“Big Bad Gunslinger”



“All calculations based on our experience elsewhere fail in New Mexico,” Lew Wallace, author of Ben Hur, in 1881

Wallace said it but anyone who’s called New Mexico home can confirm it, including me. 

There’s no other place on the planet like New Mexco.  

What other U.S. state has its own official question: “Red of green?” As in, how do you take your chile? (I’m not making this stuff up. I worked for the New Mexico legislature for a session.)

The correct response: Christmas, which means a bit of both and the way I like it.

It was in the “Land of Enchantment” or “Land of Entrapment” (for those of us who eked out a living there) that I ran with none other than the “Big Bad Gunslinger” himself, Hal Higdon.

Actually, the “Big Bad Gunslinger from out of town” is not what I called him or the way I thought of him, but how Hal Higdon  referred to himself in a cyber piece about running with me on his visit to Santa Fe more than 10 years ago.

He found me, or I should say someone to run with (can’t say it was me in particular he sought), through the local running club, which it turns out I was the president of at the time.

I don’t know if it was his “big bad” reputation (he ran a 2:21 marathon PR in his heyday) or it simply didn’t work out for anyone else’s schedule, but he got middle-of-the-pack me, not some younger male verson of himself, by default.

Poor guy.

So here’s where the Lew Wallace quote fits into the equation with Mr. Gunslinger.

We didn’t run on official trails, per say, but as anyone who’s spent significant time in New Mexico, and Santa Fe in particular, knows, only the best neighborhoods have dirt roads.

Again, I’m not kidding or making this up or being sarcastic.

Truly, there are many, many exclusive, beautiful homes in Santa Fe, these charming old adobe abodes as well as “fabodes” on steroids (the newer fake adobe ones), all on dirt roads.

People spend beaucoup bucks to build them, then rely on the city or county to grate their roads regularly, especially in the winter, to get out of their driveways.

And the best way to get this done? Buy doughnuts for the local guys who’s jobs it is to do this for you regularly.

Again, I’m not kidding. That’s how things work in New Mexico.

Anyway, the area where I took Hal, mainly the north and upper east sides of Santa Fe, is mostly unpaved so you sort of get the benefit of trail running on dirt, minus the single track.

To compensate for the lack of single-track ambience, however, you get plenty of angry local drivers who try to run you off the road. 

That’s whole other post for another time. …    

I took Hal on what my friend Suzanne called “Danica’s Run” because I made up this course.

It started at Fort Marcy Recreation Center in Santa Fe and wound itself up and through neighborhoods off the ski hill road, on ski hill road for a bit, down to upper Canyon Road, onto Canyon Road (yes, the famous Canyon Road with all the famous artists and galleries), by St. John College, through town and back to Fort Marcy.

It wasn’t all dirt but probably about 75 percent was and some steep grades to match. It was one of my favorite runs in Santa Fe and he liked it, too.

I can’t say my pace impressed him but I think my choice of course and the views did. We enjoyed our conversation and he sent me a copy of the article he wrote. 

So there you have it, my brush Mr. Gunslinger and one of my favorite unofficial trail runs in Santa Fe.

I came up with “Danica’s Run” in the era before Santa Fe’s Dale Ball, which was written up in Runner’s World, was built. I will talk about that particular trail yet in another post.

Aging is inevitable, but growing old is a choice. Lace up your shoes, and let’s go.

Mileage yesterday: 6.2; Denver to Boston miles logged: 868.4; Miles left to go: 901.6

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *