This year I couldn't complain about any discomfort in my left calf or any other niggles. However, the discomfort or pain had to appear. This year was also different since no Running Commentary member came to take part in my local half. We missed that nice atmosphere and we didn't even go to have some tapas after the race or take the traditional photo with the half marathon T-shirt at La Rambla fountain.
On Saturday afternoon I went with a friend, Jose, who was going to take part in his first half marathon race, to the expo where we picked up our race numbers and the goodie bag with the t-shirt, the pack of tomatoes and other objects. Jose was Manuel' s brother-in-law. Manuel was a great person, wonderful sportsman who took part in many races all over the world. Unfortunately, he died of cancer nearly two years ago. The atmosphere was nice with many stalls with information on several races or selling sports material such as T-shirts, shorts, leggings trainers, bicycles or charities informing about their activites such as Alcer, to become a kidney donor or Dárata, to help autistic children ...
On Sunday morning, I went to Felipe’s house. From there we went in his car to the expo where we met a few well-known friends who were also going to take part in the race such as Diego, Isa, Alberto, Antonio L., etc. We couldn’t find Jose in spite of his phoning me so that we could go together from the start. This year the number of runners has been the highest so far, nearly 4500 runners including the 9 K and the half marathon.
Although it had been a very windy night, in the morning the wind calmed down. I started with Felipe feeling confident, without any discomfort. At the beginning it was too crowded to run well. The public cheered a lot. The first five kilometres are steep. I think I went too fast without having warmed up enough. At km 3.5 I felt some pain in my left calf so I had to slow down because the race was too long for me to have to withdraw. At the drink station at km 5, I decided to drink my bottle of water while I was walking. It reminded me of Suzie who is fond of the run and walk strategy. Then we went downhill towards carretera de Ronda and carretera de Granada. I felt better going down. We got to the Rambla and then the bull ring and after that towards the city centre. I started to talk to a girl who told me it was her first half marathon race. At km 10, just past Paseo de Almería, at the drink station I also started to walk while drinking. I went along Nicolás Salmerón park but I couldn’t reach the girl again. We went back at Pescadería neighbourhood towards the port. On the way back I saw Jose. I asked him how he felt and told him he would reach me since I had some pain in my left calf. After the port in km 13 we took Avenida Cabo de Gata where my wife Carmen was standing cheering me and took some photos.Then I went on to reach my mother’s street where my brother took some photos of me. From there the Youth stadium was quite nearby but before getting there in km 15 I felt some pain in my right calf as well. Then we went out of the stadium to go along my mother’s street where my brother, Jose, took other photos and some neighbours cheered me. At avenida Cabo de Gata I met another girl, Sara, who had some pain in her soleo muscle. We went together cheering each other, walking from time to time. I also met an old friend who was helping as a volunteer in a crossing in km 18. Sara and I managed to pass some runners who were exhausted and arrived at the stadium raising our arms.
The atmosphere was fantastic at the stadium, Santi and Felipe, who had done a very good race, were waiting for me. I had some water, a banana there. We waited for Jose to arrive. He was tired but very glad to have been able to finish his first half marathon in spite of having had some pain the last week.
We went into the expo where we enjoyed the so called “third time” when you’re given drinks, nuts, crips, cold meat, bread and we had a very good time chatting and talking about new races we’d like to do. I went down to the homage held for Florencio, a great runner and person, who died of cancer last year. We also picked up our medals and they were our time was engraved.By the way, Felipe was third in his category but we didn’t realise. However, one day after he got a mail from the organisation telling him that he could pick up his trophy at the organisation headquarters.
Looking forward to meeting old a new friends next year in my hometown for our local half marathon race.
XIX Medio maratón de Almería
