2013 Corrida de los Locos - Race Report

Off the line - with horse and Smith & Wesson escort
copyright M. Mujynya, photo album at Smugmug.com

Distance: 5 miles
Location: Santa Fe, south hills

It's hard for me to turn down the opportunity to lace up for a cross-country race, so there I found myself this weekend competing at the annual Corrida de los Locos. I had decided to get out and race not because my training had been going well, but rather because there was no training and there hadn't been any for a few months now and so I reasoned to myself, 'this could be like training'. What better reason to get started? Get out there, mix it up, get the ball rolling for 2013.

Right, well true to any reasonable expectation my race was a classic crash and burn. I fidgeted around most of the way trying to find a comfortable pace knowing full well that I wouldn't find one. There was some fun bursts of racing though. Half mile in I realized I was in no-man's land, running in between the lead pack of five and a group several meters back. Not a great place to be, so I snapped out of it and got myself back onto the tail of the lead pack. From here I could see (or rather hear) that I was working harder than the other five combined. I lost contact over a series of rolling hills and was off the back. At least I was now free and clear of the chase group.

Myself and Herman in the opening stretch. All smiles when the legs are fresh.
copyright M. Mujynya, photo album at Smugmug.com

That first mile was passed in near six minutes, after which I clung dearly to the giant gap of nothing that opened before me over the next four miles. The result was a close approximation of the old high school sprint-and-fade. I was nearly caught from behind by a hard-charging Chad Thompson over the last third of the course which kept me driving on with an honest effort. There's little honor in suffering for several miles only to give it all away in site of the finish line.

All in all a fine day out on the llano, the sizeable Caja del Rio plateau looming to the west. Mike Rahmer took the overall in a time of 29:52, followed closely by Donovan Lucero. Noel Prandoni claimed the womens overall in 34:50, followed by Maureen Nowels in second. Full results can be found at the event webpage.

Overall	Finisher	Time
1	Mike Rahmer	29min 52sec
2	Donovan Lucero	30:12
3	Antonio Lopez	31:03
4	Mike Ehrmantraut	31:29
5	Chester Topple	32:02
6	Kevin Brennan	34:07
7	Chad Thompson	34:11
8	Ken Gordon	34:22
9	Noel Prandoni	34:50
10	Herman Agoyo	35:14
11	Russel Nowels	36:04
12	Zachary Montoya	36:20
13	Maureen Nowels	36:35
14	Richard Iverson	36:40
15	Steve Rogers	36:53
16	Elizabeth Lopez	37:19
17	David Garrett	37:28
18	Jeremy Yang	37:34
19	Tony Gallegos	37:59
20	Amy Gordon	38:19
21	Sheila Van Cuyk	38:31
22	Alden Hoskie	38:53
23	John Holton	39:14
24	Erin Sindewald	39:51
25	Tori Quintana	40:11
26	Ben Allison	40:28
27	John Caskey	40:43
28	Mark Dalten	40:49
29	Stephen Stout	40:50
30	Jan Bear	41:47

A bit more about this fine race and its twenty-eight years:  The first Corrida I ran was way back in 1991. I remember this because I had the shirt for years and years before the Desert Babe established a house rule that running shirts that date back to high school are to be retired. I remember that it was out north of town rather than it's current location and also that I ran in my track spikes that year because I reasoned that it would help in the snow (..and look cool). This was a very poorly thought out and painful decision. Yay for awkward running memories!! Share your own in the comments if you'd like.

Max has posted some terrific images of the race at SmugMug.com here. There's a few hundred action shots to browse, download, or order prints. It cost me $1.49 to download the images above. Revenue from the photos is directed to the Santa Fe Striders Running Club.

Related Links: 
 -  2011 Corrida Race Report
 -  2013 New Mexico Trail Racing Calendar



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