There are people who spend all their life in the pursuit of happiness. I think that I´ll spend of my life in doing a half marathon under two hours. I think it is good to have a goal that you think it is possible to reach because it makes you feel motivated.
This is the second year I take part at Benidorm half marathon. It is a rather peculiar race since the marathon and half marathon are held on the same day. The former starts at 8:30 am and the latter at 10 am. Besides, you meet people from the marathon in several places depending on their pace and yours.
I had managed to go the previous day and stayed at La Era Park hotel with Manuel and Pere who live in Barcelona. They were going to take part in the marathon race. I picked up my race number, chip and a bag with a T-shirt, a bar of chocolate, some gel, leaflets, etc.
On Sunday it was a warm day. The temperature was around 20º Celsius and there were some people sunbathing on the beach or having a drink in the sea front cafés and pubs and I even saw a few swimming in the sea.
I went with Manuel and Pere to the start line, which is a the town hall and very near our hotel. We wished each other good luck. There were around 400 marathon runners. A few minutes after the start, I heard through the loudspeakers that a young woman who had been two years in coma because of a motorcycle crash was going to do the half marathon with crutches in order to raise money for a charity. Everybody clapped a lot and when I saw her later in the race both runners and public encouraged her a lot.
Before the race and while queuing for the toilet, I met a man from near Birmingham who had come for a week and who has taken part at London marathon with a good for age entry. There were a lot of harriers from the UK with the name of their hometown, others with a text like We´re running for Jackie, The Luke appeal, etc. There were also runners from other countries such as Belgium, The Netherlands apart from many parts of Spain. It was funny to hear people speaking in English, Spanish, Valenciano ( The Catalan language spoken in the region of Valencia ), etc.
It took me one minute to get to the start line and at the beginning we had to go carefully because there were a lot of people, around 1700 runners. I felt well and I managed to go to a 5´20´´ pace for the first 8 kilometres but afterwards, I felt some discomfort in my thighs which made me slow down. We went along the sea front towards the west and back towards the city centre with people sitting at the cafés having breakfast or at the pubs having a beer at 11:30 am. Then, we went towards the outskirts with a long hill to go back to the town hall.
I met some female runners from Brighton and Hove while climbing the hill in km 16. I told them about The Snake that Sweder often mentions. They told me that they took part at Brighton 10 km last Sunday. They also told me that it was too hot for them. I couldn´t keep their pace on the downhill but I met them at the finish. When I was going downhill, I saw Manuel going up the hill and a few minutes later I also saw Pere. We wished each other good luck.
In the last kilometre a young woman from near Coventry reached me and we talked a little about The Lady Godiva half marathon in October in Coventry and Jane told me that she has taken part in London marathon twice. We arrived together in two hours eleven minutes real time. We congratulated each other and picked up the glass memento and took out our chips. We said goodbye and I wished her a happy weekend and a safe journey back home since she was leaving the next day. Later, I picked up a little bottle of water, an orange, a chocolate and a glass of Coke. In went to the guardarropa ( left baggage ?) where I picked up the bag I had left and changed my T-shirt . A few minutes later, I saw Manuel and Pere who had done the marathon in 3 hours 45 minutes and 3 hours 58 minutes respectively. We asked a Belgian man, Christian, to take a photo of us with Manuel´s camera. He told us that he had finished the marathon in 3 hours 59 minutes. He also said that it had been his sixth marathon in Benidorm and he had taken part in two half marathons there as well.
Although I didn´t reach my goal, I had a good time. I´ll go on in the pursuit of lowering the two hour barrier in another half marathon.
Benidorm half marathon. 26th Nov 2006.
