Stage 1 (Loja to Alhanma de Granada, 37km)
Posted On Monday, July 12, 2010 at at 8:06 AM by warriorsofwindThe race started at 10am. There was a paint marking on the road or trail to indicate the direction of where the runners should run. In addition, there were 2 road marshals riding on their bikes to check on runners’ condition and route. This year, we also had a research team from Conventry University to study runners’ performance in Ultras and under extreme heat. The research mainly focused on taking our urine sample, weight and readings before the start of the race and conducting interviews after the each stage of the race.
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Stage one began with a long ascended of 12km up to the mountain at 1420m with very steep slope. There were 3 checkpoints spread at an average distance of 10km on the entire 37km. Many runners chose to walk to conserve their energy and to settle themselves on the weather condition. At around 15km, I missed a marking and took a wrong turn. It was kind of scary when you realized there was no trace of life along the route, and you were running out of water under the heat. Luckily, I managed to back track on time and resume the run back on the course. The rest of 15km route, were trail running along the vast open field with lack of shades. There was a doctor at each checkpoint to observe the runner’s condition if they could still continue the race.
At the last 2km, I met up with Lam and Joshua walking to the finishing. Joshua was not feeling well and vomiting, with Lam accompanying him. In the end, we all reached the first stage of camp site at the stadium in a small town.
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