On Sunday 12th June I left at 5 am towards Albacete but I stopped near Murcia to pick up two friends who were staying at a hotel because they had gone on Saturday in another town in the province of Alicante watching Monforte de Cid half marathon. At seven am, I picked Juan Pedro, who is around 35 years old and works as a teacher of English. He has taken part in several half marathons doing around 1 hour 50 minutes. I also collected Antonio G, who is 44 years old and unemployed and with half marathons in around one hour 15 minutes. We stopped at a café on the road to have a light breakfast and got to Albacete at about 8.30.
http://www.info-ab.uclm.es/albacete/alba.html
It wasn´t hot and it even drizzled a little bit. Juan Pedro and me picked up our race numbers. Antonio G. hadn´t entered because he didn´t feel like doing more than one hour fifteen minutes although later he told us that he should have taken part in it. When we got to the start line, there were a lot of people warming up and ready to start. Actually, there were near two thousand entries. I met there a friend from Almería, Antonio L., who came the previous day with his wife and two children. I also met a friend who I met on the Carreraspopulares.com forum and at Madrid marathon last year, Indeciso, whose real name is Rafa. He´s taken part in more than one hundred half marathons in just seven years. He´s about 33 years old and is usually the last one to arrive. In 2003 he finished at Hellín half marathon in about 2 hours 45 minutes and an organiser said that it should be forbidden to end a half marathon in such a time. So, there were a lot of protests towards that attitude and some people wrote in the forum that we´d be very glad to do a half marathon with him. Then, two years ago we decided to run together Lorca half marathon but unfortunately his father died the previous Saturday, so he couldn´t come. When I met him at the last positions of the start line, I told him that we could go together the whole course so that I could fulfil my promise and so we did although I must admit that it wasn´t a big sacrifice for me since I´m not too fit. He has a problem of obesity but he has lost 18 kilos since February following a medical diet.
At 9:30 am, the race started at a park near the city centre. The course is quite flat. It is a double lap course along the main avenues of this manchega capital of province. Rafa, Juan Pedro and myself went together. I felt comfortable at a 6:25 kilometre pace but a little worried in case we didn´t finish in the maximum time allowed, 2 hours fifteen, which is not usual around here since most half marathons can be done in two hours and a half. Anyway, the atmosphere was nice with people cheering us. There were drinking stations every 2.5 km. Actually, they weren´t necessary so many because we were lucky and the day wasn´t hot around 23-25 Celsius. We got to km 10 in 62 minutes and to the start/finish line for the first time and the man with the loudspeaker encouraged us to finish in time. There were three or four runners behind us who couldn´t finish. We went on and in km 17 the policemen on motorbike behind us told us that we should hurry up a little if we wanted to get in time. Juan Pedro decided to go on faster and Rafa and me went on together. In km 18 a runner who had been a bit in front of us had to leave because he felt too exhausted. He had told me before that he didn´t take part in his local half, Almansa in the province of Albacete, a few weeks before because he thought that he wouldn´t be able to finish and so he had waited for Albacete. I told him to go on more slowly but he couldn´t. Finally, we arrived at the city centre near the park. People encouraged us a lot because we were near the finish. However, when we were in the park at only 50 metres from the finish line, there were some barriers in front of the red carpet that prevented us to go on. We had done 2 hours 17 minutes. I told the policeman to let us go on but he told me politely that he was sorry but they had been given orders to close the entrance. Later, I learnt that several runners, mainly girls, hadn´t been allowed to go on either. It´s incredible that they closed it for just two or three minutes when we were in a traffic-free area, a park, and there were so few people to finish and in just two or three minutes. Fortunately, we managed to get to the place where the goodie bags were given and got it. It was quite generous with a penknife in the shape of Don Quixote, whose fourth centenary is being held. We were also given a towel, a T shirt, sweets, cereal, an isotonic drink. On some stalls we could have pieces of water melon, orange, water, beer and so on.
There, I met another forumite from Carreraspopulares.com , Pecigo, who is from Albacete and he was also disappointed with the inflexibility in the closing time.
After that, I went to the park near the finish where we could have some drinks : water, beer, isotonic drinks and some fruit : watermelon, oranges.
I had some water and fruit with Juan Pedro and Antonio G. Afterwards, we went to the swimming pool where we had a shower. We could have also had a swim but we were in a hurry to have lunch. So, we looked for the car and drove back to Sangonera la Seca, near Murcia where we had a big lunch that consisted of plates of meat with fried tomato, squids, salad, snails, which I didn´t try, paella etc. They had some glasses of beer but I had two cokes and water.
After that, I took them to their hotel where their car was parked and left to Almería. I was a little tired and sleepy but I managed to arrive home safe after nearly two hour´s drive.
I enjoyed the trip and the half marathon although I felt a bit disappointed for not having been allowed to get to the finish for just two minutes.
