Gracias, Sw. I´m afraid that in the next photos the skies won´t be so blue.
Here it goes.
Sunday 28th January 2007
When I first looked out of the window on Sunday morning, I saw it was windy. Fortunately, the wind went down later and it wasn´t so windy at the race except in the part near the sea with no buildings where it could be noticed a little. On my way to my brother´s house, I met Antonio L, the man who encouraged me to go running again five years ago. I gave him a lift to the stadium after picking up my brother. We left the car at the stadium car park and met a man from Málaga who happened to be an athletics umpire. He had been a fast long distance runner when he was young. At the stadium, I met Riccardo from Italy because I had collected his bag with the race number the previous day. After that, I went to the car park where I met some running friends and PaulK. We went back to the stadium where we met the other RC members. As Sweder did not come back from the baggage place, I went to see him among a lot of people trying to find their race number ticket to put it in the bag. I told the lady who was helping as a volunteer to lend us a pen so that we could leave it quickly because the race was about to start. Then, we left and met our colleagues on the way to the start. We passed through a codified mat an waited for the start. There, I saw Riccardo, Encarna and Guillermo. When the runners in front started running, we went off but we didn´t see another codified mat so that we could know our real time at the end of the race. I saw a young man running and kicking a ball so well that it did not bother anyone. He looked so comfortable. I greeted Germán, an old runner who comes from Madrid and he always runs with a t-shirt with the Cuban and Spanish flag. He told me that he would take it easy sicne he hadn´t trained for ten months due to an injury. Actually, he arrived the last but one holding hands with a woman.
I felt quite well so I headed off watching Sweder in front of me. I managed to go at a 5:20 pace the first kilometres. I think it was a good idea to shorten the Rambla hill since it gave me wings to go down the Rambla. I saw some people in the public who greeted me because we are friends. I saw my brother at avenida Cabo de Gata taking photos. I saw PaulK going back and Sweder later. When I came back from the Nueva Almería roundabout, I saw Nigel, then, Guillermo who told me that he would reach me. In fact, he had been running with Encarna but she decided to do the 10 km since she had been ill recently. Then, I greeted Suzie and later Andy. At Zapillo square I smelled of churros from Rosita café. I went on to climb the Rambla again. Here I met a reporter called Nigel who was recording the race and making people behind laugh a lot. I tried to follow him but I couldn´t so I went with Manolo, a man who organises the 24 hours in Almería ( running and mountain biking ). We went down the Rambla to see first Manlo´s wife and later Carmen, Paquito and Adrián cheering us. Then, we went along Avenida Cabo de Gata to Nueva Almería and up Avenida del Mediterráneo to the stadium where I saw Sweder and Encarna cheering. I felt fine doing the final lap and a half and managed to arrive in 2 hours 2 minutes 47 seconds according to my watch. After giving the chip back I was given a raincoat and a rucksack with several things. I met Nigel there and we congratulated each other. An old man asked Nigel where he was from and they talked a little. The man said goodbye and told him to tell his president to give us back Gibraltar. Then, we met Sweder and Encarna . There, we waited for Suzie and Andy to arrive. My friend Felipe, who couldn´t run because of illness, came down to congratulate us. After having a look at the prize giving and greeting Antonio Orta, the man in charge of the half marathon at the local Sports Department, we left the stadium.
After a well deserved shower, I went to pick the RC team members at their hotel. They were having a beer at the bar. Sweder asked me if I wanted one but I refused. We went to the sea front where we had the official post race photo taken with several cameras. We all were wearing the half marathon T-shirt that we were given the previous day. Then, we got into the restaurant Building at the sea front where we found at the table some garlic crème and some almonds to start with as an appetiser. We ordered a jug of beer and we had paella as the main course and as a starter they had ham soup and I preferred some salad.. For dessert, some of them had cheese cake and Nigel and myself chose almond crème which was really great. After that, we had a cup of coffee except me. I preferred a cup of poleo, sort of mint tea. We had a really good time and I think that the relationship quality price was very good. I mean it was very good value. After the wonderful meal, I took them to Molly Malone at Paseo de Almería. Unfortunately, I had to go back home but the fiesta would continue on Monday afternoon and evening.
10th Almería half marathon. 28th January 2007
