This is the first time I take part in a mountain race. I took part in it by chance since on Sunday I learnt about the race on the internet and all the entries had been already taken but the organisers offered a few more. So, I phoned Ángel, the organiser of this race in Atarfe, a town near Granada and he told me that I can take part. I just had to do a 10 bank transfer the following day send my entry by e-mail.
So, on Saturday 24th February I drove with my brother to a place called La Ermita near Atarfe with a beautiful view of Sierra Nevada with snow in that range of mountains in the background. I picked up my race number and went to my car. It was a beautiful sunny day. There was a forest in the north which was the route we had to take at 10:30 am. I had called a friend I met when we were in the army many years ago. I hadn´t seen him for a few years and as he lives in Granada now, I suggested that we could meet there. Gregorio arrived with his partner, Encarni. We had a very good time talking about the past and the present. They like hiking and he suggested going to Sierra Nevada one day and go skiing. I´d really love to go one day.
At 10:35, after a few words from one of the organisers on the course, the drink and food stations, etc the race started. At the beginning, we took a dirt track downhill to turn uphill towards the forest and then we took a narrower track on the left in the forest. After that, we went out of the forest to the northern part of the area with a view of Embalse de Cubillas a reservoir. Then, we went along a very narrow track and I saw some runners overtaking quickly. They were the best ones who had taken the wrong path and were coming back very fast and a bit angry. In the first kilometres I went at a 7 m pace per kilometre but afterwards it was difficult to keep that pace since there were really hard steep hills both up and down which made me walk slowly uphill and very carefully downhill to avoid falling down. I was the last one but in km 8 I reached a man and we went together and had a good time talking. As a matter of fact, Jaime was the person who had written down about this race on the internet and it was because of his commenting on it that I decided to enter. He took part in Ronda 101 km last year and he´s going to take part at Almería 103 km in April. In fact, he´s going to take part at Mont Blanc trail race in August. He is from Madrid but he lives in Málaga. He is a lawyer. After a few kilometres we were reached by Juan Manuel, who belonged to the organisation. He told us that he had kept company with two girls but they were advised to leave the race because they were too slow since they had reached kilometre five in one hour and the time limit was four hours. The second part was tougher with parts which had to be done walking carefully since there were very steep downhills and uphills in narrow tracks. There were some drink and food stations offering water or an isotonic drink and in others fruit as well. There was plenty of drinks and food even for us the last ones. Jaime started to feel exhausted and told me to go ahead but I answered that we would arrive together. In the last two kilometres we met Ángel, one of the organisers, who had been checking everything the whole week inn the afternoons after work. After a short but very steep hill which we had to do putting our hands on the soil, we arrived at the finish in three hours 58 minutes and got a lot of claps. We had a Coke, bananas, sort of Cornish pastry with ham, a sort of chocolate croissants and were given a travelling bag with a cap and a T-shirt. Afterwards, we saw the prize giving and had a plate of paella and a soft drink.
I really liked the experience since it is very interesting to run in the nature and you are not so worried about the time you do since you have to change your pace a lot. Although I finished quite well, I felt stiff legs the following days which prevented me from going for a run in four days.
Great stuff Antonio. Looked at some of the pictures on your friend's blog and I think you play it down a bit. "Very steep" should be translated as "shockingly rocky and mountainous". What was the overall "desnivel"?
Well done... sounds like you paced it really well!
The overall "desnivel" was 1200 metres,BB. It was hard but more interesting than a urban half marathon. By the way, congratulations on the P. Ejido - Ponferradina 1-1 draw yesterday. I wish Ponderradina could remain on the second division and UD Almería could promote to the first division!
Sweder, we were lucky with the weather since the previous days it had rained and on Saturday it was a wonderful sunny day which made "sunny Spain" seem to be a right expression. Actually, we´ve had a very sunny winter and the temperatures have been ranging 18-22º Celsius here on the Mediterranean. You should come again and bring rain!
Congratulations Antonio. Sierra Nevada sounds more than hills. There are big mountains there, so it must be difficult... but really nice. You are lucky!
I´m not used to this kind of terrain but I´d love to get used to it. It´s wonderful to be in touch with nature and go uphill and downhill. It´s more difficult to guess the time you will do because it depends on more factors than in a urban race but it also gives you more scope to enjoy the race without thinking much of the time you´re doing. Besides, it´s great to have to walk sometimes without feeling guilty.
The nice thing about taking part in off-road races, especially hilly ones, is that time is more or less irrelevant. The most important thing is to finish before the pubs open
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph
Mid Life Crisis Man Wrote:Surely it would be better to finish as the pubs open? All that crying and wailing outside a locked pub always seems a bit infantile...
Call me an old traditionlist but I do like to wring the sweat out of me jockeys before lifting the first ale after a run . . . :o
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph
Congrats on the race, another one for my diary. One thing that impresses me about Spain is they know how to stage a race and look after the competitors. I've been a bit quiet recently I've got Wilmslow half next weekend then Grizedale 10 mile the week after, keep you posted.
I carrera por montaña. Atarfe 24-II-2007
