Costa Rica: The Coastal Challenge
Day 4: All Expedition racers make today\'s cut-offs.
Jacqueline Windh / 03.02.2008
I’m very sad today – my knee continued to inflame over night, and I am off course today: patellar tendonitis. I pushed really hard yesterday – I guess too hard. It was a tearful decision for me this morning, but at the same time I know it was the right one. Even if I had managed to complete today’s route, I would surely be off course the next day – and by then, with a lot more damage done.So, I am back to being just your race reporter again...
Today was another tough, and pivotal day for Expedition category racers: a 50 km day, with two time cut-offs along the way. Race Director Tim Holmstrom started last night’s briefing with the question “Is there anyone in the Expedition category here who cannot swim?� and suddenly there was an uncomfortable silence in the room.
“Good,� he said, then went on with the route briefing.
The course was similar in style to Day 2 (the 60 km day) – starting with a 600 m climb, though this time on a meandering dirt road (which I think is worse than the more technical jungle climbs because of how endless the road climbs feel) then a descent on a rough cement-and-rock “road� to PC1 at 10 km. From PC1 to PC2 was relatively flat (but we have learned that “flat� here does not mean truly flat – it means rolling hilly terrain, just with no net elevation gain) on both rocky dirt road and trail. Here at PC2 was the cut-off for Expedition racers – if they did not make the 20.5 km in 4 hours, they would be down-graded to Adventure. It was also the end point for Adventure runner. This time, though, the terrain was much simpler than that of Day 2, and all racers in both categories made it there in under 4 hours.See All Event Posts
