The day had finally arrived. I had two oranges for breakfast at about eight and two cereal bars at half past eight. The weather was worse than the previous day. When I was going to the hotel, it started to hail a little and drizzle but it lasted only a few minutes. The sun didn´t know whether to shine or not. Actually, it was cloudy , a bit chilly and a little windy. I went to the hotel at 9.00 am. While a bellboy from the hotel took Andy´s car out, M., Andy´s wife, took us a photo and recorded us with a video camera. Each of us said something about our goals in this half marathon. As there had been a mistake with the car taken out, Andy and I went down with the lad from the hotel to take the car out. Finally, we all went towards the stadium. As there were a lot of cars already there, we had to park a bit far away. They all left their things in the cars but I decided to leave mine at the cloakroom since I sweat a lot and I wanted to put my sweatshirt on quickly after the race. We walked to the stadium and I looked for the cloakroom but it was difficult to find and when I got there there was a big queue and it was nearly ten o´clock. I was nervous but we were told that the race would start a few minutes later so that we all could go to the start line. At last, I could leave my bag and ran to the start where I met Andy RC, Andy SP and Suzie. While we were talking, Sergio, the young man from Valencia who I went for a run with on Saturday greeted me and introduced me to another member of the Spanish running forum. We wished each other good luck. Their aim was to do the half marathon under 1 hour 50 and actually they would. I also met my brother Jose, who was going on bicycle to help us if we needed some more water or cereal bars and to take some photos of us. I decided to run at a pace that I felt comfortable with the aim of doing it under two hours although it was a bit unrealistic since I haven´t been able to train much due to injury or illness during the last two months. The first three kilometres were fast since it was downhill. When I passed near my flat, I greeted my wife who was looking out of the window. When we got to the Rambla, there were two kilometres uphill. In this part of the course there were a lot of people cheering. M was there recording the race and when she saw me, she cheered me a lot. I met a few runners. For some of them, this was their first half marathon and were a bit anxious because they weren´t confident about finishing it. I told them not make a big effort at the beginning but if they felt well, they could go faster the last kilometres. One of them was from Burgos but lived in Adra, a little town in the province of Almería. Another one was from Almería but lives in Jaén. We talked about the cold wave and the problems with the frozen pipes in Jaén with plumbers doing their August, making a fortune. I took a bottle of water at each drink station. The next two kilometres were downhill. I met another man from Sevilla. He must be around sixty years old. He told me that he had come with only five or six days training but he had done a half marathon in 1 hour 30 minutes three years ago. He had also run several marathons such as Seville and New York but he had stopped running for a two years and now he had started again. Although I told him to take it easy to avoid injuries, he went down fast and I couldn´t keep his pace. I saw at La Rambla several colleagues from my secondary school who cheered me up and a student who took a picture of me. He was there because his father was taking part as well. After going down the Rambla, we reached avenida Cabo de Gata, which is quite flat. It is parallel to the seafront and protected from the wind by the blocks of flats. When I was in km 8 or 9 with another group of runners, we heard that Haile Gebreselassie was coming. It was great to see him overtake us while we were clapping at him. Later I saw Nigel and Sweder going back to the Rambla. We greeted and cheered each other. Then, I got to a roundabout next to the auditorium Maestro Padilla to go back to the Rambla again along avenida Cabo de Gata where I saw Suzie first, then Andy SP and later Andy RC. We also greeted and cheered each other. At avenida Cabo de Gata, I saw my sister María del Mar and my niece Elena cheering me. When I reached km 15, I noticed that I still kept the 5:40 km pace but I started to feel week. I remember a group of five runners reaching me and one of them told me to join them but I couldn´t follow them. I realised that I wouldn´t be able to lower my last year time because I felt a little weak. So, when I saw my brother taking a photo of me at the Cable inglés, an iron structure from the 19th century built by the British to carry mineral to the ships, I asked him to give me a cereal bar. Later, I had a one minute walk break. When we were near the roundabout again, the wind blew stronger since there were no buildings around. Then, I took Avenida del Mediterráneo uphill. It was nearly km 18. I told my brother to give me another bar of cereal and a bottle of water and took another one minute walk break. Although there were not many people in the avenues, they cheered us. I remember a few people at avenida del Mediterráneo cheering, saying Ánimo, campeón. Ya queda muy poco, which could be translated more or less as Courage, champion. It remains very little. When I got to Sierra Alhamilla road, Suzie reached me. It was wonderful to see her there. She was doing a very clever race, going from less to more just the opposite than me. I tried to keep her pace but I couldn´t so I wished her good luck and told her she could finish under 2 hours ten minutes, which she finally did. Then, I went on and reached the stadium where I saw Nigel and Sweder who cheered me a lot and told me I had to run a lap and a half. I thought it would be just two hundred metres not six hundred! I also saw Suzie getting to the finish while I still had to do one more lap. I was running a little behind a man with a hat. Then, Nigel and Sweder told me Come on, which gave me strength to overtake him finishing in 2 hours 11 minutes, a bit more than I´d expected but glad to finish without too much discomfort. Then, I gave my chip back and they gave me a bag. I went to meet Nigel, Sweder and Suzie and we saw Andy SP arriving in 2 hours 14 minutes and Andy RC in 2 hours 15 minutes. Sweder and Nigel had arrived together in 1 hour 54 minutes and Suzie in two hours 8 minutes. We all went to the athletes´ area where there were some drinks and other things. I picked up my bag and we all went to the cars talking about the race. After having a cereal bar, we left to get changed.
My brother Jose and I met them at nearly three o´clock at a restaurant by a marina. The members of the RC team were all wearing the T-shirt that we were given the previous day but I didn´t since I didn´t know they were going to wear it. They gave me a book called The Adventure of English with some sentences of dedication in English and Spanish and their signature. I thanked them a lot for their present. They also gave me some running magazines. We had paella for the first course and for the second course some of us chose cod with potatoes and others beef with vegetables. For dessert we had ice-cream or crême caramel. To celebrate we asked for a bottle of Catalan cava, similar to champagne. I really enjoyed the meal and after lunch chat. We had a very nice time talking about the race, marathons and other topics. Then, we left towards their hotel and said goodbye at about 6pm. They thanked me for everything but I said that it was me who thanked them a lot since they had decided to come to take part at my local half marathon, which had given us the chance to meet.
In the evening, I took them a CD with the photos my brother had taken since he had the idea that we could give them a copy to take home. Unfortunately, they were out of the hotel, so I just gave the receptionist the copies so that they could get them later.
It´s been a really great experience to meet you here. I expect we can have other gatherings anywhere in the future. It´s wonderful to be able to talk to people you´ve known through the internet. I´d like to thank you all for coming here. It´s a pity that it has been so short but it´s been worth while. I´d like to thank Andy RC for having created this website that has made possible to meet such wonderful people not only in the net but also in the real world.
Almería half marathon. 30th January 2006
