La Paz is in a valley, El Alto is above in the flat area. There is no other limit between the two cities, and El Alto is a bit bigger in terms of population and probably has more area too. About 900 000 people live in El Alto.
On Saturday August 12th there was a triathlon in El Alto. It was a sprint with a pool swim in a quite new pool. This was not the first time there was a triathlon in El Alto but first time I participated. The pool is at 4050 meters elevation (13,290 ft). El Alto´s city center is at 4100 and the highest, north eastern parts of the city reach 4275 meters (14,025ft)! So, I am confident that this is the highest triathlon in the world.
In Bolivian triathlon the current situation is that there are three national championships every year, each of them being equally important. It´s a disgrace, but the olympic distance no longer exists in these championship races and all of them are sprints. One can not just sign up, but you have to be a member of a club and participate in a regional qualifying race to be selected to repsesent your area, which in this case is La Paz. Every time before regionals you have to provide copy of birth certificate, copy of id card, and a copy of medical certificate plus some money. You only get a license about 5 or 10 minutes before the nationals race from regional "authority" and right before the race the race organizers take it...
In May I participated in the national championships in Cochabamba as part of my return to triathlon. That was the first time since September 2015 but unfortunately I had not tightened my bike handlebar properly after flight and it was moving so I had to take the bike leg a bit carefully. In fact right after starting the bike leg I noticed that my rear wheel was rubbing against bike frame too so I had to stop to adjust it and that took way longer than it should. And still at least in the turn arounds I could hear the tire rubbing. These things never happened to me before... That race didn't go as planned and I ended up 4th in the elite and sixth overall. There are athletes that are training really well for the 2018 South American games that will be held in Cochabamba. I know that at least the second place guy has been training full-time for almost 4 years and others are pushing hard too.
So this race in El Alto was a regional qualifier. It was a regular, sunny but cold morning in La Paz, but up in El Alto it was very windy (and colder of course). In the end the organizers decided to shorten the distances and make it a run-bike-swim with a little break before the swim. They thought it was not worth it to expose people to the cold wind after swimming. At times the scene was much like in a sandstorm, but I didn´t think it was that bad. The triathlon at Titicaca in March was a lot worse in terms of cold. But as usual, I was the person with most clothes on and I am sure most people were not ready for those conditions.
The run was 4 kilometers and bike was 13 km. There were a few really good runners from the military team and they (4) left me far behind. As usual for running, it felt like I could not get the best out because of the altitude. I was about minute and a half behind the leader at the end of the run even though I am in a pretty good running shape.
The best runners from La Paz, El Alto, Oruro and Potosi who were born and raised at super high altitudes can maintain around 3.30 (a few even 3.20) per kilometer for a 10k running at 13 000ft.
Cycling went well and I caught everyone quite soon and in the end I was at least 30-40 seconds ahead of second place. After a short break we swam 500 meters in the pool. That was quite difficult after a maximum effort in the run and bike and I only managed 9 minutes. I don´t even know how the military men swam because I had to go home as soon as possible but later it turned out I won the "elite" category.
The next day I went to a cycling race outside El Alto with 3 other cyclists. It was a pretty competive 80km race. Obviously legs felt tired. It was windy again but not nearly as much as Saturday. I raced carefully and never responded to the crazy attacks at full speed. Instead, I kept a steady hard pace behind the lead group at least 3 times when they left me. About 10 km before finish line 10 racers escaped again but eventually I managed to join the top 5 just before the final 1 kilometer hill and took the lead briefly before 3 of them took off. I finished 4th.
