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San Silvestre El Ejido 2004
Yesterday, the last day of 2004, I took part at El Ejido San Silvestre race. I didn´t feel very well because I had a cold and a beginning of flu, which made me have some medicine. In fact, the previous day I had been on a bicycle ride with Alan and other British cyclists who are on a bicycle tour in the south-east of Spain. We had a very good time at Turrillas, Lucainena de las Torres, Polopos. Although it was a nice sunny day, I may have taken some cold. However, as I felt better the following day, I decided to go to El Ejido, which is about 30 kms away from Almería. I went with my brother by car. It was a sunny day. When we arrived at the town hall to pick up my race number, I met a friend who had encouraged me to take part at this race two years ago. His name´s Antonio L. He´s going to take part at Almería half as well.
After picking up my race number and the bag of goodies, a vest and some leaflets. I went to the toilet crossing the hall where there was a very big beautiful crib. At the toilet, I met a thin Moroccan who asked me where you could get the pins to put your number on. I told him they were in the bag. Then, I went to the start to warm up a little. I met another friend, Jorge, from Almería who I met through the internet and we ran at Roquetas in June 2004.
The race had to start at 5 o´clock but as there were people entering late, it started at 5:15. There were around 150 runners. One of them runs disguised every year. This year he disguised as a feeding bottle. The race consists of 5 laps along the boulevard which are 2200 metres long. It starts going up and then it goes down and up again. In all, 11 kms. I started at the back doing the first lap in 12 minutes. I had to do the race in 60 minutes since the chip control is closed after one hour because there´s a non-competitive race afterwards, mainly for children and parents which is much shorter. When I wanted to enter on the phone, I suggested letting us finish in 65-70 minutes or reducing the race to four laps, 8.8 kms, and giving us one hour. I went alone most of the time although I was overtaken by most runners or I could see them opposite. There were a lot of people cheering and sometimes some children offered me their hands to shake hands although some of them said smiling El año que viene . Next year. I also saw a girl who I met two years ago because we did the last four laps together but last year she couldn´t take part because she was injured and this year she´s injured again. Her name´s Alicia and she´s from El Ejido.
My brother took some photos of me and the race. He also gave me some water when I asked him after 5 kms. Besides, the organisation offered us water after the first runners got to the finish., which they did in around 30 minutes. I couldn´t keep the pace at the second race. It took me 12´30´´. The next ones were a bit slower. When I reached the finish on the opposite side, the man with the loud speaker told me to have a bottle of water and congratulated me but he told me the control was closed. Anyway, I went on to finish in 66 minutes. I saw that there were two other runners who hadn´t finished yet who also continued running. It´s a pity that they don´t give more time for slow runners like me but I don´t mind since I just want to finish the last race of the year. Last year it took me 69 minutes but two years ago I managed to finish in 63 minutes. I can´t complain since in December I was able to go for a run only six days because of a lumbago which had made me take a lot of medicines and stop running for two weeks. Besides, I´m four kilos fatter than last year. Anyway, I find it difficult to manage to finish Almería half marathon under two hours but I´m sure we´ll all have a good time here then. I wish you all a very happy New Year and I hope you will achieve your goals.
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In the Almería half marathon thread we all can suggest what we´d like to do that weekend.