On Saturday 29th December I went to El Ejido San Silvestre race. This is the seventh consecutive year I go. However, this year it is one kilometre shorter since it is ten kilometre long. It is still five laps but each one is 200 metre shorter so that it can be included in the Spanish federation calendar as an officially approved 10 km race.
I went with Felipe, another teacher of English and Isabel who owns a company related with sea sports in Almería such as windsurfing, canoeing, etc. It is called Eolo. We went in Felipe´s car and went to the town hall to collect our race numbers, chips and a goodie bag with a vest, a balaclava and a cord to hold a mobile phone. As every year there is a crib at the town hall. This year the race entry wasn´t free. It cost five euros. Isabel had a problem with her internet entry but she was allowed to race without a race number and after the race she was given a goodie bag.
At the race I talked to some runners I know. We usually meet in races or while we are training in Almería such as Diego, Jorge, Juan Jesús, etc.
At the start we saw that there were famous Spanish runners such as Antonio Jiménez Pentinel, Reyes Estévez, Zulema and Iris Fuentes Pila Ortiz. Óscar Pereiro, the cyclist who won the 2006 tour de France after Floyd Landis´ disqualification also took part invited by the organisation.
It was a wonderful sunny afternoon. The temperature was around 16º degrees Celsius. After finding a position at the back of the race, we started at 5 o´clock. It starts a little uphill, then downhill to go to the start line uphill again. Isabel left us soon and I kept Felipe´s pace for a lap but afterwards I couldn´t follow him. I did the first 2 km lap in around 11 minutes. There were a lot of people cheering along the Boulevard where the race takes place. In the fist lap I heard “Antonio”. It came from a girl, Alicia, I met in 2002 when I first took part in this race. We did the race together then and the next year but afterwards she got an injury and she has been a spectator all these years. She used to play handball.
I felt all right all the laps although I was the fourth or fifth behind. One advantage of theis race is that you see the people many times going up or down the avenue. However, in the last lap I managed to overtake three runners which is something good for me since I usually start faster than I should and the last kilometres are very hard. I did the 10 km in 58 minutes while Isabel and Felipe finished a few minutes earlier.
After giving back our chips, we came back to Almería thinking that we would like to do El Ejido half marathon on 16th March, which will be its first edition.
Best wishes for the next year which is so close.
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