2011 Taos 10k

Taos Up and Over 10k
8/13/11
6.2 mi / 2600' gain
1:06:12 / 5th overall

Perfect weather at Taos Ski Valley

I was excited about this year's Taos Up and Over 10k because the 2010 edition was my first ever trail race and I was looking forward to see how much better I'd do with my first real season of training under my belt. Thinking back to last year there were a few things that stood out. One was the number of people who started too fast and had slowed to a crawl by the first mile. Two was the increase in grade for the last half mile of the climb. Three was the steepness of the initial descent off the top, where many people (myself included) were too tentative and lost time as a result.

On the drive up with a couple friends who were also running I was thinking about those things and what my race strategy ought to be, but I eventually concluded that they were largely irrelevant. The truth is that these shorter races are actually quite simple: keep the effort as hard as you can without going over the edge, and be prepared to suffer. How's that for strategy?

Course route and elevation profile

It's always interesting to me how different people are before races. Some are quiet and reflective, others chatty. The nerves were evident among the crowd as people subconsciously shook their legs and toed at rocks. The view of the mountain from the lodge area certainly never fails to intimidate. On paper this climb is quite similar to the ascent up Atalaya Mountain, and as I waited for the start I thought about some strong runs up Atayala I had had earlier in the summer, trying to draw on those experiences for added confidence.

The first mile or so is fairly runnable... hence the tendency I think for people to go out too fast and then implode. Right from the start a group of seven or eight runners started pulling ahead. I figured most of them would start coming back fairly soon. Two of them did before we even hit the 1 km marker. I tried to run as much of the early stuff as possible but didn't hesitate to hike the steeper sections. When I did hike I made a conscious effort to keep an aggressive pace.

Somewhere around 2-3 km a group of four or five of us started to separate from the rest of the field, although things were pretty well strung out by then. Shortly thereafter we caught another of the lead runners. He hung for a little while but eventually went out the back. The rest of us took turns leading as we variously hiked and ran different sections, and we reached the summit spread out over a few seconds. I couldn't help but wonder if being back at altitude for only a week - after two at sea level - somehow held me back a bit, since my cardio and not my legs felt like the limiting factor on the climb. Although I suppose when you're trying to run uphill at nearly 12,000' elevation that is always going to be the case.

As I came over the top I pushed hard to try to open a gap on the group I had been with. I was able to do so fairly quickly, save one runner who caught up to me and then kept right on going. Other than that I had lost sight of anyone in front or behind. I just tried to run as fast as my legs and the footing would allow. Some sections of the descent are so loose that running down them is really a controlled slide more than anything else. Somehow I managed to stay upright.

At about 3 km to go the surface becomes quite a bit smoother and more runnable. My instinct was to ease up through here, but I was able to fight that off despite the sheer agony in my quads. I tried to let gravity do the work and keep my legs spinning as fast as possible, which given the grade meant I was absolutely flying along, at times just barely in control. Finally with about 2 km to go I saw a runner ahead. I steadily worked my way up to maybe 10 yards behind him and then put in a good hard acceleration right at the 1 km marker. Fortunately he couldn't respond. Not long after that I caught my first glimpse of the finish area. I could see the next two runners ahead but at that point there just wasn't enough room left to catch them.  

I didn't know what place I was in but when I crossed the line and saw 66 minutes and change on my watch I figured I had run pretty well. Turns out I nabbed fifth place overall (out of 81 runners) and second in my age group. So I was pretty pleased with my effort all the way around. And going nearly eight minutes faster than last year was a very nice bonus, not to mention a huge confidence boost for Big Tesuque in a couple months.

This was my first race wearing my MT 101s and they were great. I was a touch tentative on the rockier portions of the descent due to my limited experience with this shoe. But I don't think I lost much time. I'm definitely looking forward to wearing them in future races.

ETA: results are up

2010 vs 2011 by the numbers:

         2010                   2011
climb    50:01 (17:40 pace)     45:31 (16:05 pace)
descent  23:59 (7:07 pace)      20:41 (6:08 pace)
total    1:14:00 (11:56 pace)   1:06:12 (10:41 pace)