Sandias Sandias

Inspired by races like Tour De Donut, which I hosted my own version of while I was a student at Cal Poly, Sandias^2 is a new idea I came up with.

Over the summer of 2025 I was riding in Albuquerque (ABQ) and rode to the crest of the Sandia Mountains a few times. The ride is quite a slog. From the base to the peak it is about 13.3 mi (21.4km) and 3,890 ft (1,185.67 m), with a few pull offs and day use sites along the way. Feeling inspired by Tour de Donut, I want to do something similar in Albuquerque, but without a good hill or something to race up the end I was unsure what to do. Thats when during one of my assents up the Sandias I had the idea to eat watermelons while racing up the sandias.

The basic idea is that starting out at the base of the road, begin by eating a portion of a watermelon, and at certain pullouts and day use sites on the way up you must stop and eat more watermelon. I am going to have to go out and test what a reasonable amount of watermelon will be. I am initially thinking that 2 full size watermelons would be unreasonable, but doing 3 smaller watermelons would be doable; especially when being encouraged in a competitive environment.

I was thinking I could just weight participants watermelons before and after, and participants would get time bonuses based on how much weight their watermelons had lost. But I realized that since the climb is already so long and quite difficult it would unfairly benefit people who eat less and felt better, so having a standardized amount of watermelon each participant must eat seems like the best option (Races like the beer mile operate along these lines and are very fun to watch and participate in).

The Course

The course is quite simple. Starting at Sandia Mountains Information area at the base of the mountain, riders are staged, have their first batch of watermelon and then set off up the climb. Start from there to the peak the total race will be 11.86 mi (19.08 km) with 3605 ft (1,098.8 m) total ascent.

Stop 1 - Mile 3.55 (5.71 km)

Stop 2 - Mile 5.95 (9.58 km)

Stop 3 - Mile 9.70 (15.61 km)

(I tried to spread the stops out as evenly as possible but was limited by where there would be room on the side of the road)

The finish line is at the very peak, at the far end of the parking lot.

Logisitics

This is the part I am still working on figuring out. Once the appropriate ammount of watermelon has been identified it will be much easier to determine all of the logistics.

Having a set of volunteers either at each stop when the race begins would be one option, or having the volunteers bring a table or two up with them and all they have to do it beat the racers to the next stop (which wouldnt be hard) and then all they need to do is set up quickly to be ready for the racers.

this is the method I think would be most viable as it would require the least number of people and could be accomplished quite easily with 3-4 volunteers.

Rules

  • All of the apportioned watermelon for each athlete must be consumed at each stop.
    • What counts as “eating”
      • Must swallow (no spitting)
      • Rind excluded (or included if you want chaos)
  • Format
    • Pre-cut cubes vs wedges (Talk with the volunteers depending on your preference)
    • All watermelon provided by the race
  • Timing
    • Must finish watermelon before leaving the stop
  • Enforcement
    • Volunteer checks empty container - and will dismiss you to continue riding
  • DONT BE A DICK!
  • All other rules will be determined as needed
    • Im not sure if a throw up rule will be necessary or not yet.

Notes:

I am trying to figure out how to add clear way points to a course map, which I will then add to show the course and where the stops are.

I also just very quickly drew up the image that I have been using as the logo for now. I think someone with more artistic abilities than I would be able to come up with something better. If this is a good time and people want to do it again I will likely try to get a better logo made.