XX Medio maratón de Almería 20th Almería half marathon

[OutAlongTheRiver]

In terms of accommodation, I was wondering about AirBnBing a place with multiple rooms, which might be good option? Anyone keen?

[El Gordo]

They adapt their dishes to the different clients' nutritional options at a reasonable price. 

http://www.restaurantelaencina.net/

Saludos desde Almería

I've been reading a lot about the Mediterranean diet recently, and how healthy it is. I wonder if such a thing will be available in a place like Almeria...?

[El Gordo]

WHAT HAPPENS
Traditionally we get in, grab a coffee, stroll off to the race HQ to collect numbers and dine on pasta somewhere on Saturday night. Race on Sunday morning, shower and beer back the hotel then off to a restaurant that Antonio has recommended/ set up a set menu meal deal (always excellent, always very reasonable)......

.....Sunday evening some of us hit Molly Malone's (not called that for several years but hey).
Monday is stroll about, hit the seafront, recovery jog or for the more adventurous perhaps a trip to Cabo de Gata National Park for a very gentle run along some wild coastline. Monday evening is open, some will probably head our for some R & R.

ADVISORY NOTICE
None of the above is compulsory or indeed recommended as being especially good for you.
Some take a different course, such as necking bottles of Rioja on Saturday night and blowing out the whole thing. We're each an experiment of one. Hope to see you there.

Mustn't forget the legendary photo calls at the airport on arrival, and (particularly) the post-race Ramblas snaps with everyone proudly sporting their race teeshirts. Takes ages while everyone takes a turn with their camera. Mmm, that post-race beer at the hotel. Being eventually thrown out of the restaurant because the staff run out of patience with these beery English. Probably a bit of Brexit joshing on the cards this time, perhaps. Chaotic scenes at Molly's, no doubt.

Best one ever for me was the Sweder/SP/me all-day Monday drinking session. We sat outside Molly's from about midday, smoking roll-ups and drinking Guinness, before moving on to some pleasant bistro in late afternoon where we made a thorough nuisance of ourselves. When Antonio eventually arrived in the early evening, we were literally falling off our chairs and sending bottles of wine tumbling. I think I managed to drag a table on top of me as I lay on the floor. As ever, Antonio somehow had to play the supreme diplomat to get us out of trouble that time. Ah, Almeria.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Aren't we supposed to run up some moonscaped mountain somewhere on the Monday? Or does that happen before drinking Molly dry?

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

In terms of accommodation, I was wondering about AirBnBing a place with multiple rooms, which might be good option? Anyone keen?

Hi Rob,

My only experience of AirBnB in Spain was an unmitigated disaster - whilst the Spanish predilection for a casual attitude toward life is great for culture, it did not in my case make for a satisfactory AirBnB transaction, which involved being locked out on the Barcelona streets late at night. However, I'm sure that was an unlucky worst case scenario ... I'm just urging caution!

Cheers, and looking forward to meeting you (again? sorry my brain is fried), drinking with you, running with you ... tho perhaps not in that order. Although, then again...

MLCMM.

[marathondan]

My only experience of AirBnB in Spain was an unmitigated disaster - whilst the Spanish predilection for a casual attitude toward life is great for culture, it did not in my case make for a satisfactory AirBnB transaction, which involved being locked out on the Barcelona streets late at night. However, I'm sure that was an unlucky worst case scenario ... I'm just urging caution!

In the interests of balance... we had an AirBnB apartment in Barcelona last summer and it was excellent.

[suzieq]

I've just booked my flight and hotel (one Sweder mentioned). I'll be there, whether I can run or not at that time remains to be seen. But no matter what, I can definitely drink Guinness!

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

My only experience of AirBnB in Spain was an unmitigated disaster - whilst the Spanish predilection for a casual attitude toward life is great for culture, it did not in my case make for a satisfactory AirBnB transaction, which involved being locked out on the Barcelona streets late at night. However, I'm sure that was an unlucky worst case scenario ... I'm just urging caution!

In the interests of balance... we had an AirBnB apartment in Barcelona last summer and it was excellent.

Will you be joining us, Dan?

