Albuquerque Adventures by Jacob Hammond

Jacob Hammond is a rising sophomore. He hails from Austin's Liberal Arts & Science Academy (out of LBJ High School)

Sometime during last track season, a few teammates and I were talking about summer plans and Chris Soto and Brandon “Gramps” Douglas announced they planned to be in Albuquerque, New Mexico for the break. Chris was there living for the summer to do an internship with the city’s planning department and Brandon planned to live there permanently, post collegiately. They’d be living with a former Trinity athlete and current steeplechase record holder Sal Perdomo (not for long, Michael is coming for that 9:11). Chris joked I should come out and train, and at first I shrugged it off, but as it became clear I didn’t have any real summer plans, I took the suggestion a little more seriously. After talking to my parents and communicating with Sal for a few weeks, I had solidified plans to live in Albuquerque for roughly 7 weeks, training for cross country at 5,000 feet. Thus began my Albuquerque excursion. 

I flew out on June 9th after getting my run done in the morning and Chris greeted me at the airport. Naturally, the first thing we did was get some Whataburger, which I was pleased to discover existed in New Mexico. Whabs would be a favorite during the summer, Chris and I even managed to convert Nicola, a former UNM athlete to try it for the first time. We got set up in the house that night, Chris and I shared a converted office space at the front of the house with a view of the street and two air mattresses, truly the bachelor life. The next morning, we did our first easy run. A quarter of the mile into the run, I could already feel the effects of altitude. My breathing as well as the conversation was coming a little harder and my mouth was a lot drier than in the swimming pool of central Texas. It was, mercifully, cooler and less humid than Austin, which was a welcome change. We ran the UNM golf course and Johnson field, which would both become staples of our easy runs and workouts alike throughout the summer. 

Nature Center Bridge

Over the next two weeks or so, the rest of the Ranch House crew got moved into the house, capping off with fearless leader Perdomo. Chris and I continued to meet many members and friends of the Duke’s Track Club, the local track club associated with Heart and Sole, every Albuquerque citizen’s favorite running specialty shop, as well as many of the current and former University of New Mexico runners. Probably the thing I’ve enjoyed the most about ABQ so far is the fantastic running community and atmosphere that they have here. The Dukes know all the Heart and Sole employees who in turn know all the UNM runners and vice versa. There was almost never a day when Chris and I didn’t meet up with someone else who accompanied us on our run. We met several high profile runners, including U.S. Marathoner Nick Arciniaga, a friend of the Dukes. Even those associated with the running community who didn’t run themselves were great to meet and just as involved as those who did. 

 

The Dukes!

 I had never seriously trained at altitude before, so there was certainly an adjustment period when I got up here. I come from a very humid climate, and they always say humidity is the poor man’s altitude. The altitude was a different challenge, but I was certainly no stranger to training in less than ideal conditions. There was some obvious adjustments I needed to make, most evident was the paces of my runs. I had to scale back the effort on all my runs, which was a bit of a challenge at first. As my weekly mileage increased to levels I hadn’t previously reached, I found it increasingly easy to take the easy days easy and focus on getting quality efforts out of the hard days. In the words of the Texas legend Craig Lutz, the training regiment was certainly a #grind. Also like Craig, I used the training block to find my love of that #grind. Luckily, the training block was broken up by a fourth of July 5k downtown that some of the best local runners attended. The week leading up to the race I had hoped to run about 17:45, which in addition to being at altitude would put me way ahead of my fitness of last summer, having run that same time in late August at sea level. If I could run 17:45 at the end of a two week stretch of almost 140 miles and no taper in training, I would be in great shape moving forward. The race went great. I was very happy with my 17:24 at altitude and it served as a great re-energizer for training the rest of the summer. The rest of the day was spent BBQ hopping and the night ended with a most likely illegal fireworks display in the street in front of, and on the roof of one of the UNM Track houses.

Partial TUTF Reunion!

In addition to the great training we had been doing, this was my first real experience living on my own in the sense that I had to make my own semi-adult decisions. The most obvious was grocery shopping, which I admittedly was horrible at the first week. Luckily, with more practice I got a bit better (a bit). The catering service down the street saved us. Between Tony (another Duke) and Chris teaching the fitness class and being paid in delicious breakfast burritos and enchiladas, our house was well stocked with food. Also Whataburger. And Subway. But mostly Whataburger.

With two weeks left, I can already say that this has been one of the best summers I’ve ever had, if not the best. I’ve already had some great experiences so far, and we still have plans to climb the Sandia’s with Gramps and see Fall Out Boy, Wiz Khalifa and Hoodie Allen at the Isleta Amphitheater the last week we’re here, what should be a great cap to an even better adventure, and that's not even mentioning whatever crazy adventures and parties we spontaneously come up with before then.

Shouts out to fearless leader Sal and Commander Soto, for getting me up at 5:45am to run, Kalder, Myles, Gramps and Cassie the cat for being rad housemates, the Dukes for being great training partners and running resources, and Chris’ cousin Elliot whose amazing cooking skills kept us fed on the weekends, as well as everyone else that's made the trip the best summer vacation ever. Although I loved the experience of living and training in the ABQ and would seriously consider coming back again for the summer, if not after college as well, August 18th can’t get here fast enough. I can’t wait for the season to start and to see what my sophomore year has in store, but more than that I can’t wait to be with my absolute favorite teammates and coaches on earth, #TUXC4Life. 

Some of my awesome training buddies!