Costa Rica: The Coastal Challenge
43 competitors from 9 countries assembled...
Jacqueline Windh / 26.01.2008
We’ve all arrived – 43 competitors from 9 countries, as far away as Singapore! I’ve just coming from the welcome and briefing, and am frantically packing stuff for a 4am wake-up, 5am departure. It’s a two-hour drive to the start line, at the town of La Fortuna, just below the eastern flank of Arenal Volcano.Race Director Tim Holmstrom has handed out our info kits, and Course Director Rodrigo Carazo explained essentials that we need to know about the route and the terrain. Something new this year: all racers get topo maps, with a cross-sectional graphic showing elevation gain and loss along each day’s route. This will be a huge help in pacing throughout the day – knowing how much climbing still remains ahead – as well as pacing throughout the entire race, knowing when to hold back because there is a big day following.
Tomorrow is more than a climb than I had thought! The 21 km route includes a climb of just shy of 1 k, up to the peak of Cerro Chato, a small volcano just south of the big volcano Arenal, and then one more 300 m hill near the end.
Day 2 looks to be the roughest – the 57 km route will start with another very steep climb from 600 m to about 1400 m, followed by more big ups and downs for the first half of the route, then more rolling terrain for the second half. Tim has indicated that there will be a time cut-off of 7 hours at about the 34 km mark on this route for racers in the Expedition category – that says a lot about the difficulty of the terrain already, if the minimum speed to make the cut-off is less than 5 km/h.See All Event Posts
