Wow. That was hot. I expected it to be tough but that was just beyond it. 
The race started at 4 o’clock and the theremometer was reading 36 degrees. Pretty warm i guess. I did the usual warm-up routine and tried to stay in the cooling shadows of the side streets as long as possible before entering my start coral. 
The hype around that 8K race was massive. It was the last big race of the year and several thousand people lined up to run a pancake-flat downtown course. It all started at the massive and famous Avenida 9 de Julio. You can’t have a race more downtown in the “Microcentro” than that.

As the route was running past all major tourist signs around downtown Buenos Aires i failed to come close to my PB on that distance. Well, i compare it with my 5 Mile PB ran in Raheny at the start of 2011. I suffered a lot during this race and it was another sign that i seem to not be able to run fast in hot conditions.

For me it is still very hard to breathe fully in and to really dig deep in those warm conditions. Anyway, i was holding on and couldn’t believe my eyes when i saw my finishing time of 30:59. Usually this would be a split time in a marathon.

Still i take the positive experience running a great race with a unique atmosphere. Argentians love sport and they certainly have a big passion for road running. The streets, especially on the home stretch were crowed and peoples here know how to cheer.

Les deseo a todos los lectores de este blog un feliz año nuevo!