I’m here in Grants, New Mexico…at the base of the Sacred Peak of the Diné; Tsoodził …it’s the night before i attempt to defend my Mixed Pairs title…
i received SOOOOO much more than the admittedly high effort i put in to produce Durango’s first annual snowshoe race, the Winter Warrior 10k which took place today under the most unbelievably, jaw-dropping, sattvic conditions any new Race Director could have dreamed.
ilg admits gleefully; i’m simpleton of sweat and stillness. not only do i enjoy multi-disciplined sweat, i cherish it. i consider it the (w)Holy Water which connects ilg with all that is Go(o)d. the more varied ways i can sweat and be still, the closer to Soul i merge. Blessed be thy Sweat and Stillness…
…skiing first into the Start/Finish area where i had to answer two mandatory Trivia Questions…i got one, failed the next. off to the Penalty Loop area. During the Penalty ski, i crushed the Loop reflecting back on consecutive Teacher Report Card inputs from my chi-ldhood which ALWAYS – for years – expressed the same observation:
“Steven is a very bright child. He consistently demonstrates a remarkably agile and creative mind yet is failing because he is simply not applying himself to the lessons.”
Pratyahara Time; i was isolated in 3rd place overall. it was windy and snowing. legs and lungs felt seared like chunks of ahi tuna at sushi happy hour. time to hit the ‘force quit’ button on egoic chattering… it was time for yoga; time to bathe within the holy waters of nordic endurance sweat. so, i began to revolve my mental waves like a lazy susan around the only things that mattered most if i wanted to climb onto my second Overall Podium in the young year of 2011… Here is what i focused on…
so santoshic was my demeanor during my Pre-Race Ritual which included EMR and a version of Wing’d Angel, that i was nearly late to catch a carpool with Noble Warrior Andrew Ferguson (who would finish 6th overall) and Miles Venzara (4th overall). on the 20 minute ride up to the venue, we chatted effortlessly about things like wax of the day, recent ‘gossip’ among the local nordic world of Durango, and generally i bathed in the sacred waters of being friends with such High Mountain Yogis as Andrew and Miles. deeper within, however, i wore a face of concern as does any New Daddy toeing a Start Line….let alone a Nordic Marathon reputed to be among the world’s toughest…
Remind me again why the hell i should NOT raise my daughter to be a nordic ski racer? futilely yet steadfastly chasing last year’s champion, Clay Moseley – a world class cyclist – during last Sunday’s 10k Chama Ski Classic. elevation; close to 10,000’. remember, this the day AFTER racing a 15k Freestyle race at the same elevation! as you can see, i’ve at least manufactured a big gap between myself and third place…more importantly, i’m trying to put seconds between myself and anyone else in the King Of The Mountain (KOM) competition which goes to the fastest Classic 10k skier and 5k Snowshoer…as you’ll soon read, i would lose my KOM title by 40 seconds. photo by Pat Hogan.
i can do it, i can do it…i kept telling myself…up and over a short roller, we went..we passed a lap racer…Tim was in the finishing straight, the people were cheering, nordic bells were ringing…this is why we race…i stabbed my ski poles in a vicious manner, pumping out my V2 cadence with as much Warrior verve as i could muster.
i finished 2 seconds behind him, 7th Overall…3rd in my Age Group.
tomorrow would be another day; MY DAY TO DEFEND MY KING OF THE MOUNTAIN TITLE! could i do it…especially after wasting myself on this brutally beautiful 15k? hmmm….
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