On the road again!

Today was the 9.5 km (5.9 mi) road race in Campillos. Remember I did it last year and finished in 44.43 min, taking second for women? The second place prize was 30 euros. First place got 50 and a jamón (cured ham leg...only in Spain!). Last night I promised Angelines to treat her to lunch today, and we were both secretly hoping to be able to dust off the pig leg stand we have in the garage, sharpen the jamón knife, and carve up a plate of nice thin iberian ham for dinner...

Alas, I didn't win first place. I didn't win second either. This year a lot more people and a lot more women showed up to the race. I remember last year I felt a little like a fake when they presented me with my second place trophy--there were more than two min. between me and the first place runner! In the States that gap would have been full of ladies speedier than I. Still, it felt good to get the recognition. Well, this year, all the best female runners from Malaga showed up to this race. I was looking for the stats online to be able to quote them to you, but I can't find them. I think the first place woman must have run somewhere around 38 min! That's a 6.44 min mile average.

There were 21 women in my age group (39 and under). I'm not sure how many total. The men are divided into small categories, but there are so few women that there are only two age groups: 39 and under, and 40 and over! The girl who won last year came in third this year. And I came in 8th--top 1/3, not bad. I improved my time by nearly two min: 42.57 and I passed two women in the last lap of the course.

The race is a little bit monotonous because it's four laps around a 2.3 km loop through town. I guess it's good because you can "stratergize" ;), but it does get a little tiring from a scenery point of view (pun intended!). Anyway, as I was coming up on my last lap I could see two pony tails bobbing about 200 meters ahead of me--the furthest one, a girl in purple, was my goal.

I passed the first girl in the first 1/2 km of the last lap. She fought a little bit, but I took her on the hill, and she never recovered. ;) I steadily closed the gap with the purple girl through the first km and into the second. With about one km left to go I passed her. I must say it was a pretty tricky pass. Psychologically, the poor thing couldn't recover because I totally surprised her. She had gone up onto the sidewalk because there was a sharp corner coming up and if you ran on the sidewalk you could cut a little bit and save some distance. Well, I was on the street and with cars and dumpsters between us, she didn't see me coming. ;) I quickly passed her and jumped up onto the sidewalk in front of her to cut the corner. I kicked it around the corner...and that was the end of her. I could only hear her breathing behind me for about 100 meters more. I must admit, I was a little disappointed that she didn't fight for it a little more--I like a gutsy race, but in any case, I kicked it to the finish line and just made it under 43 min. My goal was 42. As is, I ran about 7.21 mile pace. Not too shabby.

So I came home with nothing to show for my effort but the T-shirt they gave us. Angelines decided to treat me to lunch all the same, and we ended up ordering a plate of jamón. :)

Next week is the race here in La Roda. It's also a 9.5 km. If not too many speedy out-of-towners come, I might just have first place for women in the bag!

Here's my delicious pre-race salad (last night's dinner): lettuce, tomato, cucumber, turkey, fresh cheese, pepper, onion, carrot, and wild rice! So good I couldn't let it go without a picture.

And here I am sporting the T-shirt we got at the race--a nice change from the traditional cotton ones. I'm not a fan of T-shirts for running...but for chillier mornings or for riding my bike, I do like these breathable ones.

Happy Trails!