The day before the race was very long and a little strange. If you are interested, read about it in the previous post.
At 5:45, i left my hotel room with Slava to go the starting line, which was about 1/2 block away. It was in the city's center, in the cathedral's yard. Escuinapa is a farily large village, but not really a city and it is built around the main cathedral.
By 6am, the supposed starting time, I was getting confused. There were are bout 15 or 20 runners casually gathered, but not "meta" or "salida", no tents, no loud music... everything in the area was still awash in pre-dawn sleepiness. My running friend and I snuck into the back of the cathedral to listen to the mass. I forgot to take off my running cap and he reprimanded me!
Church was boring, though, so we left. At about 6;15, an old bus circa 1950 pulled up and everyone yelled "vamos!" and boarded as if this is what they were expecting! Suddenly I realized everyone else had a day pack with them. I realized that I missed some important details... again.
The bus lurched out of the village and onto country roads. We drove towards the ocean for about a 1/2 hour, past farms and small bay areasm, villages, and even a huge mango orchard. I had no idea where we were going, but no one else seemed surprised. Out of nowhere, I see on either side of the road hundreds of cars parked in the fields and dirt patches. We stopped near this random parking lot, and I exited the bus to find a grandstand and inflatable "salida/meta". I also found the ground covered with trash and debris, about 150 more runners, and many other people drunkenly wandering in bare feet and a variety of beachy and camping attire, drinking tecate light from cans, smoking, and harassing me. This area gave way to hundreds of food tents, beer gardens, stage areas, and taco stands. The morning sea air smelled of stale beer, BBQ chicken, and salt. A maze of tents revealed itself just past the food area, and barely beyong these tents, within about 20 meters, was the ocean. Runners stood in quiet packs at the edge of the tide waiting for the sun to rise completely, fantasizing about their post-run swim. Other people apparently knew what was coming and even brought towels and extra clothes. Sigh.
By this point it was about 7am, and although the sun was up and the runners had all warmed up a bit, it didn't seem like the race was about to start. The inflatable starting line thingy kept deflating (a bad omen?) and no one was very organized. I warmed up with the kenyans and I wanted to find a bathroom. I assumed I would find some gross honeybuckets somewhere, which at least have a door on them and a hole to squat over.
I was directed by a food vendor to a thatch-roof cantina to find a bathroom. It was a dirt-floored stall with a toilet sitting over a hole and a wooden door which wouldn't close. The toilet was "full" from the night before, and after i managed to balance long enough to do my business, i threw my TP (from slava) onto the giant mound of used paper next to the toilet; a huge monument to sanitation.
Everyone stood around for a long time, but finally the salida was standing up straight and the sound system was working and we were off at about 8am. The sun was already very strong, and i'm sure the temp was in the 80s by then.
At 2 km, I noticed something strange ahead: runners were zig zagging and jumping around like there was an obstacle course. There was a herd of cows and bulls charging us in groups of about 10 or 20 bulls! Small packs of runners were slowing and waiting until the bulls were calm, and then darting past. Sadly, one calf was scared and sprinted across the road and into the barbed fence, which slit his little neck.
Traumatized and worried for my own life, I negotiated the situation and continued. I was running with a friend from Culiacan, and we were looking for 4:30/km. We stayed at that tempos for about 7 kms, but it was a bit fast for me and I slowed to about 4:45-5:00 for the next 6kms or so. I was hoping to stay near Blanca, a woman who is always a bit faster than me. I passed her at some point, and then she passed me, and she was ahead by maybe 600 or 700meters.
The sun was sizzling and runners were dropping like flies. Many people were walking, a few dropped out of the race, and 5 actually collapsed. My friend, who had gone ahead of me at 11km, trying to stick to the 4:30 pace, couldn't keep it up and I passed him at 17km. He was feeling sick to his stomach from the breakfast smells in the village we passed through 2 times. At this point I was holding to a 4:45 pace, and Blanca was in my view. At 20k (the race was actually 22km), her husband, who wasn't competing but who is a very good runner, joined her on the course, acting as her pacer and inspiration. Argh!!!! I could see her pulling away, after I had been steadily gaining for several kms. I stayed strong, though, and I didn't let her out of my sight. Sadly, I wasn't able to catch her, but she only beat me by about 20 seconds. My offical time was 1:44:37, which was disappointing at first, because I didn't realize that it was actually a 22km course! I didn't realize it until laer because the km marks were a little messed up, but according to my watch I passed the 21k mark at about 1:39:50, which means I reached my goal! I wanted to break 1:40, finally!
The best reward was the swim in the ocean right after the race, and finding out that my time was good enough for 3rd place in my category, winning $1000 pesos. Hooray!
After being fed at the post race party and getting to climb the stage to receive my award, Slava and I found a bus back to Escuinapa. We took a good bus from Escuinapa to Culiacan, and we were home by about 8pm. Somehow, I managed to make it to Anthony's birthday party after that, and I finally got to relax, celebrate, and have a beer. What a day!
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