November novelties.

[Bierzo Baggie]

My times for Chus Alonso half marathons are either very fast or very slow. I suspect that this may be because the circuits have been incorrectly measured. A half marathon may range anywhere between 20 and 22kms. For this reason most of my half marathon times over the last 10 years must be treated with a certain scepticism.

Turned up on Sunday morning and signed up for the half marathon. It’s a two lap course and like last year there’s the option of running the full 21kms or just the one 10km lap. Also like last year the 10kms turns out to be well over 11. I rashly signed up for the full half because I haven’t run a half marathon in 2005 and well, I got carried away by the occasion. Hey, there was music, a bloke with a loud speaker and an ambulance flashing its lights (OK, I lied about the bloke with the loud speaker). And the half marathon comes as part of a bumper weekend bonanza of sporting activities promoted by the town hall. The aim is supposedly to encourage people to take up sport as an alternative to more traditional weekend activities such as getting wasted. So, as the posse of lithe athletes limbered up, motorcross fiends performed their stunts on the slagheaps behind the football stadium whilst next to the sports hall a group of aficionados played with remote control cars. Both “sports” attracted a greater audience than the half marathon.

The race was impeccably organized though with changing facilities and an attractive urban circuit where runners and cars were always separated by traffic cones. There was a half decent turnout and most of the local runners were there. Chus Alonso was busy organizing and not racing and perhaps for this reason everything went smoothly. The great Rodrigo Gavela showed up and so did Pedro the lumberjack, Miguel the prof, Luis the footie player and his son, Mr and Mrs ultra-runner (Jacinto and Raquel dos Santos), Pinilla the miner, the sports delegate from the town hall (in his 60s and a great cyclist) and about 80 others… It was an only slightly chilly 8ºC and some runners wore gloves. The Montes Aquilianos and the Ancares mountains in the north were deliciously covered with fresh snow.

Confession time. I ran the first lap and then decided to call it a day. It was still the farthest I’d run since the Toral de los Vados marathon in July. Felt fine but didn’t feel up to the full whack, so I quickly got changed and watched some of the half marathon runners arrive. I reckon the first 6 all finished in 1hour 10 minutes or less. Didn’t get a t-shirt this year but I quite enjoyed the event and might just recommend this one to me mates next year. Now I never thought I’d say that about a Chus Alonso half marathon!
Total running time: 48 minutes.