The JJW Blog

Imogene 2008 Race Report

I woke up feeling very relaxed, perhaps too relaxed, almost lethargic.  We rode the bus from Telluride to Ouray and on the way we laughed and cracked jokes, in contrast to the mostly sleepy and quiet bus.  I think we were annoying.  It helped to control my nerves.  I hit the restrooms early and was ready well before race time.   As the gun went off I was in the state of mind to simply climb to the top and race down.  But as the race went on it became quickly clear that something was wrong.  Everybody was passing me.  At first I thought that everybody else was getting faster but in truth I was getting slower.  Hundreds of people passed me as we climbed towards the summit and I got gradually sicker and sicker, from an onset of altitude sickness.  It was mostly plain lethargy and a cramped stomach, I wanted to close my eyes as I was walking.  Ralph and Naz were out of sight after 3 miles and Kim passed me 15 minutes from the summit and later said I looked awful.  I had a good attitude though and was chuckling to myself about how it was turning out.  At the top I had no jubilation and downed some broth.   I tried running down but couldn’t at all from a totally cramped stomach and had to stop several times.  It wasn’t until the second aid station that I quickly started to snap out of it and feel competitive again.   It was hard to believe that I could run again, I had almost given up hope of running another step again.  But I raced down, passing probably 50 people in the last 5 miles for a strong finish.

I placed 340 out of 1100, I summited at 2:45 and finished in 4:02.  I was 50th in my age group of 30-34.   I summited 30 minutes behind my rabbit Naz Alvarez, not as bad as it seemed but pretty awful.  What is worse is how long it took me to get down, 1:17.  Naz descended in 44 minutes by comparison.  I had to sit on the way down several times.  I basically wasted something around an hour from the sickness, 30 minutes on the way up and 30 minutes on the way down.   But as my good friend Deanne said, “John you learned one of your limitations out there today, I am 50 and I learn them all the time”.    So next year, I will have to adapt.  

Naz and Ralph had a killer day on the mountain, with Naz finishing in 2:58 and Ralph not far behind at 3:07.  They destroyed the mountain and Naz claims he was pushing it about 80%.  He is such a natural gifted runner and it would of been fun to watch him descend.

Overall we all had a great time, here are some pictures from the weekend.

At 5 a.m. ready to catch the shuttle to the race:

After the race going out with my new peeps:

The mountain we all ran over that day as seen from the gondala ride down to Telluride from our Condon (just right of the cable is Imogene pass):

A great breakfast with the 2 queens:

And then a damn tough 16% climb out of the beautiful Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.

I can’t wait until next year.  Overall the course offers everything I want in an alpine race and I can see myself coming back for years to come, even if I have to battle sickness every year (which I doubt I will).