Night Race in Guanajuato

(Originally posted February 2016)

This weekend I traveled to beautiful, historic Guanajuato in the state of León. The owner of my gym, Gaby, organizes groups of runners from Guadalajara to travel to races around the country. Mandy, myself and seventeen other runners arrived Saturday morning, settled into town, ran the night race, and explored the historic city center by night and day.

Honestly, I haven’t been a runner for a long time. My knees have told me that I can walk forever but they have retired from anything more than a slow jog. Mostly I signed up for the race for the opportunity to explore a new city and spend time with our gym friends. I attempted some training but it probably wasn’t sufficient for this challenging of a course.

Early Saturday morning we rounded up in front of the Sprint Gym here in Guadalajara and tumbled into the van “el sprinter” with our new team shirts, bag lunch and pirated movies for the road. We arrived in Guanajuato by noon, checked into the hotel near the central plaza and picked up our race packets. We ate platefuls of chilaquiles, had a cold beer on the patio, all in preparation for the evening race.

All day we saw the pre-race bustling of closing streets, posting signs and hundreds of wandering racers in their new green shirts, courtesy of the sponsors. I didn’t have many of pre race jitters as I had no expectation of what was in store and I knew that I would at least have the stamina to finish the course walking. The line up in the chute was filled with energy, taking pictures with our team, everyone turning on their headlamps.

The course was one of the most physically challenging that I have ever experienced and is accurately named “Buff Non Flat Urban Race” #flat is boring. Designed to wind through the narrow alleyways of Guanajuato, we climbed hundreds of stairs and carefully maneuvered down dark, treacherous pathways. My Fitbit measured that we climbed over two hundred flights of stairs over the ten kilometers. Twice we took in a twinkling nighttime overlook of the city with the churches, government buildings and houses lit up. We ran through a tunnel under the city and through busy plazas. My eyes didn’t know where to look to take it all in: notice the view around me or keep my eyes focused on the uneven cobblestones in front of me.

One of the greatest treats of running through the city at night was the flood of support from spectators. A race in the city, especially a busy, tourist center, means the streets are lined with supporters, even those that had no idea there would be a race and just happened to dining near the course or taking a romantic strolls through the plazas. Families sat on their doorsteps with pajama-clad niños cheering, swinging noisemakers and banging with bottles. Police officers and scouts marked each turn, as it would be easy to make a wrong turn in the narrow alleys of the maze. There were several water and Gatorade pit stops on the course and kind families offered additional cups of water at the tops of the grueling hills. After ten kilometers of up and down, and up and down some more, I emerged from the tunnel and into the home stretch. Course complete! The sideline cheering and support from my team made this extreme course a fun, although still painful, experience.

Everyone stopped back at the hotel to rinse off and change clothes. With legs feeling like jelly after so many inclines, we wandered the streets again looking for late-night dinner. We devoured plates of pasta and listened to mariachi music. Next we explored the bars and after bars into the early morning hours.

I started my Sunday morning with a coffee on the steps of the Teatro Juarez. I observed the pedestrians and could easily tell who had done the race the night before. My fellow racers were also walking slow and pulling their aching legs muscles up and down the stairs. Sluggishly our team toured around the city, visiting the dam, the scenic overlook (that we climbed twice last night) and the mummies (because a trip to Guanajuato is not complete with a visit to the mummies). We retraced parts of our challenge from last night and enjoyed the new views in the daylight. We returned late Sunday night after a great adventure with a fun, active, hilarious team!