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

I've just booked my flight and hotel (one Sweder mentioned).  I'll be there, whether I can run or not at that time remains to be seen.  But no matter what, I can definitely drink Guinness!

How is the recovery going, Suzie?

[Charliecat5]

I'm all booked... flights and hotel. A drinking weekend away in Spain ... I can't wait.

[marathondan]

Will you be joining us, Dan?

Sadly not. A family-free weekend would be a tall order at the best of times, but half way through my first year of teaching would be impossible.

Will be following the highlights though...

[El Gordo]

I've just booked my flight and hotel (one Sweder mentioned).  I'll be there, whether I can run or not at that time remains to be seen.  But no matter what, I can definitely drink Guinness!

HURRAHHHH!!!!!!!

[El Gordo]

I'm all booked... flights and hotel.   A drinking weekend away in Spain ... I can't wait.

HURRRRAAAAHHHHHH!!!!

[Charliecat5]

Sorry to pour 'running' on to what otherwise was shaping up to be a very pleasant weekend away, but do we actually have to actually enter the running bit of the weekend as well? If so, where do we sign up?

[El Gordo]

Sorry to pour 'running' on to what otherwise was shaping up to be a very pleasant weekend away, but do we actually have to actually enter the running bit of the weekend as well?  If so, where do we sign up?

We sign up in advance online. It's an much-awaited tradition for Antonio to announce the moment that online booking becomes available -- a bit like the annual letter to The Times, reporting the first cuckoo of spring, Not quite so romantic, perhaps. 

It's always very cheap, and you get thousands of freebies in return, plus the race itself of course. You load up with the first tranche of freebies when you collect your number on the Saturday night at the stadium. The few euros you pay also includes the pre-race meal, I think, which we used to attend at the stadium. The biggest chicken legs in the world, plus various other courses. Latterly, we've chosen to carbo-load at a pasta joint near the hotel instead. Er, I'm straying off the point, so I had better stop.

[Antonio247]

As EG says I like announcing when the online booking is available. Unfortunately, the website hasn't been updated yet. It is usually done at the beginnig of December and since then the entry can be done. If anyone has any problem to enter because it is only in Spanish, I can help them.

The prerace meal used to be quite good, and a few years they were held at the VIP area in the football stadium with a view to the pitch and the athletics track, but it hasn't been offered for a few years.

Apart from the race T-shirt there's a small packet of tomatoes that are given on Saturday at the expo when you pick up your race number.

I hope you enjoy your first half marathon race in Almería, Charliecat5.

Saludos desde Almería

[El Gordo]

All rather benign, fortunately; an acceptance that it won't ever happen for us, but that having a go would be an interesting diversion.

Ah, but it did happen, for both of you. Maybe not a specific goal, but there was certainly a lot of happening going on. Wist and rue yes, but also immense joy from time to time. And I gather there will be more to come, next January.

Yes, it did. Thanks. You're right.

As for January..... no wait. OutAlongTheRiver has suffered enough. This hijacking must stop. I'll continue this on the Almeria thread.

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COPIED FROM THE HIJACKED DISCUSSION AT: CLICK
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Where were we? Almeria...

Almeria?  Pffffahhhhh. I'm still definitely planning to go. But I relegated my hopes from 21K to 9K some time ago, after a deeply frustrating month of abstemiousness and rowing and painful plodding left me feeling no convincing improvement in any area -- girth, aerobic fitness, stamina, muscliness, or (worst of all) self belief. Maybe I'm just beyond salvation.

So I stepped down to the 9K, and even that is a long way from reality, bearing in mind that Almeria is one of those events where there's no 'fun run' approach. Truly, one of the worst running memories I have is seeing the plump girl at the very back of the Almeria field, doing something that was probably the most courageous things she'd ever done, having her fragile spirit being crushed beyond repair by the sniggering circus behind her. Hold on, I need to find it. Here it is (and it even mentions wistfulness):

Up and down La Rambla a couple of times. Along to the end of the extended, wind-blown Avenida Maritimo. This stretch is long but it has its compensations. For those of us living far from the sea, the sight of the Mediterranean, and those waving palm trees, can be uplifting. Something happens. A sudden wistfulness that gnaws at my heart: threatening and consoling at the same time.

