12 Weeks to Toral de los Vados 2005

[Riazor Blue]

After my tempo run on Friday, I awoke on Saturday with an aching right calf. Not too much of a problem except that Sunday was the Vig-Bay half marathon. I took a couple of ibuprofen first thing and took a tub of ‘hot rub’ to the shop with me. I spent the morning massaging the calf with the hot rub every two hours and by closing time, and after a couple more ibuprofens I could not feel the calf. Well, you know what I mean, I hope, it wasn’t hurting.

The race itself was fine. I had deciced to try out a pair of ‘Paula’ style long compression socks. ‘reduces uscle fatigue’ and ‘minimizes impact on achilles tendon’ said the blurb. I was curious to see how they would perform. The day was great for running, not too hot, sunny and with a breeze, my only complaint about the socks before the race started was that my calves would remain milky white like the the zone above the hem line of my short tights. I was imagining how silly I would look on the beach this year with an eight inch band of tan, from just below the knee to to half way up the thigh.

The race follows the coast road from Samil beach in Vigo to Baiona, making a short detour in Nigran to take in America Beach. The first eight or nine kilometers go uphill, then it’s flat or downhill for the rest. Given the conditions, and more importantly, how I felt, I decided to forget about the HRM and just run. I passed 5km in around 22 minutes, 10km in 43 minutes and 15 in around 1hour four minutes. We had water at 5km then cans of isotonic drink at 10, 15 & 20km. It’s good that race organizers are providing isotonic drinks these days, but water would have been nice aswell. The cans were awkward to drink from on the run and I had a very sticky hand and arm for the 2.5km between the drinks and the sponges.

As we came into Baiona at around 20km, Sampedro breezed passed (as he does… ) we had wished eachother luck at the start, but I had left him to do his own thing as this was his last biggie before Madrid. I didn’t have time to chat with him afterwards as I was on publicity duties (handing out fliers), so I do not know if he was happy with his run or not. Given his lack of training in Dublin, it wasn’t bad in my opinion. I chugged on to the finish in 1 hour 29 and 40 seconds on the official clock (1:29:07 on mine).

On the whole, this race gets better every year. The organization is spot on. Fruit, drinks, ‘roscon’ at the finish, the baggage is there waiting, and so are busses to the showers. The course is interesting, there’s a chance to run a good time etc, etc. I have read on some of the forums here that some people do not want to pay 6 pounds just to run. In my opinion, it’s they who are missing out on a great little race. Here’s looking forward to next year.

Two other details, one sad, one happy.

A Lugo runner, Alejandro López collapsed just after the start of the race. After receiving heart massage and mouth-to-mouth he was transferred to hospital where at the time of writing he remains in a coma. There but for the grace of god go all of us. I’m sure that all runners’ thoughts are with him and his family.

Good news now. Regular readers may remember that I have a photo of the finish of San Sebastian in 2003 by the side of my computer. I’m in frame, being beaten by a lady runner who happenes to be from Galicia. She’s beaten me in Vig-Bay last year, where she had to batle through some unsporting gents who wouldn’t let a female runner pass them, beat me in Ordes, and in a few other races aswell – but I beat her in Ferrol last December. I’ve mentioned her in various posts. Anyway, Isabel Sixto is her name and she’s obviously been training well as this year she finished in 1 hour 27 minutes, but more importantly, third lady overall. A huge, huge well done to her, and I’ll resign myself to eating her dust again in Arteixo in May.

By the way, the Paula socks actually work. I didn't even have a twinge in the calves after the race, nor Monday or Tuesday.