Meghan's Blog

« Stage 3: Whatever You Do, Do Not Puke | Main | Intermission »

February 24, 2007

Stage 4: Seal The Deal, Yo.

Route: Rio Chiquito to Curubande
Estimated Distance: 50k

There is no other way to say it: Stage 4 rocked. Yes, there were moments that were intensely uncomfortable.Yes, there was a moment in which my good judgement lapsed. Yes, my feet were officially tore up afterwards. By the end of this day, none of this mattered. Not one bit. This was a very good day.

Rio Chiquito, the little town that served as Stage 3's finish line, last night's campsite, and Stage 4's starting line, sits perched on the lowest foothills of 2 big, extinct volcanoes (I think. It's not as if I ever saw a map of the area. They just looked like volcanoes.). We knew that we must be going over these big guys. Indeed, we did.

This was going to be a hot day. We had officially entered into the hottest, driest region of Costa Rica, the Guanacaste area in the northwest portion of the country. Because today's stage was long, we started early. The stage was scheduled to start at 5:30 am, but the officials delayed it until 5:45 am for more daylight. This morning's 4 am wake-up was painful; it just felt early.

I woke up feeling so much better than I had felt for over 24 hours. In particular, my quad muscles, though still a bit sore, had made a miraculous recovery. I was astounded. My body felt tired, but I think it was from the early hour, rather than genuine physical fatigue. We did all the necessary morning preparations that had, by now, become routine, and lined up for the 5:45 am start. Again, it was a boisterous start on a dirt road that headed steeply uphill towards the volcanoes. They said, "Go!", and the whole field started powerwalking. Everyone. It really was rather comical, but the terrain mandated it.

I don't know how much elevation we gained, but we climbed steeply uphill for about 45 minutes. I think I might have run a total of about 5 of those minutes. The climb seemed to top out at the pass between the 2 volcanoes. Then the dirt road fell off the other side of the mountains steeply, and a screaming descent ensued. Again, it was rather comical to watch runners with all kinds of ailments trying to get down the descent. There were the blistered people trying to land on their feet a delicately as possible. There were the trashed-quads people, trying to descend without bending their knees. There were the blackened-toenail people trying to descend by not pointing their toes downhill. My quads hurt on the downhill, but I was feeling so greatful for yesterday's work-up on them, because they were actually functioning.

During the climb and descent, I could feel the presence of the woman who had beat me (the current 5th place woman) yesterday. She was right there, close behind, the whole time. I knew she was pacing off me. Part of me was inclined to work harder, to try to drop her, but I just reminded myself to run my own race. CP1 was at the bottom of the descent and I stopped to refill my Camelbak there. After yesterday's disaster, I exercised a lot more caution today with reference to fluid and electrolyte intake. The 5th place woman didn't stop, passed me, and then picked up the pace.

The distance between CP1 and CP2 was about 10k, and I kept close tabs on her for most of that distance. I stayed within about 200 meters of her. This was were my judgement lapsed, as I began to run her race. It took me several kilometers to get my wits about me, and return to running my own race. It was intensely difficult to watch her brightly colored shirt get farther away.

This portion of the course was a rolling dirt road that passed through a few small villages. Lots of people were standing in their front yards, watching runners go by. I'm sure that if I lived in rural Costa Rica, I would be watching this strange scene as well. CP2 was located in a good-sized town (with paved roads and everything) called La Fortuna (not to be confused with the La Fortuna from Stage 1). For me, this town and CP were high points, as there was a lot of energy. Most of the race staff was milling about the town, running errands and such. They cheered me strongly as I went by. The town locals saw all the cheering, and they joined into the fun as well. I was feeling a little bit down about the woman disappearing in front of me, but I was rallied by all the energy in this town. At CP2, I refilled my Camelbak and grabbed an absolutely huge chunk of pineapple to eat along the way. Really now, in what other endurance event would an aid station provide locally-grown, fresh pineapple?

From CP2, the route turned onto a miraculously flat but very windy dirt road that made a beeline towards the next set of mountains. The wind lessened the intensity of the heat, but it was clearly getting warm. When the dirt road hit the mountains, it just went straight up, and I began powerwalking. Once I had climbed into the mountains, the road leveled off and began to roll along. I was discovering that, in this type of race, I prefered running on rolling terrain because it called upon constantly changing muscle groups. In rolling terrain, no one particular muscle set gets overworked, and the overall fatigue factor resultingly remains low.

