It all started on the internet. I met Manuel, who lives in Barcelona, but he comes from Pechina, a little town near Almería, three years ago when he wrote a post in the carreraspopulares.com asking for an Almerian to go for a run with him when he came on holidays in Almería. I answered and we met in Almería and went for a run along the sea front. We´ve met every time he has come to Almería and gone for a run in several places in Almería. Two or three months ago, he phoned me and told me that he´d like to write another post and organise an informal race from Pechina town hall to Baños de Sierra Alhamilla, a spa in the mountains 8 km away and back as we had done several times before. There were some people interested in a first attempt that we did in mid November but finally only Manuel, Pepe , a young man from the area and myself took part. It was a lovely sunny day and the experience was really great. The three of us went together and it took us 59 minutes to climb and 49 minutes to go down along a path to the town hall. The sports councillor, Raúl, who had heard about this informal race, was very interested and came with us by car and took some photos. As we enjoyed it, we decided to do it again at Christmas when Manuel came and the local council decided to help Manuel organise it by including the race in the Christmas local programme of events, helping with the drink stands and giving the runners a bag of goodies.
Then, last Saturday 23rd December, 11 runners and four mountain cyclists met at the town hall where we entered and took the race numbers that Manuel had printed. The day was cloudy but we all were very glad to take part in this new race. There came people from Almería who live far away. A policeman on motorbike opened the way for the first two kilometres. We started all together from the Town Hall square and went to the lonely road that takes us to the spa. It is steep, especially the last kilometre. After one or two kilometres, the faster runners took the lead and I remained the third in the queue. There was a girl and a young man behind me. It started to rain softly but later it would be heavily but it doesn´t matter since we need rain. When I reached the summit, I was offered water or Aquarius. I chose water. I was glad since I had done the climb in three minutes less than the previous time. Up there, it is a sort of little village with a spa and a hot water spring. It looks like an oasis in the desert with palm trees.
I took the path downhill. I was reached by Raúl, the local councillor, who had accompanied the girl but she decided to go back by car since she was very tired. We went down together talking about several topics, especially the race. He told me that his idea was to organise the race every year at the end of October when there is a festival in the town and ask for a small entry fee which would go to a local charity. I think it is a wonderful idea. Finally, we reached the finish at the town hall where we met the other runners and cyclists who cheered us a lot. I did the way back in 46 minutes three less than the last time.
Manuel gave some trophies he had brought to the mayor who gave them to the winners and a framed photo of our last climb to all the participants. He had also brought some presents that he raffled and the local council gave each participant three pairs of socks from Almería 2005 Mediterranean Games and a bottle of Rioja red wine. Raúl, the local councillor made a speech thanking us for coming and saying that they wanted to organise this race every year in a non-competitive way and with a symbolic fee for a local charity, probably the local association against cancer. Afterwards, we were invited by the local council to have drinks and a lot of tapas such as “migas”, meat, squids, etc. We had a good time talking about our next challenges and about this interesting race. After wishing each other a happy Christmas, we all left the bar very glad to have taken part in this beautiful race.
As you can see, the first four photographs are from 23rd December, while the fifth and the sixth are form the12th November while the last one was taken in September last year.
II subida a los Baños de Sierra Alhamilla
