0-5 Km pavement & concrete. Steep climb.

We ran for less than 300 meters until the climb began. The first Km was really hard; it must have taken us about 15 minutes. While we briskly walked uphill, we passed a few competitors attempting to run.

As soon as it got a bit less steep, but still uphill, we began to alternate sets of running for a minute and then walking for another minute to allow the HR to drop. This seemed like a very effective technique because we were covering a lot of ground.

5-7.5 Km Dirt. Downhill.
We finally reached the dirt in about 42 minutes. This was nearly 10 minutes faster than I had expected. I began to worry that we had pushed too hard on the climb. Anyways, here we were on the dirt finally, so we ran downhill at a good pace. We had the film crew following us for the entire descent. Great! They chose two of the biggest behinds in the whole race to film.

7.5-21.5 Km Fire road. Dirt.
We reached the dam and continued toward La Rasante, about 14Km of winding but mainly flat dirt road. Our 10k split was 1:10. About 1:30 into the race, we started to take 10-20 sec. walking breaks every ten minutes to ensure that we ate and hydrated properly. I didn't feel this affected our pace. In fact, this strategy would pay dividends later. We picked off about 4 runners on the way but no teams in this section. This being a training race, I really wanted us to perform well in this entirely runnable section.

21.5-26.5 Km Steep downhill on pavement and concrete.
We began the knee-breaking descent, and all I could think about was not rolling an ankle (we both have notoriously bad ankles) and my shin splints. We picked off two runners on this section. Though we moved consistently, we could have pushed harder, but the risk of injury was way too big.

26.5-finish Steep climb.
Right before the climb, there was an aid station offering water and Red Bull. We took both and headed uphill. Mayde was very strong here. So strong that I was worried we were going too hard. This climb would end up taking us 31 minutes; I had estimated about 35. Nearly halfway into this section was our friend Francis. True to his word, he was there right before the toughest part with an ice-cold beer. I took a couple of sips, but Mayde downed the whole thing!

We continued to push hard but saw no teams in front of us or close behind. Once we got to the little flat stretch where the finish line was located, I got a mild calf cramp, shook it off and then got another one on the other calf. Too funny. We then crossed the finish...about 45 minutes faster than our target time!

We were happy with our performance and the fact that after the first kilometer we were never passed by either individual racers or teams. Sadly, we didn't catch any other co-ed pairs.

Nothing much. I was coming off several weeks of hard training and very little rest. Mayde is just beginning to ramp up her training. Prior to starting, we felt a bit unprepared but welcomed the challenge. I'm not really sure we could have done THAT much better if properly trained and tapered. It was a good day out there.

I'm going to say "nothing" here. We met our time goal and ran a smart race.

Nothing beats teaming up with my girl!


I'd definitely do it again. I wish there was a little bit less pavement though.