Mexican Mountain Running: Oriana's First Trail Race: Trail Del Rio Race Report

Mission Accomplished! Oriana finishes her first trail race.

Billed as the "funnest course on the Solo Para Salvajes circuit," I've always been curious about the Trail del Rio race. At 13km, I thought it would also make a good first trail race for Oriana. However, despite the short distance, beware: the trail is very technical, slippery and at times dangerous: there were a few spots where one could plummet down into the river. Also, this is not a race for those who like dry shoes. There are 5-6 major river crossings, some of them were waist high.

We lucked out and it was a beautiful day. We started at a steady pace, not pushing too hard. On this course, that is a mistake. There are a few sections of open meadow running where one can pass others, but much of the trail is so narrow that passing is very difficult for much of the race.

As Oriana exclaimed at one point: "I just want to pass these people." We were stuck behind a train of folks for the last quarter of the race, but then things opened up and we made our move through the meadows.

We finally emerged onto pavement that led down into a park. I was sure this was the end of the race, so we were sprinting with everything we had. But the course went through the park and led straight up the side of a hill. Ori struggled a bit mentally here, as she thought she was finished, and she had pushed so hard she had become something of a spit dribbler. But she regrouped and pushed up the climb, which was by far the longest climb of the day. Finally, we emerged on top of the hill and there was a short, flat section. Oriana turned it on again and finished strong!

The photos below show some of the terrain of the Trail de Rio.