"When you realize the Truth,
you are at home."
- Sri Swami Satchidananda
Who's getting older? Not the yogi who practices consistently!
This weekend kicked off my winter racing season;
2 Podiums in 2 Sports over 2 States in 2 Days.
Thanks to WF and especially her intradiscipline of HP Yoga®!
Above; after a brutal 10k high-altitude snowshoe race here in Flag, i ran head-long into the
smiles and kisses of Dewachen and Ananda; that is my real podi(om) these days!
photo by Joy.
***
i was actually called spontaneously by the Divine Mother
(masquerading as Business) to my h(om)etown of Durango on Saturday.
Durango, fortunately, is just a jaunt down the road by Southwest standards...a mere 250 miles.
more or less.
that's just a Mantra roll, baby...
of course, whenever the Tao blows me into Durango, i gotta hook up with my chi-ldhood and mountain yogi bros.
one of the elite masters of all things Mountain Yoga in Durango is my dear friend, Andrew "Ferggie" Ferguson - my WF informal devotee of whom many of you shall recognize from prior DL entries of high end outdoor athletics. Ferggie called me, auspiciously, right as i was ripping up the On Ramp to I-25 (a landslide took out the 'backroute" Tuba City way) enroute to Durango via Gallup/Shiprock/La Plata Hwy.
"ilg?""Hey Ferggie! Whassup? I'm just leaving for Durango!""Really?!? Cool!""Yeah, man.""So, there's a 10k Skate Race up at Durango Nordic Center on Saturday...""Really?" (i had consciously forgotten the date since i thought i would not be able to make it..."my" event of the "Snow-or-No" Snowshoe Race was in Flag on Sunday)..
."Well, i did throw in my training skis just in case i could ski, i have a business appointment on Friday in Durango.""Well, you gotta do the race...everybody will be there," came the convincing command from the multi-champion athlete.
"Awl right..i'll use it as training...i'll call you when i get into town." ***
in Durango, i'm staying with my BFL...Danny Shry. He's now like Chief of Police or something like that. to me, he is and all-ways shall remain Danny. he and i Connected in a Tibetan Way when i first appeared - scared, small, and unknown - in St. Columba Catholic School for 5th grade.
more on Danny later. he's only like the most like-able guy on the planet.
Ferggie is right there, too.
ilg is Blessed with Heavenly Realm friends* in Durango to this day.
Shry and i stay up late into the night reminiscing, relating, re-membering...oh! such sweet elixir to a human incarnation is the limitless joy of a lifelong best friend when still healthy 30 years post our youthful exuberances! Danny's beautiful wife, Wyn, stays right with us...as if entranced by the laughter of our recollections.
i eventually get to sleep and after a lovely ham-and-cheese croissant at
Jean-Pierre Bakery in d-town Durango, i meet up with local stud Miles Venzara
(from whom i bought my new killer sweet MTB which i named, of course; Miles) and Ferggie to carpool up to the race venue.
the Start/Finish Line at Durango's Coke Skate Ski 10k Race last saturday from my camera phone.
The drive up is chill with the boyz.
Miles, Ferggie and i pre-ski the Race Route which, we are informed, will be the Jr. National Nordic Race Course next weekend. They are going to start us in :30 intervals to get any bugs worked out of the timing system.
my chi-ldhood ski coach (of
OUTDOOR and
WINTER ATHLETE book fame) Mike Elliot - looking fresh at over 70 years young - is flying around in a dozen different places at once, just like i recall him. amazing father figure he was to me and still is. Tad, one of his two sons, just finished second to multi-Olympian Kris Freeman on a sea-level, flat course. Tad's weak links. Tad is turning down a spot on the USA Olympic Nordic Team because the stupidity of the IOC won't let Tad race Mountain Bikes if he attends the Olympics as a Nordic Team Member. Tad is the under-21 National Mountain Biking Champion. Yes, now you recall my DL about him, don't you? i used to hold Tad in my arms when he was a baby. now, he is my Multi-sport hero! it honors me that he uses WF as part of his training.
the Race Course is new Generation; 2 laps of a 5k killer loop whose salient features include dozens of knee-splitting short climbs followed by shallow recovery hills. i can't tell you how many races i've suffered on these nordic tracks yet never have i skied a course as dastardly as this one.
i jab my ski tip poles repetitively into the the already charred pockets beside the timing wand as if in a alpine ski race. though i'm relaxed and un-prepared for this spontaneous workout on my sacred chi-ldhood snows, i feel anxiety rush my veins like a Kundalini crack head. ilg wants to perform well in front of my hometown friends...DAMN! i shoulda brought my real race skis!
Miles started in front of me,
"Be nice when you pass me," the go(o)d-looking Durango endurance pro says to me...
"i'll try," i quip back.
as if.
in the Start Gate, i feel baggy. the only pants i brought were some backcountry Patagonia® pants which among this sea of skin-tight lycra looks as odd as an endurance athlete in his first yoga class.
i blast out of the Start Gate and nearly fall as my one-pointedness on an explosive start propelled me unwittingly into some powder near the left edge of the exquisitely groomed Race Course. i recover and pace my chi explosion on the first of many herringbone hills less than 30 meters from the Start.
Membrances thereafter:
mantra absorption,
by kilometer one i cannot even see Miles, let alone catch up to him,
mantra absorption,
Ferggie passes me at 1.5 ks at the top of the second killer hill,
mantra absorption,
i calculate Ferggie already two minutes in front of me by 4k,
mantra absorption wrapped in growing pain all over,
momentary glee at how well my spinal injury pain is not even present,
mantra absorption wrapped in growing pain all over,
skiing across the Start/Finish line for the first of my two laps...i feel decidedly ill
and ponder a way out of this aerobic Hell Realm,
mantra absorption wrapped in growing pain all over,
getting passed by Dom at 7k...and hating it,
mantra absorption wrapped in growing Joy all over,
feeling a m(om)ent of,
"Yeah, but how many of the mofo's in front of me could beat me tomorrow in a snowshoe race?"mantra absorption wrapped in growing Sacredness all over,
glimmering shints of Grandfather Sun off the Sacred Snows,
cheers of the Finish Line crowd and the Kundalini awakening sounds of Nordic cowbells being rung by spectators...to ilg? Nordic bells are the same resonance as Tibetan gongs...
collapsing across the Finish Line wondering...
"How in the hell will i ever recover to let alone drive back to Flag tonight,much less race a snowshoe race tomorrow morning?"the Mother Divine answered back without hesitation:
"Because you Trust in Me...that's how."
but that,
my Friends Along The Noble Path WF Yoga?
is another story...
* - friends...
spiritual meaning is to literally "Fry-the-End," which, of course, is perfectly clear to anyone who is Blessed with a lifelong best fry-end. time with your BFL has lost any potency of The End. everything is 'as it is' in the samadhic state; endless, joyful, unchanging, unconditional loving without judgment. like flashlights into fear; when we hang out with our best friends for life? every potential becomes illuminated with the fun and focus of boundless Blessing.
