I finished the race in 45:31, with a chip time of 44:34, in 469th place of 1559 finishers. After two weeks without running I wasn't quite ready to challenge my PB, although I'm not overly disappointed. I underestimated the time I would need in the queue for the toilet before the race, I finally got done only five minutes before the start of the race, by which time it was impossible to slot into the crowd of runners before halfway in the field, this inevitably meant that I lost time trying to work my way through. I underestimated the number of runners in the event, with 200 arriving to the start I would have been fine arriving when I did, with over 1,000 its more of an issue. Added to that the course was a difficult one, there were endless ups and downs with lots of tight corners, it wasn't a course anyone should expect a PB on.
My 5km splits were 23:20 for the first and 22:11 for the second, if you take off the time to reach the start line from the first 5km split it looks more even, 22:23 and 22:11. My GPS told me I took 5:00 to do the first kilometre, based on that I think starting further up the field would have cut at least 30 seconds from my time and who knows the difference that came from my lack of training in the two weeks before.
Anyway, onwards and upwards. The race was very enjoyable, lots of people went in costumes, the first time I've seen that in Spain, and it was a great atmosphere, I'm already thinking of what I'll go as next year.
A race report wouldn't be complete without a review of the goody bag, and Crevillente you provided a top notch bag.
A bottle of water, carton of juice, a couple of sachets of glucose gel were basics, but the long-sleeved t-shirt is a very good quality one, a Saucony no less. However, the pièce de resistance was the doormat. Who would ever think to put a doormat in a goody bag for a 10km race? Whoever it was, thank you! It now sits proudly outside my door, I've been thinking for a while that we needed one for the flat, I'm just glad I didn't get to buying one.
It won't be long before the next goody bag review, I've lined up another 10k for next Sunday, this time in Valencia. It should be a fast race on a flat course with a couple of world class elites running, the Spaniard Chema Martinez, the silver medallist in last year's European championships and Kenyan Kiprono Menjo, the fastest man over the distance in 2010. It should be a good race, although I don't expect to see much of it! I'll just be hoping to get closer to my PB than I managed in Crevillente.
That's all for now, happy running.
El Maratonero
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