Desafio Urbion Race Report
It is no secret that Spain hosts many iconic trail races, from the volcanic landscapes of Transvulcania or Trans Grancanaria, to the technical mountains of the Pyrenees or the madness of Zegama in the Basque country. But with so many mountain ranges and landscapes as you can guess there are many more races, the great majority almost unknown outside Spain.
Recently, with the excuse to visit my family in the north of Spain I had the chance to participate in one of them, Desafio Urbion. A classic mountain race that has been celebrated for 10 years in the Sierra de Urbion, in the Iberian mountains. The region is covered by the largest pine forest in Spain, and above the tree line there are meadows, boulder fields and glacier lakes with summits above 2000m high. Here is where the source of the river Douro is found, that continues its journey across Spain and Portugal to flow into the Atlantic Ocean.
Photo credit: Diego de la Iglesia Rodríguez
This year Desafio Urbion hosted the Skyrunning World Championships and on top of the classic route of 37km and 2600m they added a Sky Ultra (70km, 4500m) and a vertical kilometre race. That was not everything; the party had started the weekend before with a 15k race and a very interesting elimination event in which a 10k loop was run three times and 50% of the field was disqualified after every loop.
The Championship attracted 41 countries of 5 continents and there was a real atmosphere of party in the town of Covaleda, which acts as the headquarters of the event. During registration the day before, you could feel how important the race is for the town and its people.
There were many volunteers of all ages looking after you, and a beautiful finish arc made of wood dominated the main square. I had chosen the Sky Ultra distance, as I prefer longer distances, but I had not noticed until the day before the race that, being a World Championship, the cutoff times were relatively tight. We had 6 hours and 50min to complete the first 47km with 3000m elevation, on terrain that, as I was going to find out, was not always very runnable.
Photo credit: Diego de la Iglesia Rodríguez
The start of my race was Saturday at 7am, from the neighbouring town of Vinuesa where we arrived in buses provided by the organisation. The atmosphere was amazing, with more than 200 runners taking over the beautiful square, headtorches on and music blaring. I am certainly not elite and I was not representing any country, I was running in the Open category, that I started a couple of minutes after the elites.
There was a very quick kit check before entering the starting box and off we went, just a few streets and into the forest, on a trail that soon was climbing steep. I was worried about the cut offs and I started fast. The first 15km of the race are almost a constant climb up to 2000 metres and it was hard work. Luckily the weather was cool and dry.
I teamed up with a local runner and he was explaining me the names of the places and the next sections that were coming. We were running in the forest, mainly on trails, then on tracks. When we reached the top the views were just amazing, with mountains and forest everywhere around us. We climbed higher still and suddenly we came out of the forest and had to cross a huge boulder field, using our hands from time to time.
Photo credit: Diego de la Iglesia Rodríguez
It was just stunning but really tough and you had to keep an eye on the ground all the time. The terrain was very technical, in and out of forest trails, into meadows and rocks. And then 3 km from the first feed station I fell and cut my head on a rock. I was worried it could be the end of my race but I managed to stop the bleeding, putting a bandana around my head and I kept going.
The first cutoff was in Puerto Santa Ines, a mountain pass 33km and about 2000m into the race. We were only allowed 4h40m to get there and I was only about 30 minutes under the cutoff. We kept climbing after that and what followed was a really fast descent on a forest firebreak followed by another climb and descent to one of the highlights of the route, la Laguna Negra.
This is a magical place, a lake at 1800m surrounded by steep rock cliffs. This was the second tight cutoff but I still was 30 minutes ahead of it and by now I was confident I was going to be fine. Food was going down well, and I was enjoying my new diet of bananas, watermelon and tortilla de patata (home-made potato omelette).
Photo credit: Andres Núñez
The route kept giving surprises, the next climb cut through what looked like impossible cliffs, using ropes at times, and we kept climbing until reaching the Pico Urbion, the highest point of the race at 2228m. The rock formations here are fantastic and the views just incredible. There are people supporting us everywhere, and volunteers showing us the best way around the huge rocks before sending us down another vertiginous descent.
I team up with a local legend known as Fernando Magaldi, so we get extra shouting when we meet supporters on route. At one point he tells me we are going to get into an area that looks like an enchanted city, and there we go into a maze of rocks as high as houses, with the trail winding between them. Absolutely amazing. Everyone talks about the last bad climb, el hayedo (beech forest) and it doesn’t disappoint.
Steep through the forest we climbed more than 300m in a bit more than a kilometre, and at the top the supporters were having a party cheering us. To celebrate the end of the last climb we had to pass under an arc and ring a cowbell. It was so mad that despite being broken I could not stop smiling. And from there it was almost all downhill to the finish line. I was happy with my finishing time of 11h04min, I made it despite falling and the cut off times. What a race, what a party. I will be back!
All the information about the race, results and pictures can be found in https://desafiourbion.com/
Photo credit: Andres Núñez
