The Coastal Challenge
One of the “Easiest� Days Catches Many Racers Off-Guard
Jackie Windh / 18.03.2016
From the stats, this first day looked to be one of the easiest: only 32 km, with a mere 917m elevation gain, dropping back down most of that to our first camp. But, as RD Rodrigo Carazo had warned us the night before, most of us would find this to be our hardest day, “because you are not yet acclimatized to these conditions.”
On top, most of us were setting out sleep-deprived. Most of us were awake by 3am (if we’d slept at all) to have time to drop our bags off and have breakfast before our 4:30am departure for the coast, a three and a half hour bus ride away. Well, by the time we’d arrived at the race start, we’d seen monkeys, crocodiles, and a grasshopper bigger than my hand.
And, it was hot. On all following days, we would start as soon as it was light enough to see, around 6am. But this first day, we didn’t start until 9:30, in the full blazing sun on a beach near Quepos.
The first 15 km of our route were some of the easiest, yet most mentally demanding, kilometres we would be covering all week: following a flat and straight dirt road through a palm plantation. (Did I mention it was hot?)
It was definitely an exercise in pacing - mainly to regulate body temperature - from the start to the first aid station at the 13 km mark. Not long after that, we entered the forest.
Our first uphill climb was steep, but we only gained less than 150 m. However, it took a lot out of many competitors, who were combatting dizziness, nausea and cramping. I was feeling really good, and passed a lot of them on that first climb (wondering if some of them didn’t realize how small this hill was on the scale of what the rest of the week would bring).
A fairly easy downhill run took us to the second aid station at 19.5 km. A woman in blue passed me here, but when we had to take a little side path to cross a creek I passed her again, and realized she wasn’t very comfortable on the technical stuff. She passed me again as soon as we were back on the road, and I thought I probably wouldn’t see her again today.
But then our real climb started. Now we were in real jungle - which is the whole reason I love this race so much (this was my third time doing TCC). It was a long and steep uphill, much of it winding sideways up along a ravine, where you really didn’t want to slip sideways off the trail. It was a long way down, with lots of evil looking branches and stakes to snag you. This was our big climb of the day, and I just hoed into it, not seeing anyone for along time.
Suddenly I emerged at a summit, and a volunteer pointed to the river snaking its way through the jungle far below. “That’s where you are going,” he said. “Down there, cross the river, and camp is right there on the other side.” And he pointed me down the trail.
This downhill was extremely technical. I didn’t even try to run it - I didn’t want any accidents. I didn’t see anyone the whole way down until I emerged on the bouldery bank of the river - and, to my surprise, there was the woman in blue, right in front of me! I remembered that she wasn’t comfortable on the rough stuff, and it looked like we had several hundred meters of boulders to traverse before getting to the river crossing, so I picked it up and quickly passed her. (I later found out that she was Annie Langstaff - 2001 Badwater champion).
I could see South African racer Niandi Ciarmont, who I had run with a bit earlier in the day, stumbling in the river ahead. It was chest-deep, with a pretty strong current - so I looked around an immediately spied the perfect stick to help me across.
The stick did the trick, and I made it across the river without any accidents (Annie and TOny, just behind me, found it easier to swim!). I finished the day in 5:23,which put me in 32nd place, which I was quite OK with.
Winners for the day were South Africa’s Iain Don-Wauchope (in a very impressive 2:35:31) and Elisabeth Barnes (Sweden/UK, in 3:43:23, for 10th overall). Iain is the defending TCC champion. He was expected to be challenged by Spain’s Chema Martinez Fernandez, a 2:08 marathoner and former Olympian. But Chema suffered from the heat, and took only fifth place for the day.
But Chema was far from the only one suffering. Racers continued to arrive in camp until after 6pm, as darkness fell, spending over 8 hours on the route. Some of these were in the Adventure category, and so will be having a much easier day tomorrow: 16 flat km.
But some were in the Expedition category, and many of them would be reconsidering whether they should stay in that category, or voluntarily drop down to Adventure.
And for a few, the decision was not theirs to make. Some competitors were too nauseous to be able to eat dinner, throwing up later at night. Several required IVs - some of them multiple IVs. Race rules are that you are allowed one IV the whole race - more than one is an automatic DQ. (Even DQ’d racers still may continue on the course, unranked, if the medical staff approves). So some racers would be sitting out for Day Two..
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