Madrid minus 13 weeks (I think)

[Riazor Blue]

I’m going to cheat here and start off last Sunday (which for me was last week). Sunday 25th January I ran a half marathon in a place called Viana do Castelo in the North of Portugal. The top bit of Portugal is much nearer to La Coruña than the vast majority of Spain, and given that there have not been too many races in Galicia in January, I decided to give this one a go. The town itself is pretty small, it’s got the Atlantic on one side, then climbs up into the hills and out into countryside on the other. About 500 or so entered and with 15 minutes to go before the start about 450 runners were fighting at the entries desk trying to get their race number. Somehow, everyone received their number in time and we set off only 5 minutes late.

I was told originally that the race was a course of two laps but this year was only one, a little run around the port then an out and back before leading back to the town. I think the term used is ‘undulating’, and it undulated. The crowds in the little villages were pretty enthusiastic, which always helps, but the last 3Km in the town were run on cobblestones. That part hurt the most.

I set off following a couple of runners from the Samil Veterans Club which is based in Porriño, a dormitorty town of 15,000 close to the city of Vigo. Porriño is interesting as it has 3 athletic clubs and 2 cycling clubs, not bad for a place that small. I have seen these guys at many of the races here and usually they are at around my pace. I have a feeling now that they were after PBs on Sunday as I found it hard to keep up and decided to leave them to it at around 7 Km. With the pace I set off, and the topography of the route, I was a little concerned that I’d have nothing left for the final few Kms.

Normally my plan for a half marathon is this:

1st 5KM: Nice and easy, around 5min 5 secs per kilometer.
2nd & 3rd 5Ks : Up the pace to around 4min 45 sec per kilometer.
Last 6 Km: Go flat out. I always tell myself that it’s less than I run every day of the week. (mentally I picture where I am on my normal 8 km circuit around the La Coruña esplanade).

This half ended up with splits:

0-5KM – 23m32s
5-10Km – 23m49s
10-15Km - 23m50s
15-20Km – 23m36s
last km – 4m44s
97metres – 26secs.

Overall that worked out at 4m44s per Km. Given that the course was a leg breaker as they say here, I’m well happy with that. Oh, and I was right, there wasn't much left in the tank at the finish.