Elevation Profile

Here is the elevation profile for this year. Note that the 50km and 50mile events share the same route for the first ~20 miles.

La Sportiva "Going the Distance" Fundraiser

As part of the Mountain Cup series, La Sportiva sponsors fund raiser called "Going the Distance". This year they will be selling 100 limited edition travel coffee mugs to raise money for a local organization. They will be selling these mugs at the La Sportiva booth during packet pickup and on race day for $15.

All the proceeds raised will be donated to the:
NMCF SANTA CLARA PUEBLO "WE WILL HEAL" TREE FUND
This fund supports the reforestation of over 17,000 acres of Santa Clara Pueblo that were scorched during the devastating 2011 Las Conchas wildfire, the largest in New Mexico’s history. Eighty percent of Santa Clara Pueblo’s tribal land has recently been impacted by wildfires and flooding. The “We Will Heal” Fund seeks to restore the beauty of the fertile Santa Clara Canyon for this and future generations of tribal members. For every $5 will enable the purchase and planting of one seedling.

Additional donations can be made to the fund here.

Update - January 24, 2012

Planning for the race is going well. Registration is already open for the 50 km and 50 mile distance races and registration for the the half marathon will open on February 1st.

Course: Using the proposed course is looking good. In late December, the Santa Fe National Forest opened up a bunch of trails (thanks to the hard work of the SW Nordic Club) that the course will utilize. I believe that we should be able to gain access to cross the LANL property and access the Caldera in the locations that we want. The only section of course that I have concerns about is the section on upper Guaje Ridge. Even if we are not able to access this section, we do have a backup plan and should not stop the race from occurring. So in summary, I fully expect that the course will be very similar to what is described in the last post.

Registration: Currently the 50 mile is almost half full and the 50 km is about a third full.

Las Conchas Trail Recovery: During the registration process, the entrants have the option of donating money for trial recovery from the large wildfire that destroyed many trails in the area last summer. The support that has been shown so far has far exceeded my expectations. To date we have already raised $750. I would like to thank all of you who donated to this fund.

La Sportiva Mountain Cup: The Jemez Half Marathon will again be part of the Mountain Cup this year. We are excited to partner again with La Sportiva in this race series. This year La Sportiva will be selling limited edition Mountain Cup coffee mugs. All proceeds from the mugs will be donated to local organizations.

New Race Director for 2013: Tom Stockton will take over many of the RD duties starting for the 2013 race. Thanks Tom!

Volunteer Opportunities: There are still plenty of volunteer opportunities ranging from organization and planning to just helping for a few hours during race day. If you interested, please contact jemezruns@gmail.com

Update - November 15, 2011

The JMTR will take place on May 19, 2012. The format and structure will be similar to previous years with some exceptions noted below.

Date: May 19, 2012

Registration: Registration opens for the 50 mile and 50 km races on December 1, 2011 and for the half marathon on February 1, 2012. Registration will be through Ultra Signup.

Entry Fee: Same fees as last year. $70 for 50 mile, $60 for 50 km, and $40 for half. We considered raising the entry fees by $10 this year to support the trail recovery effort resulting from the Las Conchas fire. We realize that entering races is a large financial obligation for some people, so have instead decided give you the option to voluntarily donate to the trail recovery effort. There will be an option when registering through Ultra Signup to donate to this fund.

Refund and waitlist policy: We have decided this year to allow for refunds and will maintain a waitlist. We will offer a 50% refund only before May 1, 2012 and only if your spot can be filled. After May 1, 2012 all entry fees are nonrefundable. No refunds if there is no one on the waitlist. No transfer of entry to another person and no transfer of entry to another year. We will maintain a separate waitlist for each race through the Ultra Signup site.

Course: The half marathon course will be the same as previous years. Both the 50 mile and 50 km course will be new. The Las Conchas Fire severely burnt Caballo Mountain, Guaje Canyon, and Cerro Grande. These areas will take several years to recover. The 50 km and 50 mile courses will use the same route with the 50 mile doing additional distance in the Caldera.

Proposed Course: Start at the Posse shack and run to the Mitchell Trail Head same as previous years. Instead of ascending the Mitchell Trail stay on the Perimeter Trail. Follow the Perimeter trail past Pipeline Road, above Quemazon community, and then take the connector trail to the Quemazon Trail. Go up the Quemazon Trail to the Nature Trail. Follow the Nature Trail down to access trail into Los Alamos Canyon and the Ice Rink. Ascend the trail behind the Ice Rink and take the right branch up to West Road. Cross West Road and follow old jeep roads along Los Alamos Canyon to Camp May Road. Run the Camp May Road Trail (the trail parallels Camp May Road on the road's south side) to the Pajarito Ski Area. Ascend and descend the ski area to the lodge. From the lodge proceed out to Pipleline Road as in previous years. The 50 km runners will proceed down Gauje Ridge to the finish on the same route as previous years. The 50 mile runners will drop into Caldera (same as previous years) and run ¾ around Cerro del Medio. They will then exit the Caldera by climbing to the Pajarito/Cerro Grande saddle and then up to the top of the Pajarito Ski Area. Descend back to the ski lodge and then return to the finish the same as the previous year’s 50 mile course--via Canada Bonita/Pipeline Road/Guaje Ridge.

