There was a man in short shorts

So here is finally the promised post on the half-marathon and the non-teaching stuff. Given the attractions of Spain's fiesta culture and the chance on Friday and Saturday to have a more indulgent night, why would I choose to forgo these for a 21.1 km race at 9:30 on a Sunday morning?

Well, I do have a bit of history in this area. I'm very much a morning person who includes "Where can I run?" before "Where can I go out at night?" in the list of questions I ask when I arrive somewhere new. I first gained Wales international vests in road & cross-country running in 2009 and arrived in Spain hoping to maintain fitness in the hope of selection for Wales in the Great Manchester Run the day after returning from Elche later this month.

For most of my colleagues on the Leonardo project, however, I would be known for my distance runner's typical split leg shorts rather than any athletic accomplishment by the end of our time in Denbigh. This was helpfully reinforced by Michael's locked room mystery on the theft of my shorts on the last Saturday before leaving Denbigh.

Once I got to Elche and started to recce places to run and a track to train on when not teaching, I quickly found out that a half marathon was due to take place in Elche on May 6th. My curiosity suitably piqued, I asked one of the distance runners at the track if the registration was still open. He directed me towards "the bald guy with the beard" on the infield for all information on the half marathon. Having found out that the start was a less than 5 min jog from our apartment and that this was the oldest half in the world, I was sold. I was told that I could either enter online or in person at the tienda de Caldon, I thought I'd go for the latter option, where I could get information in person if I wasn't confident in Spanish dealing with all the details on the website. This was however where my Spanish did let me down, as while I was asking if anyone knew roughly where this shop called Caldon was, I found out within a couple of days that what I had in fact been told was tienda Decathlon. Having got my entry sorted, I learnt at school that PE teacher Juan Llopis had also entered and a pint was bet on the outcome of our battle to add a little bit of spice to the race.

Now often for a Sunday race, I'm rooming with other athletes the night before or travelling with other athletes on the morning of the race. This race involved passing Saturday with a more than slightly hungover group of teachers in our apartment whose Friday night had not involved resting for a race. Not wanting to particularly spend all day on foot around Elche the day before the race, I was more than happy to have company that was not in the mood for moving anywhere fast. I got the tea and food that they needed to fight very sore heads and the next morning, I got the support round the course from Alex, Jess and Steph that I very much needed to overcome the protestations of my legs. As I passed them on the Ferrocaril bridge for the first time at 2km, I was tucked in to a lead group with five Moroccan guys who would be my company for the next few kms.

Unfortunately after a nice steady 5 kms in 16:05, they injected a 5kms so fast that my 15:30 for this section still saw me dropping off them, and facing a long and gradually slowing Sunday slog. By the time I came back through Paseo de l'Estacion where we had begun, the race was in its 17th km and they were well out of sight but I was greeted by the support group of earlier in the race on the bridge, and believe me, at this point I needed it! One more encounter a couple of kms later with Alex and his camera, and it was just a matter of hanging on for the finish in warmth now up into the 20s - which I'm sure was nice for spectating, but not for a runner already losing time hand over fist.

As I turned into the finish straight, I could see the finish clock just ticked past 69 minutes, and I had a half marathon personal best dating from 2010 of 69:28. I might have been dropped by the leaders but I was not letting the personal best go, and what passed in that state of fatigue for a flat out sprint was unleashed to bring me through the line in 69:24 for 6th place, a new PB and my bet won as Juan would not cross the line for another 25 minutes.

(above) early on in the lead group

(left) battling away on my own later on

The sprint for sixth

A post race massage and telling off from a chiropodist for the lack of attention I pay to my battered distance runner's toes later, I was reunited with the fantastic supporters I had en route. Alex, Steph, Jess and I enjoyed the rest of the day indulging in a marathon of a more gourmet nature, but Alex's blog is the place to go for that story and the accompanying photos of great food.

Possibly amused by another 'short shorts' joke after the race

So what other extra-curricular activities does this trip offer? Well for some it's the beaches that you can get to a short bus ride away, for others it's Spain's late night fiesta opportunities, or just sun-bathing in Elche's amazing palm grove. My own favourite experiences have included going to church over here where I received great hospitality and the chance to test my Spanish skills by following a Bible study with some of the other young people in the church. Also, getting out to run in the hills to the north of Elche and getting to see bits of the area on foot that nobody else has got to explore in the group was cool. Miriam, Steph and I also took the chance to travel to Alicante where we met up with Mary from the Leonardo French group visiting her Spanish beau, while also taking the chance to meet up with us on the Saturday evening of the first weekend. There were also two birthdays as Alex and Steph became a year wiser.

Steph and Alex giving an accurate assessment of how nice the birthday cake was!

The owner of the short shorts is enjoying life in Elche and best of all I've received confirmation of my selection in the Wales team after we get back. Next time it'll be back to blogging about the teaching and maybe an end of project post about my overall feeling about how it's gone.

Hywel