El Cruce Tandilia, that classic where the year starts to run and they also find the lost rings

For lovers of running in nature there are no impossible terrains. There is only desire to travel through the unique sceneries that Argentina has. Mountains, jungles, swamps, lakes, rivers, mud… Everything is enjoyed. That’s why fans of track racing know that the classic appointment to start the year with pure passion is the Tandilia crossing, with hikes in the Precambrian Mountains. Families, couples and training groups secure a weekend of adventure and fun at Tandil in a race where stories are boiling. If even in the last edition they achieved the impossible: find a wedding ring on a path.

Romina was in the final part of the first stage of the Tandilia Crossing when the heat swelled her fingers. So she didn’t have a better idea than to take the ring off and switch it from her ring finger to her left little finger. So that! Downhill, as I was going to cross Viale Don Bosco through a sewer, he felt the metal slip and fall. He stopped, searched the meadows and nothing. “I went on to say that I would stay here until the end to look for him,” the banderillero assured him. She crossed the line and went through another test: telling her husband what happened.

They both tried not to dramatize, because there are worse things. Much worse. And since the second stage started very early the day after, my body had to rest because mountains are mountains. On Sunday the cell phone alarm rang and Romina received a notification on Facebook. “I Have Your Covenant”Omar wrote to him. The pair approached the start first and there was the banderillero with the ring hanging from a rope. “If you wanted to quit, find another way”, thrown accomplice. And everyone posed for the photo of the occasion.

Stories like this are rife at Tandilia Crossing. Where will you pass through an arbor with hanging salamis if not in the Tandil verticalthe starter of the race, in which the participants climb the 314 steps of the Parque Independencia to the Castillo Morisco?

Where will you walk through streets that smell of mate, of the herbs you want and with blackberries on the sides? Where will you find a guitarist playing the strings at the top of a hill after crossing the Dique del Fuerte? Where are you going to recover inside cold water pools, with an ice cream, salad and/or beer in your hands? In dear old Tandilia Crossing.

What’s new for 2023

The 2023 edition, the year of the Tandil Bicentenary, will begin on Friday 6 January, from 17:00, with the Tandil Vertical Bloom, the entrance of pure energy for an adventure weekend in the mountains. And here comes the Tandilia Crossing major changesnecessary so that even those who are habitual are intrigued by what they will experience.

At 17:00 on Saturday 7 January the 7 and 14 km races will start, together with the first stages for the 28 and 50K. All together from the athletics track of the Municipal Sports Center. This year, married couples and fathers or mothers with sons or daughters are only allowed to team race in the 14K. As for the joy to share with the family. In that same distance there will be a category for athletes with visual impairments.

Those who choose the 50 and 28 km stages should rest very well because the second stages, with different routes from those of Saturday, will start from the same place at 8 on Sunday 8 January.

The organizers of the Tandilia Crossing, Charly Centineo and Marcelo Palahi, passionate about adventure in nature, are the visible face of a work team that guarantees the safety of the runners with rescue patrols, defibrillators and the assistance of the Argentine Red Cross.

Each participant must present the mandatory medical certificate in the accreditation, which will be in Valle de los Ciervos: Friday, from 10:00 to 21:00; and Saturday, from 9 to 24. In the same place, as every year, donations will be received for the Tandil Food Bank (powdered or long-life milk) and for “Dr. Debilio Blanco Villegas” (a bottle of alcohol).

To then prepare for the end-of-year toast, the recovery of the empacho and the enjoyment in the mountains. And watch out for the rings…