On Sunday 8th March 2009, I left for San José where the I trail Cabo de Gata Níjar had its finish. I arrived there at 8: 20 am and took the coach that the organisation had provided for us and took us to Rodalquílar. It was a beautiful day, sunny with no wind. Later, it was a bit hot, around 25º Celsius. On the way to the place where the race numbers were given I heard two men speaking English, so I asked them if they were from the UK. Actually, they are from Southampton and London but they live in Nerja. Their names are Richard and John. I also met a few other runners from Almería such as David, Javier who had lunch with us at Club de Mar this year, Jose, Juan Pedro who was going to do the race on mountain bike, etc. I did some warming up with Javier. T
he course was a bit steep at the beginning, going near some old gold mines. Then, the course was softer. Nearly all the course was along dirt tracks, paths or dry streams. I met Antonio, who happened to have overtaken me very fast at the stadium at Almería half marathon. I managed to jog along the first 10 km but from there Antonio and I went on jogging and walking fast a bit. We reached another runner called Adrián, from the province of Granada and went together as far as the finish although in the last kilometre I had to slow down a bit since my legs felt exhausted. I arrived the last one in 3 hours 32 minutes after doing around 27 kms. There were a lot of drink stations with water, Aquarius, oranges, bananas, cakes, etc. As we were the last ones we were accompanied by two young women on mountain bicycles who helped us and cheered a lot. When I arrived I was given a bag with a technical T-shirt, an ecological recipient to throw litter, a magazine, tourist leaflets about Cabo de Gata Níjar natural park, a bottle of water, a banana, an orange, etc. At the finish, I was met by Javier who was with a couple.
Although it was a tough race, especially because I haven´t trained much after Almería half, I really enjoyed it since it is great to be far from the asphalt and the madding crowd. Besides, the scenery is great with beautiful cactuses, poppies, wells, windmills, the sea in the background. It is a pity my memory stick moved a little and made me believe it had fallen down after doing a photo. So, I just took some photos at the beginning and at the finish.
Well done Antonio! Looks like an interesting, yet tough race. Nice to get off road for a long race.
While you were running in plus 25 degrees, we were running in minus 25. I'm not sure what I prefer as I find both tough.
Sweder, I attach a photo of the "ecological recipient".
El Gordo, I hadn´t done a long run since Almería half on 1st February. I really find it difficult to go for a long run if I don´t have to, that is, if it is not a competition. Anyway, it is advisable to do a long run since you feel better in the last kilometres in the competition if you are used to long distances.
Bierzo baggie, there aren´t many off-road races in my province. This new one, another one on 5th April at the Tabernas desert but it is just 10 km long. There is a half marathon in May in the north of Almería, which is very steep but not off road. In Granada and Málaga there are more mountain races.
Suzie, it must be really freezing to run at -25º Celsius. I´ve never run under 0 degrees. I prefer +25º Celsius. It isn´t hot here. +35º Celsius or more would be really hard. By the way, how are you doing with your training for London marathon?
If you want to see the Mediterranean stadium again, you can watch tonight at 8 pm ( British time ) on Sky sports 3 Almería v Barcelona.
UD Almería will probably lose but it can be be a great match. If Almería won, Barcelona would be just three points away from Real Madrid, which would give more excitement to the Spanish "liga".
I couldn't imagine running in anything over +25 degrees C. And you couldn't imagine running in -25. It's all what you're used to I guess.
Training is going pretty good. We've completed a few long runs - a couple at 27 km., then one at 31, one at 35.3 and the last one at 36 km. We want to do 42 km. our last long run, but we'll see how that goes. I'm running very slowly though so don't know if I can make 4:30. I'll have to pray that the planets align on marathon day. As I said to EG, I'll be very glad when the marathon is over. Then my life can get back to normal!
