Buscando Aventuras: Arica Trail Run

Another race? Yep. But this time it was not along the flat beach in Iquique...we went out of town to participate. This was a trail race in the hills of Arica, a town about 4-5 hours north of Iquique, very close to the border with Peru. The types of trails I'm used to running on in the US are cake compared to what was waiting for me in Arica...and I never could have imagined what I would be running. I expected some gradual inclines and declines, maybe a steep one at the beginning and the end to get up to the top of the hill and run around that before coming down to finish. Man was I wrong. It was impossible to even walk up some of the hills, let alone run, and if you leaned back a little bit, you would tumble down the whole thing. There were times when I had to crawl up the hill and not look up or down because I would have freaked out and fallen backwards down it. The race was a 10k and took me at least twice as long to finish as it would have on flat ground. I bet I only ran half of it. And on top of all of the insane inclines, we were running in the desert, so it was super hot, windy and DRY. The water stops were out of water when I got there, so I just had to suck it up and keep going. It ended up being a competition of strength more than running or speed, and I ended up winning again (not hard to do when there's only about 6 women in the race). I felt pretty good afterwards during our team asado, but the next week was torture as I tried to walk up and down all the stairs at school. But it was an amazing experience and I would do it again in a heartbeat. The views on the top were spectacular, with the fresh wind air blowing in your face...you were on top of the world. Maybe next time I do the 23k? Oh man what am I saying? Chile's making me CRAZY.

The starting line. See that little white spot on the hill in the background? That's what we had to run up at the beginning...