From Nick Helliwell…
My wife’s family are from Granada in Andalucia, southern Spain. While on holiday here, I decided to find a race. In this area they have a series of races throughout the year over varying distances and surfaces, all part of one big competition. The race that coincided with my visit was a fast-ish road 10k, with some elevation (500ft).
My visit also coincided with a heatwave in Spain, with daily temperatures exceeding 40 degrees. Thankfully the organisers pulled the start forward an hour, but it was still over 30 degrees when we set off at 930am.
The race was super well-organised and well-attended, with almost 750 runners. There was a police escort for the front-runners, a timing car and a team filming the race, to broadcast back to the start. And only cost 10 euros to enter! The standard was very high, with many Spanish clubs represented.
Not wanting to push too far forwards at the beginning, I got caught in a funnel of slower runners, but soon made my way through the jam. The heat was brutal, especially with the hills, making it really challenging to push very hard. By finding shade on the road, and taking on lots of water, I managed to hang onto those around me, and finish in just over 40 minutes, in 63rd place, 12th in my age category. The winning time, on a lumpy course, in severe heat, was just over 31 minutes: very impressive!
A great experience, despite the circumstances, and I’ll look forward to doing one of these again, hopefully on a cooler day!