Almeria Medio Maraton (merged threads)

[El Gordo]

No Almeria for me this year. I can explain that easily enough, but there's no excuse for almost missing the arrival of the famous weekend. Glad I made one of irregular forays into the Twitter jungle earlier today to catch the great @sweder's updates, though am sorry to hear of the mechanical difficulties currently keeping the plane on the tarmac. Will look forward to the slowly emerging news over the weekend, breaking it as it always does like an egg across a lukewarm frying pan.

That said, I suspect I could write quite a detailed report of the weekend in advance, and without going anywhere near Spain. Though when Ash was here a couple of weeks ago we did talk about Spain's rapidly changing economic landscape, so perhaps there might be some new (and not so good) observations to be made this time around. Will be interested to hear.

But good luck all, and as always, a special greeting (despite my physical absence - interpret that as you will) to our generous host, Antonio, whose bold suggestion back in 2004 has changed and enhanced the lives of so many. We will always be grateful to this most dignified and patient of men, who fetched a bunch of strangers and turned them into friends and better runners. Lawd knows why he bothered, and continues to bother, but we thank him for it.

Greetings to all Almerians -- past, present, and virtual.