The Coastal Challenge: Stages Four and Five

Stage Four: Guayabo to Rincon De La Vieja (50 kilometers) “I’m having a harder time than I expected, and have reset my goal,” said Doone Watson, forty-nine, from Calgary, Canada, slogging through the stiff headwind along a dusty gravel road. “I came here wanting to place high, but now I just want to finish, so I can be the first woman to finish all three Coastal Challenge expeditions.”

The fourth, 50-kilometer stage of the Coastal Challenge Expedition Run started at 5:45 a.m. with a steep, rocky climb up Miravalles volcano—the first of two volcanoes the runners would ascend. “It reminded me of Mt. Mansfield (near Stow, Vermont) where I train at home,” said Debbie Tirrito, fifty-one, from Burlington, Vermont. “The view was amazing,” noted Marlo Tadashore, twenty-nine, from Peterborough, Ontario. “We just had to stop and take a picture of the sun coming up through the fog surrounding the volcano—it was amazing.”

Bev Anderson-Abbs, forty-two, from Red Bluff, California, the women’s overall leader, again led the women’s field through the stage, but had thoughts of a different nature about the gnarly descent. “It was everything I hate on a downhill: long and steep, with loose rocks,” she said. “My quads were screaming!”

The scorching sun emerged from the hazy sky as the flock of sixty runners (forty-two in the Expedition category and eighteen in the Adventure category) traversed several geothermal areas, leaping across a drainage stream to keep their feet dry, then heading up the next steep climb to Rincon De La Vieja volcano. With Anderson-Abbs pushing the pace, second- and third-place women Ligia Madrigal and Irene Hale lifted legs along the rutted roads that followed.

“I loved the last section after PC [checkpoint]-4,” said Anderson-Abbs, of the bushwhacking, rock-scrambling section along the river. “I hooked my water bottle to my waist belt and swam around the rocks—the cool water felt so good.” Despite the heat of the competition, she admitted to “needing to stop and gaze at the spectacular waterfall,” before climbing a winding staircase to the road, and running the final three kilometers to her fourth consecutive victory in 5:50:49.