Race Review: Medio Maraton Internacional, Oaxaca, Mexico

Here's a capsule review of the 1st Media Maraton (Half Marathon) Internacional in Oaxaca, Mexico.
The race was today and I want to get down some impressions of it.

It was a big deal for Oaxaca in terms of distance running as nearly 2000 runners took part. The course started at the CASA de Artes in the outlying village of San Agustin Etla, a gorgeous spot nestled in verdant hills. It finished at the IAGO, Institute de Artes Graphicas de Oaxaca in the center of the the city of Oaxaca.

Local big-shot artist Francisco Toledo apparently had something to do with the founding of the race. He's not only an excellent artist, but an altruistic dude. It's cool that he lent his hand, but unfortunately the organization of the event was lacking, probably no fault of our local artistic hero.

The course itself was good, lots of gradual ups and downs. Challenging but not super tough. At about the 16.5 kilometer mark, runners begin a climb up Cerro del Fortin, a 2K hill. It is very rough to run this big, long hill at this stage of the race. It was a fairly hot morning, and that was a factor, at least for a gringo like me.

There were a good five water stations along the way, very well done. This is something they got right. Thanks!

I searched online results, and none are up as of the day after the event. I'm curious as to the winners and age-group leaders.

Sadly, the good news ends there. The first edition of the race was OK on the actual course, but the overall organization was very poor.

I signed up two weeks in advance, which mattered for nothing. Numbers were distributed the evening before the race in a botched 2.75 hour debacle with huge lines and a lack of organization and efficiency.

On race morning, I arrived at the start area, along with nearly 2000 others, and there were NO portable toilets. With a friend, I tried to hit the rest rooms (they are large and very nice) in the CASA de Artes San Agustin, but we were blocked by security. I headed to the woods and conducted my business there.

The start was an unorganized and haphazard.

The impatient mob started to run, unbidden, but the officials managed to call the runners back, reformed the mob about 80 meters onto the course, and restarted about ten very edgy minutes later.

The race started on a narrow lane leading from the CASA de Artes. Lots of crowding and bumping ensued, with tons of very slow runners up front.

Finally, there were absolutely no distance markets anywhere on the course.

I ran the race, and at the end, I was handed a t-shirt and medal, a water bottle and a banana, which I greatly appreciated.

It was an overall good experience for me, indeed it was only the second time I've ever attempted the half marathon distance, and the first time I finished it.  I never found that rhythmical groove that I look for in a long run, but paced myself decently and ground out a 1:50:08 performance. My goal was simply to finish, so I'm happy.

I tried once before to do a Half back in '78 when I'd just turned 21. I had no idea how to approach the race, and ran about a 5:35 - 40 per mile pace for 8 miles and then walked the rest of the way. It was not fun, a real lesson in long distance running for a miler.

Later on, at age 32, I finished a 20K race in 1:14:51, but I literally could not have run one more step. Clearly, I'm a middle distance guy at heart, and the 21K distance is a real challenge for me.

In conclusion, this race has a way to go to earn the respect of the local running community. Race organizers, do your research and improve the experience for the Oaxaca running community next time around. It's great to have this event in Oaxaca, just need to tidy up a few key details.