Wow, where to start! It took me several days since the race to even begin this report, and I am still not sure exactly how to blog all of the events surrounding the event without writing the equivalent of a novel.
Ultramaraton Fuego y Agua 2008 is an experience I will never forget, for a first time Race Director, I would say the whole thing was fairly suicidal. The logistics were absolutely insane, the money was just not there, and getting anything done on schedule is an impossibility on Isla de Ometepe, or Nicaragua for that matter. Yet somehow, I would not trade this experience for anything and am looking forward to Fuego y Agua 2009, 2010, 2011 and more….
Many things happened last minute, some worth laughing about, some worth bawling about. All in all it was a successfull event where everyone left with a sense of accomplishment.
Course control and logistics were a severe issue this year, I had to take out long sections of beach due to flooding on the lake.
Race day came fast and I woke with only around 45 minutes of sleep, It was already a warm morning and I was glad the runners were starting at 4 a.m., this gave them an opportunity to beat the heat before their long ascent up Volcan Maderas. I sent out two volunteers on motorcycle to hang glowsticks for the first part of the course and the runners began to gather on the start line. The race began at Hostel IBESA in the town of Moyogalpa on the Concepcion side of the island. The island is separated by two sides, Concepcion and Maderas.
There were 22 runners, both 50k and 100k. The race felt very small yet there was a lot of tension and excitement on the start line. Along with several runners from the US, including a handful from Texas, we had runners from Scotland, Colombia, Italy and Nicaragua. One of the Nica runners was from the island, this would be his first ascent up Volcan Maderas and his first ultramathon.
I counted down and the runners were off into the darkness. Carlos from IBESA rode ahead of them on his motorcycle honking his horn incessantly. Abigail and the volunteers left for the first aid station and all of a sudden the start line was very quiet. This is one of the interesting parts of being a race director as opposed to being a runner or volunteer. There were quiet points in the race where I just had to wait at the start line to answer calls and make decisions. What I really wanted to do the entire time was to be out running or working the course and aid stations.
The aid station setups seemed to be going well, Abigail had everything under control, we had not heard from Ebelio and Josh, but hoped they would make it up to the Maderas crater to setup before the runners arrived up there. Danilo (Carlos’ other brother) left for the Volcan Concepcion summit with a mule loaded with supplies. His aid station was the last one on the 100k course and he had plenty of time to get up there to set up. Cell phones were not fully reliable on the island but that was our only method of communication.
The Aid Stations were as follows, IBESA Start – Urbaite – El Porvenir – Maderas Crater – Hacienda Merida (50k finish) – Altagracia – La Flor – IBESA Finish
The kid’s 5k and 10k were starting at 9:00 a.m. so Paula and I took advantage of the quiet time to catnap on the hammock. The children began arriving at 8:00 and we started putting wristbands and numbers on them. Carlos also arranged to have a DJ and all of a sudden the place got very loud. It was 8:30 in the morning and the place was blasting techno music like a Euro nightclub. Once the kids got their numbers, we sent them down to the IBESA office to get fitted for a pair of shoes. We had over 125 pairs of used running shoes donated by runners and a group out of Boulder, CO. Almost all of the children running the race were able to get a pair of shoes. 9:00 rolled around, but we were told not to start the race because there was one more village sending kids out and they had not arrived. By this time the place had become a madhouse. We had an aid station setup with food and drinks, but the kids wanted to ravage it before the run.
In the midst of the madness Abigail pulled up to pick up more supplies and volunteers but was not able to get out because of the massive crowd blocking the truck. Kids were climbing into the back of the truck and eating aid station food, the DJ continued to blast techno, and I slammed Nescafes like they were going out of style.
