III carrera nocturna memorial José Zapata. Roquetas de Mar. 10 kms.
Last Sunday I took part in the third edition of the Carrera nocturna de Roquetas. 10k.. The course was the same as last year. It started at the Gran Plaza shopping centre and finished in the same place. It was a wonderful day. It was sunny and the temperature around 23º Celsius. When I arrived at the start, I met some friends I´d seen in the Red Cross race the previous Sunday such as Paco and his girlfriend Puri, José Antonio García Verdegay and his girlfriend, Diego. I also met Juan Pedro, who took part at Cartagena half marathon with me. There were around two hundred people at the start. There were some people taking part with a wheel chair and some Moroccans who came to get the trophies.
Juan Pedro and I started together at a pace around 5´30´´ a kilometre. We felt quite well and talked a lot about our next aims. He told me that he is going to take part at Berlin marathon in September. I told him that I´d like to take part at Benidorm marathon in November if I felt well otherwise I could do the half marathon, which is on the same day but at 10 instead of at 8. I told him that the atmosphere was quite good with a lot of runners from other countries, mainly the UK but also The Netherlands. I felt quite well and in around km 3 I decided to increase my pace getting to the roundabout at the urbanización de Roquetas in 28 minutes. It is around km 5. After that, we took along the road that leads to the sea front. There was a drinking station where I took a bottle of water and went on trying to reach other runners. Then, in km 7, Juan Pedro reached me and we went together. I told him that my aim was to do it under 60 minutes since last year it took me 61 minutes. He was confident that we could do it. In the last km, Juan Pedro started to go faster but I couldn´t keep his pace, so he arrived half a minute before me. Actually, I finished in 57´25´´. When I was getting to the finish, I could see the people clapping and cheering me. When I passed the finish line, I was given a slip of paper with my time and after queuing a little with Juan Pedro and other runners, I was given a bag with a T-shirt, a rucksack, a bottle of water, an apple and a banana from the Canary Islands. Then, I had a glass of Fanta but I rejected a glass of beer since I had to drive home. On the way to my car, I saw a few runners getting to the finish. I cheered them a lot. I know what it is like to be in the last positions.
This is the third year I take part in this race and I am quite glad since I´ve managed to improve my time and the bag of goodies is not bad taking into account that the entry is free. Besides, it is nice to run in the evening when the temperature is quite nice.
III carrera nocturna memorial José Zapata. Roquetas de Mar. 10 kms.
Well done, Antonio - that is a big improvement in one year. All that heroic mountain cycling must be paying off.
Evening running is a firm favourite of mine, although last year when I organised an event I accepted beer in the pub afterwards and took a taxi home, and two paracetamol the next day.
I'm not sure how it happened, but we had 52 runners at that evening event and somehow they drank 256 pints of beer, including several which were consumed before the run even started ...
III carrera nocturna memorial José Zapata. Roquetas de Mar. 10 kms.
Thank you, everybody.
It must be an interesting experience to run Valtiendas marathon in Segovia at night, Simon. I´ve heard it is very well organised and amusing. Besides, you have to run with another partner, which is much better than doing it on your own. The only problem could be to find a running mate who can do it with you and whose level is similar to yours or willing to go slower to keep you company.
What does Hmm mean, Andy? I hope it means that you would like to take part in Benidorm marathon or half. It would be great if some forumites could come to either race so that we could all meet that weekend. By the way, the races are on 26th November. http://www.benidorm.org/portal/portal_de...efault.asp
Nigel, I couldn´t drink so much beer, not even after a race when you need a lot of liquid. Anyway, it was very sensible to take a taxi home after the pub.
III carrera nocturna memorial José Zapata. Roquetas de Mar. 10 kms.
Good run Antonio - you always notice what's going on. I seem to miss almost everything...
Benidorm. I had to look it up on a map (clearly I misspent my childhood - am I the only Brit who doesn't know where it is?) Sounds fun, but there's still several months to injure myself or lose enthusiasm.
III carrera nocturna memorial José Zapata. Roquetas de Mar. 10 kms.
Talking of nocturnal races, have you ever thought of running in Valtiendas?
