On Sunday 3rd June I took part again in this race. The previous day I wasn´t even sure if I was going to go this year since I haven´t trained much but I felt motivated because Juan Pedro, a fellow runner, had managed to do Monforte del Cid half marathon under 2 hours yesterday and I decided to go the next day to Villa Inés. This year it was 10 km long instead of last year´s 8.5 km. It is held at Villa Inés in the town of Huércal de Almería, just five kilometres away from Almería. It is a middle class neighbourhood with many terraced houses and some blocks of flats. When I got there at 9:30 there were a lot of people walking or jogging with their race number on. I met Felipe and Mario, who were about to pick up their numbers as well. After picking them up, I told them to have a picture taken. Felipe told a group of young people to take a picture of us. He said: I´ve got a picture of all three of us when we took our first communion in my PC scree and I´d like to change for a more recent one. We all smiled.
At 10:05 am, the race started. There were about 100 runners, which is not bad since last year there were about 60 people. We noticed that there were only four or five women taking part. I started with Felipe and Mario. The first kilometre was around the town and then we took a path over the railway lines which leads to the outskirts with some farms with cows and trees. The first two kilometres we did at a 5:20 pace. As I couldn´t keep that pace, I had to slow down. We went along a narrow local road and reached a dirt path which we followed around half a kilometre to turn back along the same road but instead of turning left to Villa Inés, we had to go straight on to reach the town of Huércal de Almería. In km five, there was a drink station. I had a bottle of water. It was great since it was hot around 27º Celsius. I reached a Mercadona shop where I turned back. I saw that there were just four people behind me. I told them ¡Ánimo! , which means Cheer up!. On my way back, I saw Pepe a runner who was helping as a volunteer indicating the way. He offered me some more water but I said that I´d have some more at the finish. I went on. The girls at the drink station were taking the things out. They cheered me up a lot. I was just 2 km away from the finish. I noticed that I had to hurry up if I wanted to do it under one hour. When I was a little less than one kilometre from the finish, I was reached by a young man who had kept his girlfriend? company. I decided to try to keep his pace which made me go faster although he beat me for just ten or fifteen metres. I finished in 59 minutes 50 seconds. The people at the finish clapped a lot. I was given a medal and bag with a T-shirt, a banana and an apple. I met there Felipe and Mario who had arrived four or five minutes earlier. We congratulated each other. We were very glad about having taken part in the race and congratulated the organisers on this race which is done thanks to the effort of Villa Inés neighbours´ association and some volunteers.
I haven´t had time to write a report on the two previous races I´ve taken part this year, which were also ten kilometre races. The first one at Almería port on 15th April. It was very interesting since it is very flat. I managed to do it in just 53 minutes. It was organised by a new club called A que atacamos and the Port authority. It was a great success and apparently they want to organise a San Silvestre race at the end of the year in the same course. The goodie bag was very good with a technical T-shirt, ball pens, a radio set, etc. The entry was free the same as in Villa Inés and Roquetas de Mar races. However, on 1st May in Roquetas de Mar I did the same distance in 62 minutes, five minutes more than last year. I started slowly and went faster in the last kilometres but my time was worse than last year.
I don't know how you can run in the heat - perhaps you're just used to it. You did well.
And I recognize a few people in your photos! Obviously from different races, but tell them congratulations from me. Hopefully we will see them next year at Almeria.
Good work my friend. I recognise some of the people in your photos too, which is very exciting. It's great to see Encarna is still running - I hope this means she will join us for both laps of the town in January
But hey - look at those lovely medals you guys got (in the photo with the orange shirts). Very nice . . . I hope Rog-air takes a look - he'll be signing up for Almería for sure*
[SIZE="1"]*Just don't tell him there are no medals in Almería[/SIZE]
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph
Suzie, I don´t find it difficult to run in the heat although I prefer running with a nice temperature. By the way, are you going to take part in Calgary marathon or half next July? I wish I could go one year and do the full marathon or the half.
Sw, I think Encarna will take part in Almería half next year. It´s a pity that they don´t give a medal or a memento at the finish. They prefer a bag or a raincoat.
Nice work Antonio! Great times too. And I'm jealous of your goodie bags over there - Spain sounds like a great country to race in, and the temperature is fab too. Sorry Suzie, but 27 degrees sound ideal to me!
I think I might run the Stampede Half in July Antonio. I did it last year and it was the hottest, muggiest day of the year! We start at 7:00 a.m. so you would think it would be ok - but was still warm then. Now, I say warm - probably around 20 and then got up to about 25 or so. We nearly died! Obviously you and MLCMan like the heat so you would do well. Although we're at about 3,000 ft. so it makes a difference when you come from sea level. Would love to have some visitors here for one of our races - anyone?
suzieq Wrote:Would love to have some visitors here for one of our races - anyone?
A work colleague visited Canada a few years ago. He was met at the airport by a friend who was wearing just a T-shirt and a light jacket, so this colleague of mine figures it can't be that cold and so walks outside wearing similar garb. It was -10 C. He went into shock before even getting to the car park and required first aid. He'd never even seen snow before.
We get lots of Canadian visitors over here - Canadians and Swedes seem to be the great travellers of the world. I think climate has a lot to do with it! I asked a Canadian tourist not so long ago where he was from. "Vancouver" was the reply. "Oh" I said, "Beautiful city, you must love it there." He basically flew into a mild rage, saying "You foreigners only ever visit in the two weeks of summer - why do you think we're all over here now?" So I gather it's pretty cold there.
And then there was that cold snap and massive power outage you had in Montreal a few years back. Killed lots of people - these are the stories we hear about Canada. It sounds like a very dangerous place. And of course you have rather strange and incredibly dangerous neighbours.
But I'm keen. Talk me into it!
Actually, it may just happen. Mrs MLCMan desperately wants to cruise Alaska's Inside Passage, so a side trip to your part of the world would definitely be on the cards. I'll make sure it coincides with a race or two!
With apologies to Antonio - I just realised I've hijacked your thread! Suzie - you need your own training diary!
I have a good pal up in the Yukon - in Whitehorse. Apparently it's pretty much snow central most of the year but from what I hear the folks that live there love it to bits.
Canada's a great place, made to look even better by those pesky trigger-happy neighbours. It's also vast - take a close peek at the map . . . it's tough to talk about Canada in general terms. I have to cross the country via railroad some day . . . in fact I'm hoping to spend my dotage riding the rails in far flung places. There's a fantastic train journey to be had from Jakarta to Bali - all steam trains happily. I took the Mount Washington Cog Railway when I was eleven - I think that's in Nova Scotia on the Canadian east coast. Quite something.
Whoops, sorry Antonio.
I'll nip off back to my own diary . . .
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph
Hola, BB. I´m looking forward to your report on Toral de los Vados marathon. I´ve been looking for the results but I haven´t found them. How did it go? Did Riazor Blue take part as well?
As for Camino de Santiago, we haven´t decided yet. We´d probably leave from Almería on Wednesday 11th July. The idea is to get to Sarria in the province of Lugo. If we go, I´d like to go to Ponferrada so that we could meet and have a drink if it suits you. Then, we´d get to Sarria, where we would stay and leave the car so that on Thursday we would start walking to reach Santiago de Compostela on Sunday15th and come back on Monday 16th July.
III Carrera popular Villa Inés
Suzie - you need your own training diary!