By the 5th lap of the ariweta, the chokéame for the Carerra de Bola organizes the runners to meet at the same finishe line used by the women. He checks off the runners names again, organizes the two sides. The ariweta runners are still streaming in and around to complete their race. Finally, the chokéames roll their respective balls down the hill, and the runners are officially off. They are to run 8 laps (sightly less than a marathon) over the same course used by the women.
Both teams initially have trouble keeping their balls on the course, and encounter slowdowns retrieving their balls as they careen off-course.
The team from Urique is animated and grabs an early lead is never relinquished. They do get a rhythm down, where the ball is advanced, everyone pursues with strikers in the rear in a deliberate pace, stopping to line up the ball with their helping stick and hurl foward for advancing runners to retrieve if it goes off-course, or align in the center of the road. After two laps it is pitch dark, and the runners again are struggling to track the ball and keep on course.
Back at the start, ocote (pine tar) torches are lit and handed to the runners, who then can see again. For spectators, this is a dramatic sight. Teamwork is always in play, and the runners and torches are in close proximity.
Urique widens its lead and will clearly win. The other team is demoralized, but still carries on. In daylight laps were taking 20 to 25 minutes to complete. At night, this becomes a half hour or so. Spectators congregate under the few available street lamps in front and alongside the church yards to wait for runners to return and start another lap. By 10 pm most have moved over to the church yard to watch or participate in Pascol dancing. Matachines dancing is also going on inside the church . By the 6th lap, some of the ocote torches have have burned down to the runners hands. A few runners stop fling their torches to the ground, throw dirt on the bottom handles, relight others, and hand to the other runners on their return.
The race finally concludes at midnight, with both winners and losers calmly walking away – there is no jubiliation on the part of the winning Urique team, nor despondency among the
losers. Everyone simply appears to be tired. Many of these runners participated in the Juego del Palillo , while the younger ayudantes accompanied the women in the ariweta as well. I call it an evening and return to my room, while the pascol dancing outside continues all night.
