Xtremo6000
Day 2: Race start at Laguna Brava, at 4200 m
27.02.2010
An early morning departure from the Hotel Pircas Negras took us all, travellling in caravan, up to Laguna Brava, one of La Rioja’s most famous tourist destinations. This salt lake usually has water in it at this time of year, and was to be the site for a kayak stage. But low rainfall means that the lake was mostly dry salt, with only a few patches of glistening turquoise liquid showing, where flock of flamingos were feeding.
The thin air here had at least one racer receiving oxygen even before the race start. And it was so cold - on the drive up we crossed a few creeks that were still frozen from the night - with an icy roaring wind that threatened to freeze fingers, cheeks and noses. In fact, it was so cold that some people thought that the lake was solid ice, rather than salt!
At 10:30 am the 42 teams (25 Elite and 17 Pro category) lined up at the lakeside, buffs pulled up over faces, and a few minutes later the gun went off - some running, and some being more cautious about the altitude and walking. Oskalunga WRR1’s Frederico Gall told me after, “In Brazil we don’t have these kinds of altitudes to train in. So we were not sure how to approach it, the question of whether it is wiser to run or not to run. But when the gun sounded, we just ran!�
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