VI carrera de la Cruz Roja. 27 April 2008.

[Antonio247]

This race, which is becoming a tradition in my hometown, was on Sunday 27th April. I arrived at about 10:15, picked up my race number and T-shirt. Later, I greeted some friends in the organisation and runners. Then, I saw Santiago, who had taken part at 10 km Carrera del Puerto de Almería. Later, we met Guillermo, who had had an injury for several months. Afterwards, we met Felipe, Mario, Encarna and Pepe. The atmosphere was very good. The day was wonderful, very sunny. There were a lot of immigrants from Africa and people from all ages waiting for the start.

This is a non-competitive race. Most runners put on the Red Cross T-shirt that is given with the race number. The race started at 11 o´clock. It starts at the sea front where there are a lot of palm trees. It goes along the sea front and goes up La Rambla for around one kilometre to go down and reach the sea front again. There are two drink stations in the approximate 7 km course.

I started with my running mates but after two kilometres Guillermo and I remained behind since we couldn´t keep their pace although we felt fine. We cheered some children who ran very fast for some metres overtaking us but had to stop to walk for a while. We advised them to keep a pace they felt comfortable. Actually, one of them kept our pace and we cheered him up when he felt some discomfort and lowered our speed in the last kilometre along the sea front. We all held our arms together when we reached the finish in 40´ 45´´. We were given a medal and we could have a sandwich and a drink.