We got a frantic call from Hacienda Merida Aid Station (50k split and downside of Volcan Maderas climb) that the ultra runners were coming through much faster than expected. We also heard that the first 8 runners had passed Ebelio and Josh on the way to the Maderas Crater and had missed aid. This meand they would go without aid for 20 kilometers on the hardest section of the course. We already had runners headed to the next aid station, Altagracia, and it had not been set up yet, so we did everything we could to get Abigail and the aid station truck out and on the way to Altagracia. She caught up to the lead runner, Richard Cunningham of Scotland, and gave him aid on the side of the road before he reached Altagracia. He’d missed aid at the Volcan Maderas and Hacienda Merida Aid Stations and had run about 28 miles with no aid. Abigail set up the Altagracia Aid Station, dropped off her volunteers and headed over to set up the Station at La Flor (at the base of the second volcano climb, Volcan Concepcion).
In the meantime, the kids from the village that were supposed to show up never came and we began the 5k and 10k kids races. The course had been set up to wind through the town of Moyogalpa with a small out and back on the main highway. Kids finished in record times and we began to suspect there might be some cheating involved. Sure enough, Paula and I were swamped by kids each claiming that the other cheated and jumped on a bicycle or motorcycle. I listened to their stories as best as possible, but was forced to decide based only on the information I could gather from asking questions. The 10k event had two top prizes, 1st Female and 1st Male finisher, the 5k had 1st Overall finisher. The three top prizes were brand new mountain bikes purchased there on the island. Even with all of the fuss and discussion, the children seemed very happy with the event, we fed them and announced the Awards Ceremony for the next afternoon.
At this point we began to receive calls that the runners were getting lost on the Concepcion side of the course between kilometers 60-80. We also got notice that the lead runner, apparently still Richard Cunningham, was climbing Concepcion and was only about 20k from the finish line. I did not expect any runners to finish the course at this speed. Either I had overestimated the difficulty of the course, or I had severely undersestimated the ability of the runners. The weather was much cooler than is normal for this time of year, it was in the mid 80s instead of mid 90s.
I tried to get in touch with Carlos and other course control volunteers, but was not able to get in touch with them. Abigail also called me and let me know she was not able to find the La Flor aid station location. Apparently she had been driving on non-passable roads with the truck and was lost. We were frantic to get the aid station set up before another runner came by (poor Richie Cunningham was basically running on nothing at this point and still killing the course).
Although it was against all of the race director advice I had received, Paula and I made a last minute decision to go fix this section of course where all of the runners were getting lost. We also thought we could find Abigail to guide her on to La Flor.
We jumped on the motorcycle and rode the rough bumpy dirt roads until we reached La Flor. We saw Abigail’s aid truck pulled up at the Volcan Concepcion trailhead. She told us she was going to set up Aid here since she could not find the proper aid station location. At this point Amy Sproston, (2nd place at this time) an ultrarunner from Washington DC came running up on the main dirt road, (not on the course). She told us she had tried to take the course but had not found flagging and was lost for a good while. I told her to continue the course up the volcano and not to worry about her missing the course turns. At this point she had probably put more miles on by being lost than if she had been on the small section of course she missed. She seemed hesitant, but got aid and headed up Volcan Concepcion.
Paula and I continued on the course to flag the missing sections. We saw children in the villages wearing flagging on their heads as headbands, we also saw flagging on the ground and knew what was happening. The locals were tearing down the flagging all over the course. We drove the course and flagged it as fast as we could. Once we were back on the main road we several runners and told them to watch for the tricky intersections. (Apparently most of them never saw the flagging we hung, it was torn down minutes after we put it up).
We drove out to Altagracia and got a call that Richie Cunningham was still winning and would be at the finish line within 45 minutes. We hauled out and made good time to Altagracia, arriving in IBESA only 10 minutes before he did. He finished in 1st place at 3:45 pm, in only 11 hours and 45 minutes! This blew my predictions out of the water.
It was around this time (4:30pm or so) that we got a call that there was one runner unaccounted for. Jacqueline Castro of Colombia had not been seen since 11:45 in Hacienda Merida and should have arrived at the Altagracia Aid Station hours ago. Carlos was out delivering food to the La Flor Aid Station, all of the other volunteers were working aid stations or hanging glowsticks on Volcan Concepcion. By this time Arturo Rodriguez of Colombia had come in 2nd place and was extremely concerned about his wife Jacqueline. We reported the incident to the Captain of police thinking he would send out a search party, but he told me to head out for a preliminary search on the roads near Merida. If I could not find her, he said he would call the military to begin an official search and rescue. As a race director, I do not think I could have felt more worried and freaked out than I did at that moment. Runners were getting lost, and now we even had someone missing, even possibly injured.
