It all started in July 2011 when one of my good friends, Cecile Lavigne, ran the Al Andalus multi-day ultramarathon in Loja, Spain. After running 230K in 5 days and being the 4th woman, she told me great things about the location and the people who organize the race. I have to say I wasn’t a fan of multi-day races at that time. I told her that my goal one day, maybe in a couple of years, was to run a single day 100 mile race. Then in August, when I was checking the Al Andalus website, I came across the Ultima Frontera 160 race. This race was organized in October by the same people who organize Al Andalus and that got my attention quickly. I have to thank Cecile for inspiring me and making me aware of this race.
I looked at the travel and accommodation options which seemed nice. There were three distances available: 50K, 50M(80K) and 100M(160K) which was the 80K loop done twice. I especially liked the fact that there was an 80K option which I thought would suit me well as my longest run to date was 57K. The elevation gain was not extreme but still very challenging with about 2000 meters (6500 feet) on one lap of 80K. But I still didn’t pull the trigger and forgot about the race for some time.
