Carrera Camino de Santiago

[Riazor Blue]

This year is a holy year. When St. James' Day falls on a Sunday it's a holy year in Santiago de Compostela. So this years Carreira do Camino had special relevance (which meant a medal in the goodie bag).

I'm going to get my excuses in now as I had a pretty dreadful run today. The training hasn't helped, only slow distance runs for a month, then starting on hills again this week.

Going back a bit (as a painful aside) I missed a week of training due to a huge boil forming in just about the worst place imaginable (don't tell anyone, but it was exactly where the scrotum joins the top of the leg) - damned near impossible to walk, let alone run.

Having put you off your dinner, back to today.

The conditions were more or less perfect for running, 14 degrees, no wind, overcast. I warmed up in the car park next to the cathedral, then made my way to the start, i was hoping (rather optimistically) for somewhere around 49 minutes, the race being 12.5km . When the gun went 6000 runners started to applaud and chug forward. I was a little further back than I had intended and things were slow for the first kilometer until we reached a wide dual carriageway. It was probably a mistake to speed up dramatically here to get to the runners who were running at the pace I wanted.

It's a hilly course, Santiago (Galicia is a hilly place). We headed more or less downhill for 3 km, but as the roads were narrow and there were lots of runners, it was difficult to get my speed up on those down hill bits. It had also started to rain, and as there were cobbles and flagstones on parts of the course I was a bit wary of slipping.

Coming round to 5 km, we had started to go uphill again, and by about halfway, I was starting to breath heavily. From 7km to 10km it was uphill, and I was struggling. People were starting to pass me with alarming regularity and I was not enjoying the race at all. I picked up a bit in the last 2.5km which were either flat or downhill but had nothing in the legs to push me that little bit further in the last sprint for home.

I finished in 51'54" , which was 4 minutes faster than last year, but about 4 times harder. I cannot complain though, it is a tough course and it didn't completely co-incide with my training schedule. On a good day....

[Yorkshire Plodder]

Seems a bloody good time to me!! and what's this about "starting to breath heavily by 5km" and "struggling by 10km". I'm usually gasping for breath after the first half kilometre and struggling after 2 kilometres!

[Riazor Blue]

Well thank you YP. With a days breathing space, I'm more satisfied with the run. It was tough yesterday though.

As this is the biggest race in Galicia, I should really make it the focus of my Autumn training even though I prefer 21km as a distance.

I was probably more disappointed by the fact that had I been sharp for the race I could have dropped below 4 mins per KM - a secret target being 3.45 per km for races up to this distance (but don't tell anyone, coz it's a secret).

[Antonio247]

Congratulations, Brian! It´s a pity you had some discomfort for one week but you finished the race very well.

How are you doing with the shop? Are you glad?


Greetings from Almería

Antonio

[Nigel]

4 min / km ?! That must be the fastest group of pilgrims in history.
And you weren't even that fit. Yeah, right.

[Riazor Blue]

OK , I'll tell you the story.

When I opened the shop one guy came n and we started talking. As I think I said when I first started this diary, I've been running for fitness more than anything since I left school. Nothing serious for 20 odd years, just enough to keep me active, especially in the years when I was working overseas (back in the UK it helped with the footie and cricket). Over here I started to take it a bit more seriously, being that I'm over the hill for football.

Anyway, this guy asked me how I did in Betanzos back in May. I replied 92 minutes or whatever it was and he said "oh, so you don't train that much then".

As it turns out he's become a good customer, and comes in to tell me how he's getting on with his triathlon training. He is also great for publicising the shop and many people come along on his recommendation.

But that remark has stuck, and I want to find 7 minutes in half marathon or 3 in a 10k to give him a bit of a race. I don't think I'm too far off now.. if it doesn't come in Ferrol I'm hoping with marathon training I'll have him in Vigo in March (5 more months to clear the lungs out and he'll be there for the taking).

Well, everybody needs a reason for venturing out in the pouring rain when the wind's blowing a force 9 gale in your face.