLESSING this Incarnation has been to ilg! So much difficulty, so much pain to be sure…yet, what profundity shook my cells so often throughout my various lifetimes within this one! i thanked God for It All as i clamored back into Cami…and held captive audience again at the worlds of Paramahansa Yogananda.

All was go(o)d on my long return to Kinlani.

I arrived at my Sacred Peak just before the third-largest snowfall on record arrived, canceling my ultra-nordic race in Durango; the massively epic; Tour de Ski which was held (on a shortened course due to avalanche danger) January 23rd.

***

THE EMAIL reached me on Friday, January 22nd.
It was from Mary Ann.
It informed me that subsequent race time calculations showed a mistake in the
KING and QUEEN of the MOUNTAIN categories.
“Congratulations,” the email went on, “on a VERY impressive race; you ARE the 2010 KING OF THE MOUNTAIN!”

my Santa Fe Friend, Deborah Kidd, was my QUEEN OF THE MOUNTAIN.

and a more Royal experience, could not have been asked for
from the Sacred Shambala known as Chama!

For Race Results and Photos:
click on www.chamaski.com

Special thanks for the superb lodging at:
DreamWeaver Lodge

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