Out and back, out and back. All the time, confronted with the faster guys coming towards me, whistling past like missiles. After the gliding Kenyans and the best of the rest — the muscular, athletic Spaniards, came the first of our lot: whippet Paul, head down, straining at the leash, face tomato-red and blotchy, gurning angrily, anxious, carrying some appalling burden I’d never experience. Ten or twelve minutes later, in a cloud of steam, Ash appears, scarlet and sweat-glistened, cooking in his clothes, but, in his often used phrase, grinning like a loon. Here’s the long-limbed Nigel, rangy galloping strides, that characteristic, distant smile — the man who knows too much. Antonio: intense, determined, rhythmic. Head up, eyes straight. This is a serious business. And Suzie. Relaxed, beaming, gentle gait, a runner who knows what she’s doing; a runner at peace with herself.

All of us crossing and re-crossing those thresholds, picking up and peering at nuggets of self-doubt before tossing them over our shoulder and out of sight.

Twice I reached the roundabout at the end of the Avenida Maritimo, and twice I had the chance to measure how far I was from the back of the field. The first time, I counted eleven casualties behind me. The second time, just three. There was an elderly couple holding hands, and finally, some way behind, a plump young girl in a red, military sweatshirt, plodding along like her life depended on it. Immediately behind her, just a few feet away, were two police motorbikes with flashing lights, an ambulance, a transit van, and five hundred metres of honking traffic. I’ve never seen anything like it.

I overtook someone — a girl dressed all in white — two kilometres from the stadium. Through that long final stretch towards the stadium, I constantly expected her to float past me again, but she never did. The end of this race was always going to be grim, but it really shouldn’t have been as hard as it was. It had become a marathon survival-shuffle, and it shouldn’t have been.

Let’s end the misery. How nice to hit that ramp and plunge down into the stadium to the finish line. I got home in 2:28, my slowest half marathon in 5 years.

The others were waiting to greet me — thank you. They needn’t have waited, but it meant a lot to me that they did.

The girl in white never appeared, so she must have dropped out in the final mile. The older couple arrived, still holding hands, still grinning. I wanted to clap in the final finisher, the girl who’d led the angry queue of traffic, but I missed her while I was collecting my fleece. But the records show that she finished.

Beatriz Ramos Jorge, we salute you.

I don't want to be the Beatriz of 2017, so I'll have to wait and see how it goes. The Zurich Silvesterlauf in mid-December is already under very serious threat.

[Antonio247]

I remember that race, EG. I found your eagerness to get to the finish line heroic and really great. When I saw you at the Rambla looking tired and still many kilometres away from the finish line, I thought you wouldn't be able to get under the 2 hours thirty minutes cut-off time. It's a pity that in Spain, as you say for the 9 K, there aren't many people interested in just finishing the race no matter how long it takes them. In fact, the 9 k can be done in two hours and a half, and the aim was for people to do it walking if they felt like it but very few people do it that way. The fear of looking ridiculous is, in my opinion,  one of the worst features of  the Spaniards. I'm sure you can do the 9 K even if you had to walk the whole course. I remember when you did Connemara half marathon walking briskly in just a little longer than if you had done it jogging.

[Sweder]

The fear of looking ridiculous is, in my opinion,  one of the worst features of  the Spaniards.

Never a problem with the Brits

[suzieq]

The fear of looking ridiculous is, in my opinion,  one of the worst features of  the Spaniards.

Never a problem with the Brits

And never a problem with Canadians either.  Funny, I was just talking about the race to someone the other day and said that in most races, no matter how slow you are, you won't end up being last, except for this race!  Only the fast runners seem to come out in Spain.
And EG, I remember that race so well; you brought a smile to my face reading about it again.  I'm so looking forward to seeing you all fairly soon.  I'm planning on spending a few days in London before heading to Spain and a couple days after as well.  Still don't know if I'll be running or not...I'm waiting to get surgery to repair my torn ACL, but no word yet.  If I don't have it by then, I'll be running the 9 km race with you EG (which I'll sign up for no matter what!).