ARTICLE: The passionate Oscar Galindez
PICTURES: A day with Oscar Galindez

Matthew Forichon from Lyon is an illustrator and runner himself.

His blog “des bosses et des bulles” (Bumps and bubbles) is one of my favorite’s around. His comic styles are incredible, refreshing and very entertaining.

Make sure you check by his blog. Absolutely worth it!

I dashed into the megalopolis termed “São Paulo” just a few days before the race. Spend a great time with my buddy Guillaume and enjoyed one of the most active towns I have ever visited. Nevertheless a great place. Way better than the image.

We reached the race venue Serra da Bocaina, midway between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, on Friday. Certain communication disputes had it that we located the house of a friend just after midnight. After a couple of hours sleep it was game time.

After the Cruce de los Andes earlier this year this was my second team and stage race. The course profile looked exciting, racing with Guillaume and spending time with all the other Brazilians I met during the Cruce sounded cool.

The first day began with the main ascending part on the initial 10k. Unnecessary to say we got lost pretty early in the race. It wasn’t too cruel but until we reached back on the correct path the trail started to get jam-packed. We headed on and overtook nicely until we moved to the first decent which was one of the loveliest trail footing my Brooks ever heartened.

We trailed along, chatted, laughed and reached the 20k point. I was not aware that the last 20k was an out-and-back passage. Due to the hotness and possibly over-pacing earlier on, we lost some places in the second half.

Sundown saw huge barbeque with the crew and good chats. That is one thing I love at this races. It seems more as a social event then an actual race.

After a rough nighttime in a tent that was remarkably short for the two of us I woke up feeling pretty saturated. I forgot my mattress in São Paulo (…Rookie mistake). Sleeping on the floor is not the most relaxing thing.

The second day began as spectacular as the first. Beautiful running with some serious hiking grade in the first part of the course. At the 20k checkpoint I was pretty roasted and tried to refill as good as possible. After some kilometers of severe climbing the roughest part of the race was on the cards. A sweet 15k downhill in the lunchtime sun.

Useless to say this was a Suffer fest for “Fralemao”. We wrestled through and reached the finish in fifth place for the day. Total we ended in 7th place, which is nice, but 28 seconds variance to the 6th place is not much.

An amazing weekend found it’s end with a beautiful sundown drive back to São Paulo.

Spanish Version
Portugues Version

Pictures
Course Profile

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Thanks!

Deep in the secretive Amazonas, where the boarders of Brazil, Peru and Colombia collide is a place called Leticia. Just about on Colombian territory one can effortlessly hop from one country to the other.

On my way to Brazil I stopped in Leticia for a day to experience the distinctive settings.

Click on the image above to view some pictures I took.

At the Banff Film Festival in Bogota the other week I bumped into Oswaldo who I met at the TNF race in La Calera. After raving about the exciting flicks he told me about a race close to Bogota the next weekend.

Pointless to say I decided to join Oswaldo and his friends. After some explorations round Bogota I ended up in the charming colonial town of Villa del Leyva (2,144 m). I spend the days prior to the race running the countless mountains around the place and drinking heaps of good coffee in town.

Sunday, race day, started off early as always and a good crowd of around 600 people lined up. When the organizer stepped on the microphone to announce something I got reminded that I’m still in South America. As there was a massive fire in the mountains the police, the fire-brigade and several other officials couldn’t help the race organizers. And as always a solution was found pretty fast. The half-marathon couldn’t use the initial route that would have required to close off some vital crossroads. The organization decided to run all races (6k, 10k and the half) out of competition on the same loop.

I was signed up for the half-marathon but then decided to run the 10k instead. The route was impressive and pretty harsh. I didn’t check the course profile and was amazed by the climbing that waited for me. The course was 50% on road and the other half on some rocky back-roads. Great running.

I didn’t wear a watch. Once I crossed the finish line I waited for the guy behind me. His Garmin GPS thingy told him that he just dipped under 38 minutes on an exact 10k course. So I guess I ran pretty solid 37 minutes time. Pretty happy with that considering the height, the tough course and windy conditions. I stopped at the finish, had a chat and a drink. Once Cesar passed the finish-line to go out for his 2nd loop I decided to join him for his half-marathon. The pacing payed off as he ran the second half significantly faster.

Even if you fall on your face, you’re still moving forward.
Victor Kiam

It took me a bit longer to create this post. Cause for that was that I was not able to write. With a taped-up left ring-finger it’s not that easygoing to use a keyboard. At around 45k into Sundays TNF 50k in Colombia I fell. Pretty bad crash on a downhill. A visit to the hospital in Bogota the next day brought the good news that no finger is destroyed. Only a distress makes the finger look pretty evil and has me to sport some kind of fixation. Not too bad.

The race itself went fine. Despite having huge problems with the altitude as I just arrived a day prior in Bogota (2,625 m) I finished solid and felt reasonably okay during the race. At this stage I shouldn’t have any problems with the elevation but I’m still struggling. I have been to lot of high-up places around the world and I never fully adapt. A lot is down to talent I guess. I continue to ignore it as well as I can.

This time the course was perfectly marked and a striking but hard-hitting route. I had all Altitude sickness symptoms’ you can imagine. A horrible headache, sleep problems and overall weakness factored up on the exciting course throughout the La Calera (Route was hovering between 2.746 m and 3.120 m), just 45 minutes up the mountain from Colombia’s capital Bogota.

I started off defensively and could grind my way further up the longer the race went. I had to puke twice and beside the usual fatigue I had to fight the headache that did not stop. The course made up for all that pain. Very diverse and exciting terrain, I loved it. Beautiful single trails combined with steep uphill’s as well as some pretty nice runnable sections make this race a true adventure and the 50 kilometers felt very short.

Another great day in the mountains was finished up with numerous friendly people on the streets of La Calera. Thanks again for the welcoming and friendly atmosphere Colombia!

Gear used:
Shoes: Brooks PureGrit
Shirt: Brooks ID Elite Singlet
Short: Brooks Speed Short
Armwarmers: Cutted 1 EUR Kneesocks
Handheld: Ultraspire Isometric Pocket / Ultraspire Isometric Race

Some Trail Pictures

SPANISH VERSION
PORTUGES VERSION

My 80 Liter moveable household and myself headed on for La Mojarra, a paradise for rock climbing and photography!