January 2006

[Bierzo Baggie]

All the best in Almeria!
Would love to have been able to come but logistically speaking it's probably easier to get there from the UK than from Ponferrada. Have a good 'n......

[Sweder]

Sounds like a mixed bag on the weather front.
Happily there's plenty of room inside the bars . . .

[Sweder]

Our adventure begins here in Almería with our most accommodating host and friend, Antonio. Andy and I have indulged in an orgy of self-congratulation regarding our mutual weight-loss and general abstainance from alcohol and sweets.

Pride, as regular visitors here will know, comes before a fall, or in our case a drop of about 12 inches. Halos polished we exited Antonio's car, parked in his batcave - er, underground garage, and entered the elevator bound for the upper decks leading to the obligatory Tapas Tour. Alas, the lift doors closed and with an apologetic sigh and an alarming shudder the contraption sank a foot into its well. Lift duly abandoned and embarassed apologies muttered to a local resident (who could barely have weighed in at 120 lbs dripping wet), we hauled our collective bulk up the stairs, consoled by the general agreement that, as the only non-athlete in our party, the broken elevator was entirely the fault of SP.

Wind and rain has lashed this fair province all day.
We head for our duvets with hearts full of hope and a prayer that the skies are all cried out.

[El Gordo]

We head for our duvets with hearts full of hope and a prayer that the skies are all cried out.

Well said. I'm certainly heading for mine right now.

[talk amongst yourselves]
BTW, I've found a spare large plaster that you can cut in half and save us a trip to the Nipple Infirmary tomorrow afternoon.
[/talk amongst yourselves]

[Sweder]

Wet, cold and wonderful, a race to warm the cockles of the coldest heart.
I'll ruminate on the details over a couple of cervecas and post a full report later. All times are unofficial as we scarpered sharpish before the results list went up to avoid frostbite.

I crossed the line with the race clock showing 1:46:50-something.
I'm off to the hospital to see if they can get this grin off my face

[SIZE="1"]Sweder's log, supplemental:[/SIZE]

There's some confusion over my actual race time. I borrowed SP's Garmin, which Andy kindly set up as a 'virtual partner'. The VP was set for 1:50 (my target time and pb for a half). I stopped the watch after I'd crossed the line. The Watch says I beat the VP by 3:09 (giving a nett time of 1:46:51) but that my race time was 1:47:44 . . . stir in the official race clock which read 1:47:50+ as I crossed and you've got some idea of why I have 'till now stUck to sundials

I'm holding out for the official chip time

[Sweder]

The official listing shows 1:47:59, so that's the time I'm booking in for the run.
I'm very happy and offer my apologies to the makers of Garmin, who I much maligned; their estimated finish time was a good deal closer to the chip time.

I'm rather more impressed with my ability to find the results online this morning, given that I'm nursing the mother of all hangovers.

Not only did the two Andys have me on lager all night - not a drop of Guinness in sight - I ended my evening knee-deep in gin & tonics with the occasional shot of foul green mouthwash (I think it was called Dross).

Still need some time to . . . well, regain my senses as much as think through the race. A full report to follow some time this week; for now there's Tapas and Rioja in them there hills . . .

[Nigel]

Impressive stuff indeed, on such a tricky and unfamiliar course.

So much for yesteday evening. And it sounds like you ran brilliantly, too.