Races and stuff.

[Bierzo Baggie]

Ponferrada without my car 10K
Back to normal, or near normal events. There were two of them in October. The annual “Ponferrada without my car” 10K is one of several events to mark the European Mobility week which in turn aims to promote cleaner, more environmentally friendly towns and cities. Ironic then that at 10 o’clock on a Sunday morning the only cars on the streets were those of runners on their way to the “Ponferrada without my car” race.

After Villamanín my left calf muscle went pop and I’d been hobbling around ever since so had to take this one carefully. Ran with Miguel Mushroom and enjoyed a pleasant city centre circuit with contrasting views of the Templar’s castle, the old part of town, the futuristic new bridge over the River Sil and the 30-storey skyscraper that has suddenly sprung up in the middle of nowhere like some demented toadstool. For sure, the place has transformed enormously since I passed through here for the first time in 1994 from a bleak, coal stained miner’s town ringed with slagheaps to some sort of Spanish “new town” full of new flats, roundabouts and fountains.

We finished together in 46 minutes and this was a personal best for MM by over 10 minutes.

Subida al Morredero
This was probably my best race last year. Didn’t see El Chepas this time but there was a good turnout from the usual suspects. Chugged steadily upwards and only really suffered in the last 2 or 3 kms where a merry succession of hairpins take you up to the base of the Morredero ski station.

Right at the end I noticed a lady runner doubling the final hairpin immediately below me and with another couple of hundred metres she’d have caught me. She had a funny running style, understandably so after 23 kms running uphill and for some reason I thought she’d taken up running quite recently, maybe after years of inactivity. She certainly didn’t look like a seasoned athlete and I hoped I hadn’t sounded patronising when I congratulated her for finishing so well. Anyway, when I was looking at the classification back home the name Ana Isabel Alonso rang a bell. Did a quick google.

Ana Isabel Alonso; Maratón 2:26:51 (15/10/95) San Sebastián; Record de España.
This record still stands.

She’d be in her mid-40s now and I suppose that now she just runs for fun.. but all the same, it’s the first time I’ve come in before a famous athlete. And the funny thing is that nobody else seemed aware that the Paula Ratcliffe of Spanish running was taking part in this event.