I decided to take part at this new race just a few days before the competition. Although I suggested doing it a few weeks before, I didn´t feel much like it but Juan Pedro, another English teacher persuaded me to enter with him and Juan Jesús, a faster runner, who is a traumatologist. So, on Sunday 1st April at 6:15, they picked me up and we went to El Pilar de la Horadada, a small town in the province of Alicante just on the border with the region of Murcia.
http://WWW.pilardelahoradada.org We went along the motorway to Murcia and got to the town at about 9:15 after having breakfast at a café in the province of Almería.
At El Pilar, I met José Luis, a friend of mine who I had met when I was a teacher at San Javier secondary school, which is near El Pilar. He has a food shop and lemon groves. After picking up our race numbers and chips we took some photos and Juan Jesús left to take a position in front.
In spite of the weather forecast, it was a sunny day instead of the predicted rain. The start line was at calle Mayor, High street. There were around 450 runners among them Martín Fiz and Abel Antón who came to promote the race. They were world marathon champions a few years ago. I met Abel Antón at San Silvestre El Ejido last year where he also took part. I also talked to a runner who was wearing a Carreraspopulares.com singlet and a sort of umbrella as a hat. There was also a young runner who was running with a push car and his baby on it.
First, the course went out of the town to come back to the town centre where you could see people near the church with palms since it was Palm Sunday. Then, we went along the outskirts to Playa de la Horadada seafront. I felt quite well doing each kilometre at a 5:35 pace. We went along some resorts with foreign people cheering, mainly from the Uk. I did km 10 in 56 minutes and I thought I could finish under two hours but after a few kilometres, I noticed that I couldn´t keep that pace. Anyway, in the last kilometre I managed to overtake a local runner who told me that El Pilar de la Horadada used to belong to Orihuela but 20 years ago they became independent. I also overtook a woman who was running accompanied by her husband and son on bicycles. I managed to finish in 2 hours 4 minutes and 30 seconds. I picked up my bag with a technical T-shirt with the images of Martín Fiz and Abel Antón, a small trophy, an agenda, an orange, a bottle of water, some biscuits, etc. There were some physiotherapists massaging the runners who felt like it. I met Juan Jesús who had arrived in one hour 27 minutes, just two minutes after Abel Antón and afterwards we met Juan Pedro who arrived in 2 hours 19 minutes because he had had some discomfort and hadn´t trained much. We saw Abel Antón and asked him to be in a photo with us. He was very friendly and Juan Pedro gave him greetings from another Almerian runner. After having a shower we went to a bar with José Luis and had a drink and mussels, octopus, Spanish omelette, etc. José Luis didn´t let us pay. Then, we drove back to Almería along a new toll motorway from Cartagena to Vera.
To sum up, it was an interesting experience since we had a good time although I didn´t manage to do the half under 2 hours but I am glad because I felt all right and I think that I´ll be able to one day.
I Medio Maratón El Pilar de la Horadada
