The number of athletes in La Lima de Cartago was impressive at 6:30 a.m. More than 5,000 people were ready to start the 35th edition of the Clásica La Candelaria: 10.3 kilometers flying to Paraíso.
The thermometer read 15.2 degrees Celsius, perhaps too cold for some but in theory it's the perfect temperature for running. The start was chaos: a giant mass of sneakers and hearts completely blocked both lanes of the highway toward Cartago. It was 6:32 a.m. when the starting gun went off. After just one kilometer, only three athletes had broken away from the pack: Mexican Aldo Vega, triathlete Leonardo Chacón, and Gustavo Mora.
About 30 meters back came a large group that included Alejandro Calderón, Roy Vargas, Hibert Mora, and two Hungarian triathletes who are in Costa Rica training with Leo Chacón. But none of them could ever get close to the three leaders and instead fell further behind as the kilometers went by.
At the front, the battle was fierce to stay with the Mexican, who was the clear favorite to win. The effort of Leo Chacón and Gustavo Mora added excitement to the race and fans cheered and shouted from the side of the street. At kilometer three, Mora started to fall back. By kilometer five, Leo was still glued to the Mexican and even had the audacity to make a move and gain 10 meters on him. It was a moment to be proud and tell Vega that if he wanted the win, he was going to have to work for it. And that's what happened. At that moment, Leo and Vega were running at an incredible pace of 2:50 minutes per kilometer taking advantage of the downhill—crazy! But soon came the hill at kilometer seven...
Attacking on uphills is one of Vega's specialties, as he himself acknowledges, and today he took advantage of the only significant hill on the route to drop Leo from the fight. The Mexican and Leo were shoulder to shoulder until that decisive moment when the hill began. Over the 900 meters of climbing, the Mexican gained almost 100 meters on Leo, who slowed his pace in the face of Vega's powerful attack.
But there was nothing but applause and support for Leo: people recognized his effort all the way to the end. Vega himself acknowledged his effort and had only praise for Leo. As he crossed the finish line in first place, he waited for the Costa Rican to shake his hand. Vega's final time was 31:31 (3:04/km); Leo's was 31:56 (3:06/km). Relatively close behind came Gustavo Mora with 32:16 (3:08/km) and then the rest of the pack.
In the women's race, Jenny Méndez left no room for surprises, despite her time of 39:10 being slow for her standards (she recently ran the Houston Marathon and clocked 10k in 37:16). Georgina Delgado was second in 39:56 and Cristina Marín third in 39:59.
Behind them, the massive crowd of runners moved two and sometimes even three lanes wide on the road toward Paraíso. The weather was good throughout, although the wind blew against them and with great force in some sections. There was no rain, just a barely perceptible drizzle at some point but nothing significant. The cars, protagonists and villains in other editions for taking over the runners' space, were this time confined to a single lane to give total priority to the runners. The traffic jams were tremendous but the runners had the space they deserved to run.
Congratulations to Leo, the best Costa Rican today, and to everyone who woke up early and ran another edition of La Candelaria, which continues to be without a doubt one of Costa Rica's favorite races.
You can see the complete results HERE.
