El Avila is the wall of mountains that separates Caracas from the Caribbean Sea. It rises to almost 2800 m (approx 9000 ft), with Caracas being at approximately 1000 m (3000 ft). The range consists of one long ridge with all the significant summits being on that ridge, but there are lots of steep trails on the Caracas side linking various waterfalls. The area is generally wooded, although nearer the city the trees have been removed in many areas by former animal grazing.

The Carrera de Montañas is a trail run linking these trails and linking one end of Caracas to the other. It is 24 km long and has at least 1050 m of ascent (it’s difficult to know the exact amount as even the downhill sections usually have some uphill bits). This year was the second running of the race, and it attracted approximately 100 people.

I have to admit that my preparation for this race had been far from adequate. Long hours at work and lack of people to train with meant that my running was confined to weekends (I’m not sure how safe it is to train in Caracas at night). However I live about 20 minutes run from the route of the race, so most of my long runs had been along the first half of the race route. I also had some limited knowledge of the second half of the course (from hiking in the area), and knew that the worst ascent was on the 2^nd part).

My final preparation was also affected by an all night party in the apartment building next to mine, which kept me awake most of the night. Nobody seems to mind this sort of thing in Venezuela, in fact it’s seen as quite natural. When the party music finally subsided I was already up and about to leave for the race.

We met at the finish location of the race at 6am, and there were school busses to take us to the start. I was with my friend Ken (who’s Canadian) and there was also another Canadian on the same bus as me. He told me that the person sitting behind me was the oldest man ever to reach the summit of Everest! I was also told that the elite runners refer to this race as a "festival of pain".

The race itself started with a long uphill on a "road" with 160m of ascent in 1km. Everyone was walking, and Ken commented to me that it was unusual to walk at the start of a race and not be left behind. I was probably about ¾ of the way down the pack at this point, but then there was a long (4km) stretch along a flattish wide trail (with good views over Caracas) where most people who were behind me passed me. I was in the last few at the end of this, but I’d run this part of the race route many times before and knew that I was pacing myself fairly well (in fact this was about the fastest I’d done this section, but not by much).

After this point the trail narrowed considerably, and after passing Quebrada Chacaito (a small picturesque stream, which would be very popular later in the day), the first steep trail ascent started, and I started catching up with people and passing them. It felt a lot better to no longer be at the back. After about 30 minutes the route reached the popular Sabes Nieves trail (comparable to the Memorial Park running trail, but with a 300m elevation change!), and all of the height gained so far was lost. I descended this very rapidly, knowing that there was a lot of uphill before the next significant downhill and my knees would have time to recover. I also passed several people on this section, and from now on I’d generally see the same people over and over again.

There was an aid station at the bottom of this with refreshing ice cold Gatorade. I was asked where I was from by the aid station workers. When I said I was British, they told me there was a Canadian just in front of me (Ken). After passing another very popular waterfall, there was another long uphill to the first cutoff point. This was the furthest along the trail that I’d run regularly. You had to be here by 2½ hours to stay in the race, and I’d been 1 hour, 47 minutes so I knew I was doing OK. But then came the cruelest climb of the whole race, 300m over about 1½ km (all elevation changes and distances are very approximate). From the top of this I was struggling for quite a bit, even though the trail was relatively flat, but so (it seemed) was everyone else.

After another shorter but steeper uphill (past another aid station) there was finally a downhill, and my energy recovered. I had now also passed the 2^nd cutoff point in 2:35 (the cutoff time was 3:30).

The decent was on trails that alternated between being rocky (where you had to watch your footing), and muddy and slippery (where you had to watch your footing and duck under trees and bamboo) with occasional places where you could actually run at a normal pace. There were also some very steep ascents in this section as well, in case we were finding all the decent a bit much. I met someone I knew hiking in this section, who told me my position in the race. I can’t remember what he told me (!) and I consider it unlikely that he’d counted everyone going past, but the thought was there!

After what seemed like ages I met members of my hiking club who were hiking the same trail as the second part of the race in reverse, who cheered me on. And then suddenly the trees cleared, and after a short section on a ridge the final destination could be seen far below.

Without the shade of the trees it was hot, and the final (long and steep) decent was torture on the joints. It seemed to take forever, every step being more painful than the last. And even on reaching the bottom the torture wasn’t over. The race was organized a Jewish sports and cultural center, and we had a 1km run on roads to get to the finish at their headquarters, including an uphill section into their grounds. It seemed like about 10 people passed me in this section.

And so I finally finished in 3 hours and 56 minutes. Just inside my 4-hour target. I was suffering from the long decent, but even more so I was suffering from the heat. I found somewhere to sit in the shade, and cooled off. I eventually (next day) found I was 63^rd out of 97, and 22^nd out of 34 in the Male 30-39 age class. Looking at the results I think I actually only lost 3 or 4 places in the last 2 minutes, but it shows I need to work on my finishing strength.

One other thing that was strange about this race. There were no markings on the trail, and although there were marshals at some of the intersections, there weren’t at all. It seemed like you were expected to know the trails in the area. Most local runners do but apparently last year someone got off the route and ended up climbing a long way up one of the mountains.