Yesterday was Barcelona's Cursa de La Merce (10 kilometre road race in honour of the Saint Mercedes - the saint who presides of over Barcelona). I have not run in any road races since April. It is a total shame... I am used to marathons and ultra marathons - such a Comrades Marathon - and I love the frenzy and the atmosphere at road races.
I arrived at the start at 9am. There were thousands of people. For a 10km race!! In South Africa a 10km race might attract a field of 500 people. 10 kms is not worth evening taking on for seasoned runners - which most South African runners are. We are very much running junkies so the more we run, the longer we run, the harder we run, the happier we are. Most of us in SA run with the Comrades Marathon in mind so hard training and long distance is necessary. Back to yesterday. There were over 14 000 people!!! For a 10 kilometre race... The runners were all placed into seeding groups according to previous times. I did not have a previous time to submit so I was right at the back - with all the novices.
The start time was 9.30am. Each seeding batch is let off at a time. The batch is moved forward to the start line, then it is set off in individual groups. Then the next batch moves forward and the line is dropped and the batch is set off. This continues for about 10 minutes. So in effect, the last seeding batch only starts about 10 minutes after the first seeding batch. Interesting.
Once on the road - the race is through the city - there were so many people that I battled to get ahead. It is difficult trying to make headway through masses of runners. I eventually took to running on the pavements for most of the race - having to hop over and avoid dog poo every here and there. The pavements here have the most dog poo I have ever seen. People have no gardens for their dogs so they bring them down to use the pavements!!!!
I reached the half way point at 30 minutes. Quite a surprise as I was running fast... Then I remembered that I was about 10 minutes beyond the start time. So it was probably about 20 minutes. There was only one waterpoint on the race!! At home in SA there are watertables every 2 or 3 kilometres at our races. The waterpoint here had bottles of water. At home there are always cups of coke but sometimes also fanta and even cream soda at times! At home there are also water sachets and cups or sachets of energade or powerade at each watertable. It really hit me how spoilt we are in SA - in so many ways.
After the watertable I was a little worried as my time was not great. So I pushed hard in the second half. Running on the pavement wherever I could to avoid the crowds on the road. I eventually reached the end at a time of 53 minutes from the time the first seeding batch was set off. That meant a probable 43 minutes for me then. So all in, not a bad race. I did miss the familiar friendly faces I usually find along the road as I run these things and the odd chat here or there with people I know.
After all is said and done, a very different atmosphere and vibe but I was glad to have been in a race!
I arrived at the start at 9am. There were thousands of people. For a 10km race!! In South Africa a 10km race might attract a field of 500 people. 10 kms is not worth evening taking on for seasoned runners - which most South African runners are. We are very much running junkies so the more we run, the longer we run, the harder we run, the happier we are. Most of us in SA run with the Comrades Marathon in mind so hard training and long distance is necessary. Back to yesterday. There were over 14 000 people!!! For a 10 kilometre race... The runners were all placed into seeding groups according to previous times. I did not have a previous time to submit so I was right at the back - with all the novices.
The start time was 9.30am. Each seeding batch is let off at a time. The batch is moved forward to the start line, then it is set off in individual groups. Then the next batch moves forward and the line is dropped and the batch is set off. This continues for about 10 minutes. So in effect, the last seeding batch only starts about 10 minutes after the first seeding batch. Interesting.
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| Somewhere at the back is me!!! |
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| Moving each seeding group forward to set them off. |
Once on the road - the race is through the city - there were so many people that I battled to get ahead. It is difficult trying to make headway through masses of runners. I eventually took to running on the pavements for most of the race - having to hop over and avoid dog poo every here and there. The pavements here have the most dog poo I have ever seen. People have no gardens for their dogs so they bring them down to use the pavements!!!!
I reached the half way point at 30 minutes. Quite a surprise as I was running fast... Then I remembered that I was about 10 minutes beyond the start time. So it was probably about 20 minutes. There was only one waterpoint on the race!! At home in SA there are watertables every 2 or 3 kilometres at our races. The waterpoint here had bottles of water. At home there are always cups of coke but sometimes also fanta and even cream soda at times! At home there are also water sachets and cups or sachets of energade or powerade at each watertable. It really hit me how spoilt we are in SA - in so many ways.
After the watertable I was a little worried as my time was not great. So I pushed hard in the second half. Running on the pavement wherever I could to avoid the crowds on the road. I eventually reached the end at a time of 53 minutes from the time the first seeding batch was set off. That meant a probable 43 minutes for me then. So all in, not a bad race. I did miss the familiar friendly faces I usually find along the road as I run these things and the odd chat here or there with people I know.
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| The runners begin to run!! |
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