On top of all of that, I had ordered 25 fresh pizzas from Finca Zopilote (a small Italian permaculture farm) for the runners and. Finca Zopilote was located on the other side of the island, near Merida, and there was no one at the start/finish to go pick them up. I handed the timing spreadsheet to Yalkiria (Carlos wife) and headed out with Paula one more time to search for Jacqueline and to pick up the pizzas.
We searched for Jacqueline for awhile but did not see her. I called Carlos and reported that we were not able to find her, but the signal was spotty and I kept dropping the call. We quickly ran up to Finca Zopilote to get the pizzas and tried to head back toward some better cell service. The pizzas were in a box and strapped onto the back of the motorycle with rope. The roads we were riding in the dark were extremely rough and my exhaustion began to take a hold of me. I am experienced on a motorcycle, so I am not sure what happened, but I laid the bike over twice. The second time it landed on my ankle and the accelerator got stuck on a rock. The back wheel was spinning and the bike seemed like it was about to wind out, but my ankle was pinned and I could not get out. Paula was able to get loose and helped me raise the bike up off of my ankle. I could tell my ankle was pretty hurt, but there was nothing to do at that point but continue searching for Jacqueline and to head back to the start/finish. We rode very slowly and carefully back to the main road where we could get clear cell reception. I got a call from Carlos that they had found Jacqueline, she had taken a bus back hours ago and had been sleeping in her room after showering. I was also told six runners were lost and that I needed to get back to the start/finish ASAP. Needless to say, we hightailed it back to Moyogalpa once again. The bugs were so bad, Paula had to half cover my eyes to keep them from getting into my eyes as I drove. We had a near encounter with a horse, a cow and a harrassing policeman, but we finally made it back to IBESA. Once back at IBESA we found everyone had finished and there were no lost runners, just some very hungry tired people. Paula and I did not even bother to explain our experience on the motorcycle and handed the still intact and warm pizzas out. Some of the runners were so hungry they wolfed one pizza down and tucked another under their arm on the way to bed.
I heard lots of things from the runners, advice, criticism and even praise and awe for the course. After about an hour or so, most of the runners headed off to bed and Paula and I did the same.
Overall the race was a wonderful success. Thanks to all of the volunteers who worked extremely hard to make this work. To mention a few: Abigail worked nonstop and overcame some very ridiculous and hilarious circumstances to make sure there were Aid Stations. Carlos and his wife Yalkiria looked like they had not slept in a week, poor Yalkiria was popping some unknown energy pills the entire time. Josh Barnwell and Ebelio climbed Volcan Maderas with only two hours of sleep hauling over 100lbs of food up the insane trail into the crater. Danilo spent 16 hours on Volcan Concepcion managing an Aid Station alone then hauled everything down on his back. My wonderful girlfriend, Paula, was extremely helpful in keeping everything organized (including my brain) and in managing the children during the kid’s race. I did not know how badly her leg was hurt during the motorcycle accident until after the race, she kept it from me because she did not want me to worry about it.
Thank you to:
-Hammer Nutrition for providing Heed, Hammer Gel and Endurolytes for the event.
-Moeben for providing sleeves for the event
-Mackinaw’s Grill and Bar (Kevin Quinn), for their generous contribution
-Traverse Trail Running, Brad Quinn, Thomas Quinn and family, for their incredible support of the entire event
-Nomadic Design Studio, Robert Heynen, for donating his time to build the Fuego y Agua website
-Michael Sandrock, author of “Running with the Legends,” for sending 100 pairs of running shoes for the children of Ometepe.
-Team Traverse members, for supporting the race with their presence and participation.
-All other contributors and supporters of this event, all of those who could not make it but wished they could.
The proceeds from the 2008 event went to Natural Doctors International (NDI). They plan using the funds to build a childrens park in front of the free clinic in the village of Los Angeles, Isla de Ometepe.
