Taos Up and Over 10k Race Report

Taos Ski Valley is arguably the premier ski resort in New Mexico. For many years TSV was famous (or infamous, depending on one's preferred winter sport) as one of the few remaining ski resorts in the US that did not allow snowboards. That finally changed in 2008 when TSV opened up to snowboards for the last two weeks of the season, with the following season the first full season open to snowboards. And having ridden there a couple times now (although ironically never when the snow was outstanding) I can attest to the entire Taos experience: wide groomers, steeps, moguls, off-piste, and just flat out more terrain than any other New Mexico resort.

During the summer, TSV is host to a number of activities, one of which is the "Up and Over 10k" trail run. While only 10k in distance, the first half is straight up and the second half is straight down:



(Course profile from the the race web site)

The course basically winds up the front side of the mountain along a few beginner and intermediate ski runs, crosses over the ridge near the top of Lift 2, then meanders down the backside before returning to the starting area along a service road that doubles as a beginner run during winter.

A quick browse of previous years' results led me to one immediate conclusion: this was going to hurt. The top times were in the range of 65-70 minutes, and most around 75-85. Meaning, 13 min/mile or so was about the average pace. On the positive side, given that this would be my first organized 10k, I'd have a PR that'd be real easy to beat :). This year the race also is part of the La Sportiva Mountain Cup (more on that later).

After returning from my July vacation - at sea level, in a place where a "hill" might climb a few hundred feet tops - I made a point to include climbing in both my mid-week tempo run and my weekend long run. In particular I needed to focus on technical climbing with rapidly varying tempo, trail conditions, and gradient. Basically the sorts of climbs that make your EKG look like a roller coaster on crack. By the time race weekend rolled around, I had had five weeks of training with two days a week of solid climbing. So I felt good, and was moderately confident that I could finish in the top half overall.

Part of the Taos experience is the initial view of the mountain from the parking lot. Basically you're looking straight up a black-diamond mogul field. Without snow, the moguls are absent, but the run (named Al's Run) is still super friggin' steep and intimidating:



(Al's Run, minus the snow)

This view tends to trigger an immediate and vigorous fight or flight response in first-time visitors - the skiing ability of the visitor generally being the determining factor in whether the response is fight or flight. Maybe that's why there's a big sign out front saying "Don't freak out, you can't actually see most of the mountain from here". Fortunately, the course follows the beginner run White Feather that snakes down the front of the mountain from the right:




(White Feather)

Given the steepness of the ascent my suspicion from the beginning was that anyone who blows up on the climb is dead; it's just going to be too hard to recover without slowing to a crawl. So my plan was to keep things steady and controlled off the start, power hike where necessary, and then slowly increase my effort and try to pick people off over the second half of the climb. I also made sure to warm up for a good 20 minutes.

As it turns out, I didn't have to wait very long to start passing people on the climb. After about five minutes there was a steady train of imploding runners going backwards. I also didn't have to wait very long to start power hiking. For the first 15 minutes or so I probably ran about half the time, but after that I'd run a little dip or flatter section here and there but never more than probably 30 seconds at a time. I made it to the top in about 50 minutes - about a 17:30 min/mile pace! Ouch.

The "run" down wasn't necessarily any easier. The first half mile or so was basically a slide straight down a gravel "road". Running down terrain like this is definitely a lot more nail-biting than snowboarding down it. After the initial drop it actually became quite runnable and my time back was about 24 minutes, right about a 7 min/mile pace. Of course by the time I got near the bottom my quads were gone, my lungs were burning, and my stomach wanted to evacuate its contents, but I still managed to cross the line with a time of 1:14:00, good enough for 22nd place out of 105 runners. I had hoped going in that I would run around 1:15:00 so I was pretty pleased with my effort (and did I mention this was my very first trail race?). In retrospect I don't know where I could have gone any faster because this was literally a red-line effort the entire time. An interesting point of comparison: in July I ran a mostly flat 15k at sea level in 1:11:08, three minutes faster than today's time despite being 5k longer. Just goes to show that race distance doesn't tell the whole story.

The inclusion of this race in the La Sportiva series seems to have increased both the size and the depth of the field. Compared to 2008 and 2009 (using results posted on the race web site), this year had twice the number of competitors. The winning time this year, posted by someone from the La Sportiva Mountain Running team, also was about 10 minutes (!) faster than the previous two years. My recollection is that it was around 54-55 minutes, with second place at 57 and change. My time would have put me in the top 10 both of the last two years, although my percentile in the standings would have been about the same.

I expect that for me this race is going to turn into one of those things that are painful and unpleasant in every possible way, yet something I can't stay away from. The race was well-organized and pretty low key, and aside from somebody accidentally giving me a size XL shirt (and me not noticing until I got home), it was a fun morning. Of course, ask me when I'm limping around the house tomorrow and I may have a different answer.

On a related note: I was very pleased with the performance of my Wildcats. Aside from the first section of the descent - which was so steep and loose that any shoe would have had trouble - they were great. They felt comfortable and in control the entire run. I didn't worry about them once. And to me, a shoe that just let's you run without worrying about it is as good as it gets.