Socorro Souls of Sorrow (36 Miles)

Socorro Souls of Sorrow (36.5 Miles)

 

            The Socorro Souls of Sorrow was an ultramarathon event envisioned by Luis and I. We had originally planned for it to be a 72 mile, properly organized event, but with school and life catching up, decided it would be a 36 mile proof-of-concept run this year. The event would just be fatass-style. No markings, minimal aid stations. 

            The original goal of the event was an out and back, beginning at the Capitol Bar in downtown Socorro, through the mountains to the town of Magdalena, and back. This year, we assembled in Magdalena to run one-way to the Capitol Bar. There were about 12 of us assembled to run, including two relay teams. Myself, Luis, Michael, Sam, Jessica, and Jason were intending to do the full 36 miles. 

            We began in Magdalena a few minutes after 8 AM. Since it is November, and we were 6500 feet above sea level, it was cold (somewhere in the 20s). I was admittedly a bit worried about the first major climb, which would take us up to 9700’. I wore tights, shorts, a t-shirt, wool layer, jacket, hat and gloves to start. Michael and I began the race together. There were about 3 miles on a gently inclined paved road before we reached Kelly Mine, the former lifeblood of Magdalena. There, we began hiking up the rocky dirt road that led to North Baldy peak—the highpoint of the route. We were pretty surprised at how pleasant the weather was. It was probably still ~25 degrees, but in the sunshine it felt quite a bit warmer. We were very comfortable.

            Michael and I crested North Baldy peak after around 8 miles of running and began the descent toward Water Canyon campground. This descent is always pretty gnarly, with many sections strewn with big, chunky, sharp and loose rocks. For whatever reason this year it was even worse. The trail was covered in dead overgrowth. We picked our way down the trail for the first two miles before the trail improved. The final stretch of trail before reaching water canyon is a (typically dry) streambed. On this day, it was gently flowing, although the streambed was far more washed out than I’d ever seen it. We hopped on and off three-foot banks that didn’t exist the year before, crossing the stream ~10 times. Eventually, the trail came away from the streambed and we hit the dirt road into Water Canyon.

            At Water Canyon (mile 12.5) we chatted with our friends who were manning the aid station, and I ate some potato chips and Oreos, filled my soft flasks, put 200 calories of Gu Roctane powder into each of them, and carried on. Michael caught back up to me shortly after I left the aid station and we tackled the climb up the Mesa trail together. This was the last true climb of the course—around ~1500’ before we reached an altitude of 8000’ and began our very long descent into Socorro (4650’ above sea level). 

            At around mile 15 we nearly missed the turn into South Canyon, but checked the map and went on our way. This section was the biggest question mark for me—the only part of the course I hadn’t scouted. I highly doubted it was very well used, so I was fully expecting it to be pretty overgrown. It was. Most of the trail looked like a cowpath. In some places it was hard to see at all. Once we’d finished the descent into the canyon and began working our way to the mouth it improved somewhat. Still, we were essentially running from overgrown spot to overgrown spot. It was much better than it could’ve been—for most of it we were able to identify the trail somewhat—but it was slow going nonetheless.

            After more than an hour in the canyon we reached the mouth and entered the plains. I’d scouted this section before and was looking forward to it. For the next four miles we were on runnable dirt roads that were gently sloping downhill. After about 5 hours and 15 minutes of total running, we reached the second aid station at mile 21 (highway 60). We spent a decent amount of time here fueling up and chatting. Just as we were leaving we saw Sam entering the aid station—the first time we’d seen him all day—gave him a fist bump and carried on.

            The next stretch began with 3 miles of running on highway 60. I was a little worried about how safe this would be, but like most things, it was a lot scarier in my imagination than in reality. Most of this stretch had a sizeable shoulder and ample room to get way off the road when vehicles were passing. The only scary part came right at the end of the road section before we turned right into Box Canyon Recreation Area. At this point, the road became a short bridge and the shoulder disappeared. Michael was off ahead of me at this point, and I watched him stay on the left side of the road, which honestly looked pretty scary as it was fairly blind up ahead. I opted to cross over and go to the right, so I could look to the straight stretch behind me, wait until there were no cars nearby, and make a run across the bridge. This actually felt pretty safe; Definitely the way to go if running this section. 

            Now around a marathon in, I started feeling pretty cooked as we made our way toward the final aid station. I felt like I was having a bit of a low point, but really I think I was just struggling somewhat on the uphills. I was still doing fine on the downs. Michael had gotten behind me after stopping to use the bathroom but quickly caught back up. We descended into black canyon and traversed the rocky descent to the final aid station. It was nice knowing that we now had only 9 miles left with around 700’ of net downhill. I ate some more potato chips, a few Oreos, repositioned some food in my pack and kept going with Michael. Within a minute or so it was clear to me that I wasn’t moving as well as he was, so I let him go. Shortly after, Sam and KC caught me as well. “I’ll drop back and run with these guys now,” I thought, but a few minutes after this, it was clear to me that I couldn’t stay with them either. I resorted to a slow shuffle, played a bit of music out of my phone, and carried on alone. 

            The interesting thing about this course is that with about 7 miles to go, you can look ahead and see Socorro. So close yet so far away. The miles were ticking by slowly at this point. Nothing left to do but keep plodding along! I may have gotten slightly down on calories in this stretch, but for the most part was still doing okay on food. With four miles to go, I finally reached the cross country course that leads to the rodeo grounds. From here on out, footing was great and all I had to do was run downhill. As I made my way down the dirt road, I saw two black dogs and a man walking with some tools. It was Sam’s dad Dave, who had driven most people out to the start and was now out doing trail maintenance. We talked for a minute, and I continued on to the rodeo grounds. When I got there, I noted a man inspecting the Rodeo Grounds gate, which appeared to have been rammed by someone’s vehicle to the point where it was mangled and dysfunctional. He asked if I knew who was parked up ahead. I told him it was Dave, but that Dave most definitely was not the one who vandalized the gate (lol).

            With that slightly odd interaction behind me, I headed toward the dirt roads leading out of the rodeo grounds and towards the streets of Socorro. I was having some low points from time to time, but for the most part I kept jogging. Once I hit pavement, and had two miles left to go, I knew I was running for the remainder of the route. The smooth downhills were feeling good. I felt like I was pushing the pace, but was really only running ~8 minute pace. I saw California street and knew I was almost there. As I rounded the turn into the plaza, I expected to see nobody until I entered the Capitol Bar, but everybody was standing around cheering. I finished the run, joined them, and we all went inside.

            For the remainder of the evening we sat at a large table, drank beers, ate some food (Marina brought me some vegan soup—I probably would’ve died without it), and loudly cheered on everybody who rounded the corner to our table. A small, but awesome spectacle of the ultrarunning community.

 

Stats: 5200’ of vertical gain and 7000’ of loss. 

Food: ~1200 calories of strawberry hibiscus Gu Roctane powder, 4 or 5 gels, ~7 oreos, many potato chips.

Gear: Brooks Caldera 5, Camelbak Ultra Pro vest.