Coastal Challenge Rain Forest Expedition Run

Jacqueline Windh / 30.12.2008

Costa Rica’s south coast will be hot - but with entrants including Robyn Benincasa, Scott Jurek, and Danelle Ballengee, the competition at the front of the pack will be even hotter. So far, at least 58 runners have signed up to challenge themselves through Costa Rica’s southern jungles and along the steaming wave-washed coastlines. The sign-up deadline is January 15th, so there is still a chance to get in, for those of you who are looking for coupling some sunshine with a bit of serious rough-terrain training.

Robyn and Danelle will be racing, along with the three other founding members of Project Athena (www.projectathena.org), Louise Cooper, Florence Debout and Melissa Cleary. These women have all had their own medical setbacks, but they not only keep pushing themselves to train and compete - they have also started the foundation to help other women with medical setbacks achieve their athletic dreams. Robyn is still recovering from a hip replacement operation just over a year ago. “They say you\'re not supposed to run with this silly thing at all,” she tells me, “but I\'m just pretending that they didn’t mean me.”

The Foundation Five are not the only Project Athena women who will be racing at The Coastal Challenge - three other “goddesses” are coming down to race (raising money along the way for Project Athena). Robyn is especially excited that they will be bringing one of their “athenaship” recipients to race in Costa Rica as well - a young two-time breast cancer survivor (as well as firefighter calendar girl) from Virgina, Sara Jones. In honour of Project Athena’s participation and philanthropic work, race organizer Tim Holmstrom is offering a discount to any new female race registrants.

Tim is also excited to have Scott Jurek sign up for both this and next year’s Coastal Challenge race. Scott is one of the world’s top ultrarunners (a few of his many accomplishments include being both seven-time champion of the Western States 100 Miler, as well as course record-holder, and two-time Badwater champion). It will be truly exciting for the rest of us to glimpse him at the starting line each day (as well as to hang out with him in the evenings!).

As you may have gathered, I will be back in Costa Rica to challenge myself again - but more about that in an upcoming post.

For info about the 2009 race, go to www.thecoastalchallenge.com
For a competitor list, or info about other races Holmstrom and his crew organize (such as the new, three-day run Island Run to take place off Panama this September) go to www.tccadventures.com