New objective : Almería half marathon

[Antonio247]

After the race we deserved a good meal at Club de Mar. There I met the Spanish armada: Encarna, Pepe, Javier, Mario, Antonia, Guillermo, María, Pilar, Santiago and Teresa as well as the English armada : Paul, Ashley, Nigel, Steve, Terry, Jeremy, Andy, Claire, Simon, Gill, Gary, Julie, Darryl and shared the experiences of this half marathon where the false start and the new start one hour later was the main comment. Apparently it happened because one of the people on motorbike followed the red line which was for the 10 km runners on their way back. The meal was all right. I enjoyed it and helped to explain the waiter the dishes for those who didn´t eat meat or fish. At the end I raised my glass of “cava” to thank all the English people for coming here to take part in this local half in spite of the difficulties arisen such as the lack of flights to Almería and we drank a toast for those mates who couldn´t come this year although they would have loved to come. Then, Pepe told me that one of the English group should say some words in Spanish and English. So I told Nigel and he spoke very well in both Spanish and English. When we finished, we said goodbye and some of them went to Molly Malone to watch the football matches and have a few drinks.

On Monday evening, I went to Molly Malone. There I saw Santiago who was having a beer. I ordered half a pint of Guinness but I was told there wasn´t any left. Apparently a group of English people had emptied the Guinness keg. So I had half a pint of Murphy. A little bit later, Steve, Jeremy and Terry arrived. They insisted on paying me a beer since my glass was nearly empty. A little bit later, Ashley, Nigel, Gill, Simon, Andy, Claire and Darryl arrived. They told me that some of them had done the Baños de Sierra Alhamilla run. I didn´t go because I had to go with my mum to hospital for a gastroendoscopy test. She was diagnosed as having a hiatus hernia. We had a good time there talking and took some pictures inside and outside before going to “El Quinto Toro” bar. There, we sat and ordered some Rioja bottles, jugs of beer, ham, cheese, meat with garlic, meatballs, “patatas a lo pobre” ( potatoes cut in flat slices with green pepper ) and tomato meat. We drank a toast for those running mates who couldn´t come, especially Andy and Chris. We also had a very good time there. Afterwards, we went to the Molly Malone again where I had a coke because Ashley insisted me on having something. As it was very late and we had to work on the following day, when Nigel said he was going to the hotel, we also left and said goodbye and wished them a safe journey home. Due to the problems with traffic and air traffic in the UK due to the snow, they thought they would have to spend the night at Murcia airport or Gatwick. We´d like to have said goodbye to Gary and Julie but they hadn´t come. So, we told Nigel to come with us in Santi´s car to take him to the hotel but he needed to walk a little.

Well, it has been great to meet the new people who have taken part in this local race as well as those who already knew what it was like. As usual, the race is just an excuse to have a good time all together and meet people who share the same hobby.