Jemez Mountain 50 Miler

I apologize for not updating this blog in a while! I have actually done a lot of running since my last post in November. I finished the Black Canyon 100k in around 12:45 (February), and the Sierra Vista 50k (March) in 5:07 (finishing fourth). I've also been training a fair amount, and aside from the four stitches I earned coming down from Chupadera Peak, training has been uneventful.

Now for the report:

I was looking forward to running Jemez as it’s a classic New Mexico Ultramarathon. Back in the day it attracted well-known runners like Anton Krupicka, Kyle Skaggs and Nick Clark. I wanted to run this race in 2021, but I ended up being out of town. I signed up in 2022, but the race was canceled due to fire-danger. This year, I finally had a chance to toe the line. 

Running this race also gave me a chance to explore Los Alamos. I have quite a few friends and colleagues who work up there, and considering there are a large number of opportunities for geophysicists in this town, I was keen to check it out as there's certainly a chance it'll be a landing ground for me in the future. I found the town to be relatively charming, but I think the biggest draw is the nearly unlimited access to trails in the area. Many thanks to Sam for letting me stay in his house!

Los Alamos is most famous for the Manhattan Project, where the first atomic bomb was constructed and a significant amount of nuclear research was done. This is a replica of Fat Man, the bomb that was ultimately detonated over Nagasaki Japan.

I arrived at the start at 4:15 AM and we started at 5AM. I didn’t feel great in the early miles. I’ve traveled a fair amount in the last few weeks and I think my body has become a bit annoyed at the number of days I’ve spent awake and active at 5 am. When we got to the ski lodge at mile 15, I started to have a sense that it might be a tough day. 

We climbed up the the high-point, 10,400 feet, and the views were nonexistent. The fog was so dense that not only were we unable to see the adjacent Valles Caldera, a supervolcano that’s also a national preserve, we could barely see the markings. For a brief stretch of off-trail trudging through alpine vegetation, we were reliant on the people ahead of us shouting, “Here’s a marking!” to determine our route. In hindsight, I suspect the fog also had another consequence. I was relying largely on gu roctane (drink mix) for calories, and because of the weather, I doubt I was drinking as much as I should’ve been, and therefore not taking in as many calories as ideal. 

On the technical-but-fun descent from the high point at mile 16, I felt a bit better. I made it to the bottom at mile 25 in pretty good spirits. After this, we ran deep into a canyon and then climbed out. It was tough, but I was climbing well. And again, when we got to the descent, I felt pretty good. Approaching the mile 33 aid station I was happy to know that we only had a short climb, descent, big climb, and big descent remaining.

The one photo I took during the race itself. Climbing out of a canyon before descending to the mile 33 aid station

I passed a few people on the climb, which felt good, but needed to stop at the aid station before continuing on. I ate some nutter-butters, which went down surprisingly well. I think I ate like 4 of them and was pretty surprised they didn’t make me sick. From here, we went on to the descent into Guaje Canyon. I’d been warned that this descent sucked. Honestly, it wasn’t as bad as I’d psyched myself up for. There were a few moments of treading carefully as the trail narrowed, but I was able to get down without too much trouble. At the bottom we entered a gorgeous canyon with flowing water. The trail through this canyon was a little slow-going as it involved a lot of switching back over the creek. I linked up with a guy named Michael and we chatted as we made our way up the Canyon. He worked at Sandia National Labs, often with geophysicists, and that makes two ultra runners I've met with those credentials.  Eventually, we started climbing out of the canyon, and that’s where I cracked. Near the top, I thought there was a chance I was going to puke. I resigned to walking for about 3/4 of a mile despite the flat/runnable trail before I could safely muster a shuffle. Eventually we did get to the mile 42 aid station after a 5.7 mile stretch that honestly felt like an eternity. 

I had to sit for a few minutes to take in calories and collect myself. I knew we had a long 7 mile downhill road ahead of us. I was really hoping it would be runnable the whole way down (I had pictures of Langmuir road in my head), but instead it was intermittent periods of runnable stretches and rocky stretches. It wasn't really that bad, but for some reason my vision was starting to feel a little off. I think it was a combination of having my eyeballs exposed all day (I really need to get into sunglasses), and the foggy-headedness from the limited sleep the night before. I was only able to manage 12-15 minute pace. About two miles before reaching the final aid station I realized I may have another problem. Thunder was audible, the winds were picking up, and I could now see patches of heavy rain in the distance. It never did me any harm, but it added some anxiety as I got closer to the finish. 

For some reason, I had it in my head that the distance from the final aid station to the finish would be 3.5 miles or less. When I was told it was 4.2, I made sure to tell the nice aid-station lady that she had broken my heart. Fortunately, this stretch was extremely runnable and I was able to stride out on the downhill bit. The race finishes on a series of hills, including one nasty scramble in the last 200 meters of the race, so pretty soon I was back to walking. I crossed the finish line in 14:10, way back of any goals I had. I do have myself to blame for a lot of this. Race-day nutrition was not great. Lately I’ve been trying to be a bit intuitive about eating and putting food down, meaning I’ll eat when I feel like I need to rather than setting a timer or anything, but I’m not sure that worked very well for this one. In the future, I’ll definitely make some changes if cold weather is expected. 

Regardless of how I managed the day, the race was truly a lot tougher than I was expecting. The terrain was pretty relentless, and I think a time of around 12 hours would’ve been pretty solid for me. Generally, I’m not too disappointed. Not every race is a great race, and that’s okay. I enjoyed the course, and I look forward to giving it another try in the future. 

Big thanks to Sam for letting me stay in his house, and to Luis for waiting at the finish line after his 50k to make sure I didn’t die. Much appreciated!

We’ll get it next time!