Way up in these mountains, I came across CP3. Again, a fluid refill. There were peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at this CP, and, for some reason, they looked great. I grabbed a handful. I asked the CP workers how far ahead the next female was, and they said 5 minutes. I ran on, wasting not a moment of time. This is where the going got tough. It was hot and there was no wind. The dirt road surface was strangely white in color. It perfectly reflected the sun and I could feel the radiant heat of both the sun from above and the road from below. This is where the bonkfest began for many people, and I began to pass people here and there. I still felt fine, albeit hot. I had mowed face on at least 500 calories of peanut butter and jelly (This was an odd occurrence. It was the only time during the week in which I desired solid food while racing. Most of the time, I turned my nose up to the consumption of anything but gel, fruit, and fluids during the race.), and I felt like my engines were well-fueled. I just ran and ran. Admittedly, though I felt I was running well, it was painful. Things just plain hurt. Most notably, my feet began to hurt. Hot spots were developing into blisters and my left big toenail was becoming painful.

I encountered CP4 just minutes after I ran out of fluid. I had consumed 2 liters of fluid in about 14k. I drank a bunch of water, refilled my Camelbak, grabbed some fruit, and pressed on. This CP told me the next female was, at the most, 15 minutes ahead of me. It seemed that I was losing ground. I ran on, trying to minimize the amount of damage she was doing to my cumulative lead over her.

We had been advised by race officials before the start of the stage that the distance between CP4 and the finish would include some "interesting terrain." At CP4, the route diverged from the dirt road and headed onto a trail in the woods. After about 1k or so, I found myself following the route off-trail down a steep embankment to a river. From there, the route actually went up the river! This river section last for about 20-30 minutes. It involved rock-hopping along the river banks, full-on swimming through pools, and using ropes to scamper across some steep surfaces. It was technical, and I loved it! The more technical the terrain, the more I seem to excel. I guess this comes from years of playing in the backcountry. Plus, it was so nice to get wet during the heat of the day. I was laughing, smiling, moving quickly, passing several people, and just generally having a great time.

The enjoyment factor shot into the sky when I came around the corner and saw her ahead of me. Yes, her. The woman who had passed me at CP1 (the current 5th place woman), was right there. An adrenaline surge of epic proportion landed me right on her heels in about 7 seconds flat. She heard some splashing, turned to look, and triple-took my arrival behind her. I could see that she was as shocked as I was. I could also see that she was moving slowly and carefully through this technical stuff, so I cruised right on by. The river portion of the route ended at a beautiful waterfall that I wish I had time to stop and look at.

The route climbed on a trail out of the river canyon and back onto a dirt road. I knew we had at least 5k more to run, so I set out with a strong but sustainable pace. A few minutes later, she came flying by. I wondered what she was up to. Did she wish to gain a few minutes on me in this last 5k? Did she think the finish line was close? Was she just plain fired up? She barreled on down the road and I continued at my pace. It didn't matter to me if she finished a few minutes ahead of me, I would still have a good hour or so on her in the cumulative race standings. Eventually, I began to reel her back in, but only because she began to slow down. I never quite caught her, and she finished 30 seconds or so in front of me.

I was absolutely elated! I ran my own race and got the job done. It worked so perfectly that I couldn't have planned it any better. I cautiously and humbly began to feel that Stage 4 might have sealed the deal on 3rd place in the overall race. I knew there was a fair bit of racing left, but I also knew that I held 3rd place by a good chunk of time. Interestingly, the 4th place woman was nowhere to be seen today. We later learned that she had a bad stomach day and had to run slowly. Resultingly, the 4th place and 5th place women swapped positions in the overall race rankings.

It was hot and I was tired and I didn't feel much like eating, but, wow, did I eat. I just ate and drank my way through the rest of the day. I began to feel truly disgusted by the sight of food. Normally, eating is a pleasurable activity for me. At this point, it was a job, and I was doing too much of it. However, I just kept on eating because I had to.

I cannot do justice to the description of today's stage without describing a few details of the campsite. The toilet facilities were hilarious, if you didn't actually have to use them. For us users, they were just plain crazy. There were 4 real, white, porcelein toilets encased in rock walls on 3 sides. The 4th side, or door, was a translucent piece of burlap that blew and fluttered openly in the wind. There was no roof either. It was like going to the bathroom in the outdoors, except that you used an indoor bathroom fixture. Weird, just plain weird. Incidentally, the showers were also lined up in this same outdoor, rockwall, burlap formation. Also fun to use while in the presence of dozens and dozens of people. Yessiree. Chalk this one up to a fascinating life experience.

I went to sleep on this night a very happy girl.

Posted by Meghan at February 24, 2007 2:36 PM

Comments

Posted by: Audrey at February 24, 2007 4:31 PM

Posted by: Beth at February 24, 2007 6:37 PM

Posted by: tom riley at February 24, 2007 10:15 PM

Posted by: Jenny at February 25, 2007 12:26 PM

Posted by: corrado giambalvo at February 25, 2007 2:32 PM

Posted by: backofpack at February 25, 2007 3:26 PM

Posted by: brent at February 26, 2007 4:03 PM

Post a comment

Name:

Email Address:

URL:
Remember Me? YesNo

Comments: