…must be sore today.

I did the Kahtoola Aggassiz Uphill race yesterday afternoon up at snowbowl. It’s funny, because I frequently hike up snowbowl in the mornings with no ill effects, yet somehow when it’s a race (even only halfway up the area) I go balls to the wall, get side stiches the whole way up, and am in a lot of pain today.

Wow.

It was a great event, and if you weren’t there, you missed out. In years past, the race has been before snowbowl opened in the morning, and was basically an uphill-only race to the top. This year it was up and down, and was after the lifts closed for the day. This not only meant that nobody had to get up at 6am to make it up there for the race, but everyone was much more willing to drink a lot of beer after the race.

Not that there’s anything wrong with beer at 9am.

Apparently last year there were about 35 entrants, and this year they had upwards of 120. Keep an eye out for results tomorrow on the Kahtoola site.

Since it was an up and down race this year, those among us with skins and skis actually were right in the mix with the runners. I ended up doing the round trip in just over 37 minutes, which was good enough for a third place in the skinning division.

I was feeling pretty good, and had a great transition from skins to skis which pulled me ahead of a couple people, but I was just no match for the superhuman strength of Coach Ilg and Mark Ulm.

Steve Ilg did the course on a pair of skate skis, which was one of the most phenomenal things I’ve seen. We were neck and neck for most of the climb, but he sneaked past me in the transition while I was stripping my skins. I have no regrets about that one, as that guy is pretty much a mutant.

I was less than a minute behind Steve, but then there was Mark Ulm. This guy was in the top 5 overall times (including the runners) and beat me by about 5 minutes. Plain and Simple: he’s a machine. He was actually sent here from the future to destroy the human race through endurance events, and it’s working. He has more cardio capacity in his pinky than most people have in their entire body. Again, a well-deserved win for him. I didn’t even see him after the first pitch of climbing. Yeah, he was that far ahead.

There was also a costume contest, and a team competition up there as well. I was a bit disappointed with the team competition, as all the teams were lumped together (2, 3, and 4 person) so it was pretty tough to compete with the average time of the team of two people who were 1st and 3rd overall with our 4 person team, but so it goes. We did well with three top-three finishers in their divisions Eric represented with a 2nd place in men’s running, Janie threw down with a third in women’s running, and I did my part with the third place. But, unfortunately, that wasn’t enough for us.

At least we had a good name: “Everyone Loves a Snowjob”

Yeah, that was my contribution.

There were a few nice costumes out as well. I didn’t catch the Ninja Turtle team, but I did snap this pic of Khoa and his homemade cow costume.

I also did my part to join the costumed festivities and wore this get-up for the whole race. I even had a suit jacket and pants cut down to shorts and a vest, and a can of guiness which traveled the whole course with me.

Like I said, if you weren’t there, you missed out, it was a great time.