Mojácar 2006

[Antonio247]

Last Saturday, 26th August, was a sunny lovely day. As the race was at 8:30 pm, I left from Almería at 5 pm to have a swim and sunbathe before it and arrived at Mojácar, a Moorish style white village on a hill, 85 km away from my hometown. At the start, I met Riccardo and his wife Anna, whom I had met at this race three years before. He took part at Almería half this year. They come from Italy but spend a few months at Aguamarga, another village near there. I told them that I had trained very little this summer but It had become a sort of tradition to take part in this race. However, he told me he had trained well. I also met Phillipe, a young man from Paris who spends his holidays in Mojácar. He told me he did not take part at Paris marathon this year and he had also trained very little. I also met Diego, a man who took part at the Red Cross race in Almería and at Cartagena half marathon.

The course was the same as the previous year. I started at the back with Riccardo. The first kilometres are downhill and everybody starts very fast. Soon, I could see only Riccardo and a couple who were in front of us. However, I had to slow down and I was the last one for a long time since I couldn´t keep Riccardo´s pace. Actually, he overtook the couple. After the downhill, we reached the road to the town but we went towards a resort with houses with a garden.. On the way, I saw a young man who could not go ahead since he was injured. We wished each other good luck. I could see the runners going back while I was on my way to the place where we turned back. There, I saw a runner who could not breathe well and the volunteers were telling him to get in an ambulance but he refused. Later, I felt a bit tired and decided to walk for a minute to avoid an injury. Then, I saw the man was behind me walking. I went on jogging but I felt some discomfort in my right calf so I had to walk a little but I managed to jog again. Then, when, we were around one km and a half from the finish, the man behind told me to go together if I liked, which I was eager to accept. In fact, before his request, I had expected him to reach me so that we both could get to the finish together. He told me that while he was drinking water in the previous water station, the water followed the wrong conduct and he did not feel well but he wanted to finish. We had to do the last part walking because he felt a terrible discomfort in his legs when running but not walking. I think that was good for me, since I also felt some discomfort in my right calf and the uphill is hard to go jogging. He told me that his name was Manuel and he was 65 years old and a native from Mojácar but he went to work to France, near the Spanish border in Catalonia. The last metres we went jogging and when we arrived holding our hands, people clapped a lot. We picked up a bag with a postcard from Mojácar, a small T-shirt since there were not any larger ones left, a bottle of water and some pears. Later, I met Riccardo and his wife, Anna, who had kept my camera and car key. Riccardo had a beer and I had an alcohol-free beer at the Cruzcampo stand. As Diego asked me if I could take him to Almería since the couple he had come with were going to San José and he wanted to get his medal for being the fourth in his category, Veterans C, we waited to the trophy ceremony. Surprisingly, while I was taking some photos, I heard that I had been the fourth in my category, Veterans B. This is the second time I go to get an award. The first time was in Dalías three years ago to get a box of vegetables for being the last one in that race.

http://www.viva-almeria.com/mojacar_pueblo_p21.php