Sunday. Yesterday afternoon I was supposed to go for an 18 miler. I had asked Atanasio, a colleague from my school, if he would lile to come with me on bicycle as it since he likes practising sport but one hour and a half before the time we were going to start he phoned me to tell me that he wouldn´t be able to come with me because he had been all morning at hospital visiting a friend of his who had been taken there unexpectedly. Although his friend was better, he didn´t feel like going that afternoon because he was too tired for a three hour or more ride. Then, I thought I could go the following day to
Murcia and take part at its
half marathon instead of going to Elche on 28th March. Murcia is 220 kms away from Almería and it takes about two hours to get there.
As I couldn´t sleep well, I left at 5.30 am. I drove along the Rambla where I saw many young people going back home after being at pubs or discos. I didn´t expect to see so many people in the streets at that time but actually here in Spain the atmosphere starts late at night and lasts until the small hours. Then, I filled the car up and went towards Murcia.
http://www.carm.es/ctyc/murciaturistica/...&mun=30030 Before getting there, I stopped at
Puerto Lumbreras, a town in a crossroads between Andalusia and Murcia, where I had three oranges I had carried for breakfast and at the bar a cup of white coffee, which I´m not used to but I was sleepy and needed it and also a cake with cream typical of that region. As I liked it, I bought four more for us to have later. Then, I went to Murcia where I asked some people directions to get to the palacio de los deportes ( Sports palace ) where the race started.
I entered quickly and as it was early I went for a walk around the place which is near a shopping centre. Then, I jogged a little and did some stretching. There were around
1000 runners in the 25th edition of this half. I placed myself behind. It took me half a minute to get to the start and the first minutes we had to go slowly. It was a sunny hot day,from 16º to 29º depending on where the indicators were, in the sun or at a shade.I felt some discomfort in my right sole foot but I managed to go quite well the first 11 kms, taking into account my poor level. I even overtook some runners and went with one for seven or eight kilometres. His name´s
Tomás. He must be around 35 years old and lives in
San Pedro del Pinatar http://www.sanpedrodelpinatar.net/ , in the province of Murcia. He told me that he gave up smoking one year ago and after seven days he got up very early one day feeling he needed a cigarette. He thought that he had two options, either go on smoking or go out for a run. He chose the second and went jogging at 6 in the morning. Since then, he has taken part in several half marathons and he expects to run his first marathon next year. His PB is one hour 57 minutes. He told me that his wife also runs. She was taking part at the half marathon but she was behind. He told me in each kilometre the pace we had and it was 5´20´´ . At km 7 I had done 37 minutes and at km 10 my watched showed 55 minutes. He told me that he preferred to start slowly and if he felt strong, he goes faster the last kilometres. After kilometre 11, I couldn´t follow his pace, so I went alone or sometimes with other runners for a few minutes. It was hot and as I had forgotten to take a suntan lotion, I got a red neck and arms after the race. I tried to run faster to lower two hours but I couldn´t.
My official time is
2 hours 2 minutes and 43 seconds and my real time thirty seconds less, which is my PB. There were water stations every four kilometres instead of the usual five kilometres, which was great since it was a bit hot. The race took place in the outskirts of Murcia and also in the main avenues in the city centre. There weren´t many people in the streets but the volunteers and some spectators cheered us up quite a lot. When I got to the finish, I was given a slip of paper with my official time, a sports bag with a cap, T-shirt, fruit, cereal bars, isotonic drinks, water, etc and we could drink at the stalls Coca Cola, isotonic drinks, beer. I had a glass of an isotonic drink and a coke. I met Tomás at the finish and we talked a little. He had done 1 hour 59 minutes. Oh, if I could have followed him. At the finish I also met a friend called
José Luis and his brother
Bibiano who are from San Pedro del Pinatar. I met them when I was working for two years at
San Javier , near San Pedro del Pinatar, at Mar Menor fifteen years ago. I had phoned him yesterday to tell him that we could meet after the half and they were there cheering up. After having a shower, we went to a bar at the city centre to have two beers and some snacks. I had a free-alcohol beer since I had to drive and it was wonderful to drink something cold after the race. I was wearing my tracksuit trousers and a sweatshirt and we were surrounded by smart people having their Sunday drink with snacks before lunch. In all, it´s been an interesting unexpected experience although I would have liked more to lower the two hour barrier.
