A young lady is bent over retching along the side of the trail as I approach. A photographer walks up to her. “Are you OK?”, he asks. “Oh yeah, I’m good,” she replies. I know she isn’t. We’re at 9000’ elevation on a hot morning at mile 15 of a 50 miler and have another 1500’ of climbing ahead of us to reach the top of Pajarito Mountain (10,440’). I have a lot of pressure in my head and am definitely feeling the altitude. Hopefully she can pull it together when she reaches the ski lodge aid station in another half mile.
The Jemez Mountain 50 Mile Trail Run started at zero dark hundred this morning with about 150 runners toeing the line. They offer three distances —50 mile, 50K or 15 mile. Pick your poison. There was a bit of drama leading up to the race because the Jemez Mountains, where the race is held in Los Alamos, NM are in an exceptional drought (D4, the worst possible) with very high wildfire risk. The course was changed because the forest is in stage 2 fire restrictions and rangers wanted to keep runners closer to town. The Atomic City knows wildfires. In 2011, the Las Conchas Fire, the largest in New Mexico at the time, burned over 150,000 acres threatening the town and the Los Alamos National Lab here. In years past the 50 mile course took us through the gorgeous Valle Caldera National Preserve, but no such luck today. The good news is that we only ascend Pajarito Mountain once, although we have another significant climb up to about 9600’ later in the day.
The Jemez Mountain 50 Mile Trail Run started at zero dark hundred this morning with about 150 runners toeing the line. They offer three distances —50 mile, 50K or 15 mile. Pick your poison. There was a bit of drama leading up to the race because the Jemez Mountains, where the race is held in Los Alamos, NM are in an exceptional drought (D4, the worst possible) with very high wildfire risk. The course was changed because the forest is in stage 2 fire restrictions and rangers wanted to keep runners closer to town. The Atomic City knows wildfires. In 2011, the Las Conchas Fire, the largest in New Mexico at the time, burned over 150,000 acres threatening the town and the Los Alamos National Lab here. In years past the 50 mile course took us through the gorgeous Valle Caldera National Preserve, but no such luck today. The good news is that we only ascend Pajarito Mountain once, although we have another significant climb up to about 9600’ later in the day.
