Tomorrow the second edition of the Senderos Colón cross-country race will take place, which is part of the prestigious Copa de Verano 10/20/30 organized by Costa Rica Ecogreen.
The setting is great: it will be inside the private park Senderos de Colón, which is a Bike Park but also ideal for running. It has good parking next to the finish line, safe trails, and views that promise to make it all worthwhile.
Last year there was a downpour an hour before the race that helped compact the trails and cool things down, but don't expect miracles tomorrow. At 3 p.m. it will still be hot in the Ciudad Colón area, so arriving well hydrated will be key to a good race.
The course is 98% on trails and 2% on gravel road—those 100 meters right after the start and before reaching the finish line. Federico Escalante, the race organizer, assures that the toughest section is the first two kilometers. "The first part is the hardest because there's a very steep climb, maybe the first two kilometers," he explains.
"The trails are very well designed for both running and biking, you're constantly going up and down, and there are lots of curves too," he continues his description. He assures that, given the season, the trails are very dry and there will probably be a lot of dust, but it's all part of the adventure of entering the world of cross-country running.
As you can see in the graph, the race constantly alternates between climbs and descents. Although some of them look intimidating on the elevation profile, Federico assures that it's a matter of how the graph looks, because in reality all the sections are runnable and not as steep as the graph suggests.
There will be two aid stations on the course plus one at the finish. They'll be at kilometers 3.5 and 7, and at each one there will be Gatorade, water, watermelon, strawberries, Munchies (chips), and potatoes for those running 30k and cookies, so plan to spend a good while at each station.
In total about 150 athletes will run the 10k, 68 will run the 20k, and just over thirty will do three laps of the circuit to complete the 30k. Remember that if you're going to run 20k or 30k you need to bring a headlamp. Good luck to everyone running tomorrow at Senderos Colón.
