One of the many geographical benefits of living in Guadalajara is its proximity to volcanoes. There are few towns in the world where you could visit three of the principle types of volcanic landforms in just one day. Several years ago I suggested that some athlete ought to climb el Cerro de Mazatepec (a cinder cone or scoria volcano), cross the Primavera forest (a caldera, or collapsed volcano) and end the tour at the top of El Volcán de Tequila (a classic stratovolcano).
This might encourage the creation of a Geopark in Jalisco,” I suggested, “so tourists will have something to do here after they finish visiting the distilleries.” A good number of people picked up on the Geopark idea, a committee was formed, letters were written and a group of University of Guadalajara geographers are now working on a book describing the many geological features found in and around the Primavera area. But the wheels are turning very slowly.
So, time passed and I thought the idea of the Triple Volcano challenge had been forgotten, when out of the blue I received a message: “I’m a runner. I saw your map of the Trivolcano route on Wikiloc and I plan to do it ... next weekend.”
It was signed Sergio Vidal. A quick search of the net revealed that Vidal is one of Mexico’s most promising long-distance or ultra runners, athletes who participate in footraces longer than the traditional marathon length of 42.195 kilometers. I discovered that Vidal entered something called the Ultracentric Gold Rush in Texas, last year, where athletes compete to see who can run the farthest during one whole day. Vidal came in second and set a new Mexican national record for running 203.7 kilometers in 24 hours.
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