Please note that this proposed course goes through several severe burn areas. We are working with the land managers and have gotten positive feedback that we will be able to use this route. But there is still the chance that we will need to do some reroutes if these areas are not safe for the race to use. We will most likely not have absolute certainty on the exact course until after the winter snow pack melts, sometime in late spring. We will do our best to keep you updated on this and hope that you understand the situation.

Aid Stations: Aid stations will stay the same for the Half Marathon but new aid station locations will be determined for the ultra-distance races. Locations of these aid stations have not yet been determined, but we intend to provide a similar level of aid station support as previous years.

We look forward to seeing you in Los Alamos next year. If you have any questions, you can contact us at JemezRuns@gmail.com

Below is the proposed course. The 50km distance will run the red route and the 50 mile distance will do the additional blue loop through caldera.

Below is the proposed loop through the Caldera. Only the 50 mile runners will do the blue loop.

Jemez 2012!!

BIG changes coming for 2012. We will have new 50 mile and 50km courses compliments of the Las Conchas Fire. Also we are introducing a new partial refund policy if you register but can't make it on race day. Look for details on the JMTR website in the next few weeks. Registration opens on December 1st. Stay tuned..........

2012 Poster

We are looking for original art work that can be used in the poster for next year. If you have a painting or photo that represents some aspect of the race, please let us know. We would like to receive the artwork before the end of the year so that we can print the posters early next year. For more information please contact us at JemezRuns@gmail.com

JMTR Update for 2012

We have gotten many questions about the status of the race for next year. The Las Conchas Fire burned much of the race course. About 1 mile of the half marathon course was within the burn zone while around 21 miles of the 50km and 37 miles of the 50 mile course were within the burn zone. Some sections of the course have been severely burned with subsequent erosion and flash flooding. These areas will not be open to the public for many years to come. This makes running the race on the current 50km and 50 miles course impossible in the near future.

However, we have decided to move forward with the planning for the JMTR in 2012. The date has been set for May 19, 2012. As we've done every year, we'll have three race distances; a half marathon, 50km, and 50 mile. The 2012 JMTR is still contingent on successfully getting a permit through the Santa Fe National Forest Service and the forest service has been very supportive to us running the races next year. We are proposing to run the half marathon on the same course as in the past. The 50km and 50 mile course will require substantial course changes. For the 50km course, we are proposing to run from town to the top of the Pajarito Ski Hill. The 50 mile course will follow the 50km course with potentially a long section of the course running through the Valles Caldera National Preserve. The new courses will feature less elevation gain than the previous courses, but will likely be similarly challenging on account of more technical trails with less shade coverage.

Photos of fire damage on sections of the course can be seen:
Mitchell Trail
Lower Guaje Ridge
North Mitchell Trail
Ski Area to Pipeline to Guaje Canyon and Upper Guaje Ridge
Cerro Grande and the Caldera

We will be updating this blog periodically with updates on the status of the race. We hope to see you back next year to experience the “fire” course.

JMTR Team

Numbers

Here are the registration, start, and finish numbers for the races.

Half
296 registered
236 starters
- 8 DNFs
228 finishers
94.2% Finish Rate

50K
184 registered
146 Starters
- 11 DNF
135 50K finishers who started as 50K runners
91.8% Finish Rate
+ 13 50 milers who switched to 50K mid-race
148 Total 50K finishers

50 Mile
209 registered
162 Starters
- 31 DNF
- 13 Switched to 50K mid race
118 50 mile finishers
72.8% Finish Rate

Early Race Packet Pickup Sessions

The Jemez Mountain Trail Runs are only a few days away! We are offering two early race packet pickup sessions this year to try and reduce some of the congestion during the Friday night packet pickup and dinner. If you are able to, we encourage you to pickup your race packet at one of the early sessions on Wednesday or Thursday.

On Wednesday, 5/18/11, the packet pickup will be from 11:30am to 1:00pm at the Los Alamos National Bank in Los Alamos.

On Thursday, 5/19/11, the packet pickup will be from 4:30pm to 6:00pm at the Crossroads Bible Church (the same location as Friday's packet pickup and dinner.)

If you pickup your packet early you are, of course, still welcome to come to the pre-race dinner on Friday and you'll have more time to socialize with friends and not worry about standing in a line.

Need Volunteers

We are still looking for volunteers to help with packet stuffing next Sunday afternoon (May 15) and packet pickup on Wednesday (noon), Thursday (evening), Friday (evening), and Saturday (morning) of race week. Also need help with traffic control on Saturday morning. If you or someone you know is interested in helping, please send me a note. billgeist@gmail.com Thanks!

La Sportiva and the “Going the Distance” tech tee

La Sportiva will selling tech tees at the race this year. All proceeds will be donated to the local Los Alamos Volunteer Task Force. This organization is dedicated to maintaining and building trails throughout the town and surrounding forest area. Please consider purchasing one of these shirts to support this organization.

La Sportiva Press Release

Injury Prevetion Class

Jessica at Aligned Play is offering a running injury prevention class in June. If you are interested check out the details on the web site. http://www.alignedplay.com/events/runningclass.shtml