I had just moved back to Venezuela in October when I started trail running with Gian. I believe I have gotten to know the US running and adventure scene quite well, but when it comes to Venezuela, little to none. Good thing my buddy Gian has been running and camping around the country forever and knows the top races and adventures so I can safe on the trail and error.
In one of our long runs in El Avila (the mountain which surrounds Caracas) he mentioned the MIFAFI ULTRA 45K race, and I was immediately hooked on it. Once I got home I jumped in that registration process and sent him the screenshoot of my registration.
It was a little intimidating to be running 45K at an ave of 4200 meters above sea level. The distance did not really meant much, it was the altitude which really had me doubting. Specially doing all of our training at an average altitude of 1200 – 2000 meters above sea level. At the end, it really didn’t matter because in mind I just wanted to finish the race and have a good time in the mountains.
Based on that time I climbed Rainier and Baker back to back, I knew how little air is that high up, so it would be really interesting trying to run at that altitude.
The day got closer and our training load got higher. Not as high as it should have been, but still I was logging 60k a week, which for me it is quite a lot. I have never ran more than 25k for any of the marathons I have ran. In fact, this 60k per week where my highest running weeks ever. It started feeling quite good and motivating when running 20k felt like running 10k from before. Again, nothing crazy, no crazy numbers, but for me it’s the highest they’ve been.
Race week was here, and we were debating whether to go or not because of the gasoline situation at home. By the Andes mountains, a bridge had collapse and gasoline was not getting to the surrounding areas as much, so filling up your tank wasn’t as easy as it was supposed to. Gian found 5 -20 gallon tanks, we filled them up and headed to Mucuchies (a town 20 minutes away from where the race was starting). It took us around 10 hours – since I drive like an old lady. We were lucky enough to find a gas station with gas and made a short line of like 30 mins to filled up, so we had no worries related to gasoline and making it to and back from the race to Caracas with this pit stop.
We stayed at “El Carillon” posada. It feels like an old colonial house with about 20 rooms to stay in. It is family owned and run, and has a small bar/restaurant which was super convenient for us. Whenever we felt tired or lazy, we just stayed in and walked a couple hundred meters and there we were. It is also pet friendly, but Tito did not come with us this time unfortunately because of lack of space in the pick up (but I am making some modifications to the car, so this won’t happen again). You can pay an extra $6 a day for home made breakfast at the owners house – and trust me, it is well worth the money. Couldn’t have asked for a better stay honestly. – Last time I had been to Mucuchies had been a couple months earlier for work and we had stayed at “Rafael y Cristobal Posada”. It is a high end beautiful place, but in my opinion it is to stay here only if you are coming in a plan like with family or significant other, but if your plan is to adventure, definitely not the place, it is just too high end. Although we did end up in Rafael and Cristobals restaurant for dinner after the race.
On the first day we decided to take our e-bikes to do a recon ride. Gian had done this race before and had told me race signs were very poor and that a bunch of people (including him had gotten lost and were complaining a lot about organization). It was a very useful ride and I got to checkout several key points where the race took important turns, so I was familiarized on race day (made a huge impact on race day) – This place is truly something else. You fell you are riding your bike in a different planet. We started from “El Refugio de Mifafi” where the race starts at apron 3600 meters. From here you have to share the road for around 5k until you get to the national park to where the Condor cage is. You are not allowed to ride your bike in the paramo in Merida, but since Gian knew a lot of guides in the area the did let us through with our bikes. I did not even stop to see at the Condor, since it was caged and it really bothers me to see a bird in a cage….. But let’s not get into this subject. Let me just make this short, it is a tough, but very beautiful climb.
On the next day we decided to take it to higher elevations and climbed a little peaked we are not familiar with its name. we started running at 4200mts above sea level and stayed most of the time at around that altitude. It was a beautiful day and decided to keep it short at 10k. Beautiful views and technicals trails but well worth it and served to feel like what was going to feel like running at that altitude in the upcoming days. Here are a few pictures of our run that day.
The day before the race arrived and we decided not to train at all. We were very tired from the altitude and the little training we had been doing. I wanted to go and check out the local natural hot springs in the area, but a close friend told me it wasn’t recommended because of how relaxed my body was going to get, so I also passed on that. I decided to meet up with some local growers (vegetables) we work with, and visited some farms and called it a day.
Race Day:
We woke up at around 3am – race was staring at 6am. Had our usual early breakfast and mandatory bathroom stops. Coffee was needed at that time as well, and we had gotten a bunch the night before and decided to keep it near the heater in one of those thermal bottles and hoped it didnt go cold… and it didnt!! Temperature was around -3 Celsius, but we knew from our mountaineering experience that once you started moving your body, with a couple layers in top we would actually get warm pretty quickly.
My race tactics were none…. I just wanted to enjoy my run in the mountains that day and have NO pressure at all. I was in good shape, but by no means I felt strong enough to RACE, so I just went to the back of the pack and started passing people at a really conservative pace. I expected to be alone most of the race, since I had anticipated that I would be the last of the the fit and trained people…. When I got to the first checkpoint at 15km, they told me I was in 7th place, which really called my attention, but I said to myself: I am having fun, let people pass you, do not rush and enjoy your race. So after this point I did not see one soul in front of me, but did see a couple people running behind me, some 10 mins behind. They kinda put some pressure on me, until I reminded myself that I wasn’t racing… Second checkpoint arrived and they told me I was in second place……. that’s when I stoped enjoying the race and started actually running. I figured the remaining 5 guys between me and 1st place had gotten lost.
From this point on, fun #3 started happening. It was my race to loose, so I stopped looking at my soundings and started just looking at the ground. I remained around 10kms in 2nd place until km 35 or so, when a local (I am guessing because of the pace) and the overall woman winner ran past me. I knew based on their pace It was useless to try and hang with them, so I just kept running at my pace. I knew I was still on podium on 3rd place, so again I said to myself, keep running and don’t loose that spot. It wasn’t until the last decent when I saw that 4th place behind me. I had no more legs, but I had a good gap between us, I just had to keep it like that and try to stay out of the other guy radar… So I kept running kinda hiding my way through the last couple Kms. I believe the difference between 3rd and 4th was only around 2 mins, so it was a close call.
Keep in mind Gian finished 1st overall, and had a lead on me of 44 mins. I had to go back to last year to compare our times with the last versions of the race and we would’ve gotten Gian = 7th overall and myself 17th overall of around 300 people. Apparently this year the elite runners didn’t show up because of how shitty the race was organized last couple of editions. I do agree with them in that the race can be organized WAYYYY better, but still, it is such a beautiful race, that I think Ill be back next year. Maybe even run the 100kms, who knows.
The organizer did not present overall winners, only age group winners, that’s why I’m on second in that picture. Not only he did not recognized overall winners, but he ran out of price shirts have way through the awards.
In conclusion it is a very poor organize event, but to his favor I don’t think enough people show up to this event in order for him to have enough funds so he can actually be critique. The thing is that if that was the case, where enough people show up and pay higher prices it is obvious that the organizer does not have the experience to put on a high class event – Having had the experience of running in many different places around the world, I believe this race could be a really special one in the running scene, but a different organizer needs to step up and put it in the running scene – oh and by the way, the GPS actually ended up counting 41kms… thanks to that I stayed in the podium, because god knows I did not had legs to keep pushing pace for much longer.
MiBiCi Adventures 