More than 500 runners participated in the Frontera Trail in CMPC Pumalal Park, Temuco, La Araucanía Region, Chile

The event took place last Saturday, bringing together seasoned athletes as well as children who ran two distances for the first time in Frontera Kids.

More than 500 runners were at the CMPC Pumalal Park in Temuco in the La Araucanía Region last Saturday in the 2023 edition of the Frontera Trail. The trail runners, despite the heavy rains and weather, enthusiastically made their way through part of the first park in the CMPC Living Forest Network. 

The day kicked off at 9:00 AM and ended at 5:00 PM. The athletes covered distances ranging from 1.5 to 30 kilometers, with the shorter ones set up for the little ones. Frontera Kids was held that day for the first time, which is the first trail designed with children from the schools of Temuco and La Araucanía in mind.

In this version, the Llaima School, the Baptist School, the Bajo Pocoyán School in Toltén and the Puquereo de Freire Agricultural High School participated in a new experience and thoroughly enjoyed the sporting event. CMPC Corporate Affairs Manager Ignacio Lira said, “The runners got to enjoy the different running tracks throughout the park. It has truly been a celebration that invites us to experience nature and immerse oneself fully in it through athletics and healthy living in this park. This year we also had the Frontera Kids races with two distances for children of different age groups, which means that they also get to participate in the world of sports in contact with nature and healthy living. We hope to continue promoting it at the CMPC Pumalal Park.”

Jonathan Jiménez, a teacher from the district of Toltén representing the Bajo Pocoy School, praised the event as enriching and a wonderful opportunity for the children in La Araucanía to get to know new places and internalize the sport more deeply. “The children enjoyed it to the fullest. They showed up happy to be here and full of laughter. That’s what I liked the most. The kids trained hard for this day, and we got to see the success shining on their faces. We brought a group of 17 students from our school. The main thing is that they’ve had a good time and feel happy. We’re going to keep getting ready for more competitions that are on their way. More trails are coming, and we hope to be here next year. Children today need to release stress, and it’s best to do so in connection with nature. It’s really important to not be inside the house all the time,” he explained.

One of the co-founders of Puelche Producciones César Montoya said, “We had climatic conditions that we’ve not had for many years, but we had the right facilities to welcome people including a big tent larger than 500 square meters and in general, very good conditions in terms of staff, health, and rescue equipment. Our first Frontera Kids was also a great experience. Hopefully next year we’ll have more children running. We appreciate CMPC because thanks to them we have all of this that we can provide to the runners. We also want to thank the Municipality of Temuco and all our sponsors and collaborators. We are very grateful, so let’s get geared up for Frontera 2024,” he concluded.

Off-roading

This year’s CMPC Frontera trail lengths were 30, 14.5 and 7.5 kilometers. Frontera Kids trail lengths were 3.5 and 1.5 kilometers. 

Omar Soto and Camila González were the winners of the 14.5-kilometer distance with times of 01:17:52 and 01:42:28 respectively. Diego Torres and Daniela Reyes were the winners of the 7.5 distance with respective times of 00:53:17 and 01:00:38.

One of the longest distances of the event was 30 kilometers at a height of 1,350 meters. More than 50 runners battled it out to scale the great summits and master the technical descents of the track that was prepared by the organization. 

Francisco Méndez from the Los Angeles district won the men’s 30 kilometers in the general category with a time of 02:44:35. Francisco remarked that the race was “quite technical and the ascents had a lot of clay, making it very slippery. The same thing applied to the descents, so we had to use poles. It’s a very fun circuit that gets the adrenaline going at times. I’m a street runner, a marathoner. I quit trail running two years ago, and to come back in this way is nice, going back to the race that started it all and to win again.” 

For her part, Clara Vilchez, from the Melipilla district, was crowned winner of the 30-kilometer general category for women with a time of 03:44:23. “I’m completely out of my comfort zone because I’m not used to the terrain here. The race was very challenging with a lot of mud and pools of water. It was very hard, but I’m very happy. This is my first time at Frontera. Since I’d never been here before I hadn’t realized it was going to be so hard and have so much mud and water, but yes, I’d do it again,” said Clara. To find out all the results of the competition for the various categories, please visit the www.puelcheproducciones.com website.