On Sunday 5th April I took part in III Carrera del desierto at Tabernas, a small town 30 km away from Almería. It is known because many films, especially westerns have been shot in this area. The race started at 11 am.
When I was queueing to get my race number, a young man asked me: “Is your name Luis?” I told him it wasn´t. Then, he said :” What´s your name then?” I answered : “Antonio”. “Yes, that´s right”, he said. “You were my English teacher at Vera secondary school”. It was great to meet a student I hadn´t seen for nearly twenty years. His name is Bernardo and he is a Physical Education teacher in Barcelona now. He remembered some anecdotes from those years such as my stories about my first marathon races in Madrid and what I told a classmate of him who I saw was trying to see what another mate was writing in an exam. As that student was a basketball player, I told him that he should wait to do the neck stretchings at the basketball training. Bernardo was there with other friends from Antas, a small town near Vera. He told me that his friends did Barcelona marathon this year. It was their first marathon. As he had an injury, he couldn´t do it but he went on bicycle cheering his friends. He has done Barcelona marathon twice in around 3 hours 30 minutes. At the queue I also met Manolo who is a teacher of English who had also done Malaga half the previous Sunday in one hour fory-two minutes. After getting my race number, I met Paulk, who came from Arboleas with two neighbours. He is improving his Spanish a lot. There were around 300 people at the race start. There would have been more if there had not been a limitation.
The man with the loudspeaker said the Carrera del desierto was a “carrera de película”, which is a word game that means “a fabulous film but also a race like out of a film” and he was right. The first kilometre was in the town centre but after that it was along a dirt track in the desert where a lot of movies have been shot, for instance, “Lawrence of Arabia”, “Patton”, “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”, etc. In kilometre five there was a drink station but also a haima with a man in Arabic clothes and some camels. Then, we went up a tough hill to get to Fort Bravo. I managed to jog the hill and pass some runners who were walking but they would pass me later downhill.
http://WWW.fortbravo.es/en We went into this western town with the actors and actresses cheering us. Then, we went downhill, reached the drink station again and took another path to get to the town but before we had to climb another tough hill. I managed to climb it jogging and passed a few runners. One of the runners I had passed in the hill, passed me in the last hundred metres. Bernardo and his friends were before the finish line cheering me and we clapped hands. At the finish line, we congratulated each other and got a bag with a technical T-shirt, an apple, an orange and some leaflets. The course was about 10.4 kilometres and it took me 66 minutes which is not bad taking into account the terrain and the tough hills. After the race, at the queue to get the bag, I met PaulK and his friends. We said goodbye as they had to leave. On my way to the car I met Richard and John, whom I had met at the Cabo de Gata – Níjar race a few weeks ago. We talked a little about that race, this one and the Málaga half marathon which they also took part although we didn´t meet there. When I was in my car, I met Bernardo and his friends. We had a good time together and they told me where I could read about their running adventures.
http://antascorre.blogspot.com
III Carrera del desierto. Tabernas 5 April 2009
