CUT 2017 Siera de Arteaga

CUT Is Amazing

CUT 2017 did not disappoint.  It was an amazing race and more important it was a memorable weekend with my very good friends Grace, Benny and Perla (now known as "Kenianita" or the little Kenyan).  We left work early on Friday and headed to the mountains.

We stayed at a Airbnb cabin about 15 minutes from the race.  It is a cute rustic place and oh so quiet.  We all slept like babies. For the first time ever I woke up the morning of the race feeling refreshed and ready to go - maybe the cool temps and high elevation helped.  Whatever, I slept well.  We left at 5:20 as Benny had a 6:00 am start for the 50k.

	The view from the door of our cabin

Let's get this out of the way now: This race was excellently run.  Summits (a local Torreón company) worked the race.  Packet pick up, pre-race meeting on Friday night, course marking etc was top notch.  I can't speak for the 50k or 80k but the 23k was awesome.  I read 1 review complaining about the aid stations on the 23k but they were as advertised and more than sufficient.  One thing that stands out to me was that there were sufficient porta-johns for this race at the start/finish - something that doesn't always happen in Mexico (my one and only complaint about races in Mexico vs US).

The start of Benny's 50k

After Benny's start we had an hour to chill (and for me, numerous porta john visits).  I munched on my peanut butter sandwich and had a banana along with coffee.  It was relaxing and again, I've never felt this comfortable before a race.

The race

 What can I say, the race was tough, damn tough, and I enjoyed every moment of it.  As I had run this race 2 years ago I had an idea of what to expect but not completely.  Two years ago, due to mudslides, the race was only 10k up and 10k back.  This year we had to go an additional 3k up and then 11k (I thought) down.  Yeah, was down and then up, down and then up, and on and on.  It was tough, The terrain the last 11k was mostly brutal - the views, as was the case for the whole race, incredible. At the last aid station I grabbed a bite of something and turned to continue only to see another climb.  I exclaimed, "no mas subidas" (no more climbs) - I was dead.

The race started at 7,208 feet above sea level and we got as high as 11,082 feet above sea level.  There was a total of 4,816 feet of elevation gain (per Garmin) or 5,036 feet of elevation gain according to ITA (International Trail Association) which certified the course - either way we just climbed and climbed.  The first few kilometers climbed gradually and then it got steeper and steeper.  We hit the highest point 13km from the start.  I was really hurting on all the uphills after the 13k mark but at no point did I truly believe I couldn't make another climb, although each subsequent climb was more and more difficult.

The trail was well marked, ridiculously well marked, I can't emphasize this enough.  Somewhere during (I think) the 20th km I got off the trail.  How?  I have no freaking idea.  I suddenly stopped as there was no trail.  I heard someone behind me and there were two people that had blindly followed me (silly kids).  Fortunately I had downloaded the .gpx file of the course and was recording my tracks so I was able to get back on the course very easily - bad news was that I had to go uphill to get back on track.  I was probably only 100 meters off course.  Still can't believe it happened - you couldn't mark the trail any better than it was marked.

I had a great conversation with a young man from Monterrey who is running his first 50k next month (same race that I'm doing).  As soon as he heard my Spanish he switched to very good English.  Hopefully I'll see him at Garmin next month.  I had several other short conversations with people - as is usual, I suspect anywhere in the world, trail runners are just nice friendly people.

Another interesting thing, as I approached the 13km mark I could hear cow bells; awesome I thought, there are people cheering us on - no, just cows grazing.

The 50k course went 20k on the 23k course and then turned off before looping around to the finish of the 23k - I was glad to run into Benny who had about 20k left.  I was worried about him as he hurt himself on Thursday night playing soccer.  Who in the hell plays soccer 2 days before running an ultra?  He looked good, we stopped for 20 seconds, hugged and then continued on our separate journey's - mine much shorter than his.

I can't say enough about this race - when I think of the most memorable races I've had I come up with 4: my first LALA Marathon, my DWD 50k with Angie last year, the Chilly Chili 5k I ran with my granddaughter last year and this year's CUT.  Everything was awesome; the friends I was with, the trip there, the race, and on and on.

I think my spring break really helped me prepare for this and the Garmin Coahuila Ultra 50k on June 24th.  I did a lot of running at higher elevation (not as high as this though) with a lot of climbs.  I'm ready.

These pics are from the race, they really don't do justice to the majestic beauty of Arteaga.

The End

If I had a complaint going into this race it was the age groups

up to 29
30 - 39
40 - 49
50 and up

what the hell?  how about us old guys (and gals)?  Surprisingly I won my age group - yeah, I hear you - I couldn't believe it either.  To say the least I was pleased.  Perla, La Kenianita, was first women overall and Grace was third in her age group.  Benny, who didn't know if he could run or not till he got up in the morning, bettered his time from last year at this race.  We definitely did well.  I was super proud of the performances of my friends.

Post Race

After our race we cheered on the 50k runners waiting for Benny to finish.  After his finish we headed back to our cabin to shower and hit the road.  We drove to Saltillo to the bus station and I caught a taxi to the hotel that Deb was staying at.  We walked to my favorite bar (Kahlo is my favorite establishment, not a bar)  in Mexico that has an awesome local IPA on tap and I had a few beers before I crashed.  Poor Deb had to listen to me rehash the entire race - thank god for an understanding wife who supports my running unconditionally.  It was an amazing weekend with some of my favorite people in the world - can't wait till Garmin.