New York Marathon - Marathon Number 11 and how not to run or train for a marathon!

In a fit of pique in January when Alan realised that he had a fair few air miles from his credit card (definitely recommend a reward or cashback credit card if you end up putting a lot on for work that you claim back!) he asked if I fancied going to New York again.  I'd been twice before and both times loved it and so was up for the idea, he then did some research and found that Sports Tour International offer guaranteed marathon places with a combined holiday package and asked if I fancied it - and so feeling positive about my running in the midst of Red January I said yes!

Now first things first, it's not a cheap marathon to run or enter.  I think that the ballot places are most likely as tough to get into as London and if you want to run as a group of friends/couple the likelihood of everyone getting a ballot place is probably very limited and I believe it still costs $358 per place if you are a non US resident.

If you are speedy you could try and run a qualifying time which is even tighter than London as for the 2020 race you would need to be nailing the following times, broken down by age group: 18 to 34 years old (3:00 for men, 3:30 for women) 35 to 39 (3:05 for men, 3:35 for women (I'm sure you still have to pay those chunky entry fees!).

You can also try and secure a place by running a "virtual" marathon between the 31st October and 3rd November.... although this has already happened for 2020 - but more information is here - again I'm guessing you'll still have to pay, although the fees listed for charity places seem to be around $150 and I think that is for US charities only and with fundraising targets of c$2650.  I've tried to see what the fundraising targets might be for UK charities, but it seems as though you have to apply and will still need to pay for your flights, accommodation and the $358 fee.

So the costs are a bit prohibitive, but the good news is that you get all of this stuff included in your fee:

• Entry to the 2020 TCS New York City Marathon, including fluid/fueling stations, medical support, entertainment, bag-check handling, and security 
• Official New Balance technical shirt 
• Official transportation to the start from Midtown Manhattan, Lower Manhattan, or the Meadowlands Sports Complex (New Jersey) - Start area, including breakfast and entertainment 
• Finisher materials: medal, food, beverages, and United Airlines/Foot Locker Heatsheet™ 

However...it's worth nothing that:

• The drawing is free to enter and limited to one entry per person
• Entry fees are charged upon acceptance. 
• Once an entrant is accepted, the entry fee is nontransferable under any and all circumstances, and is also nonrefundable under any and all circumstances except in the event of cancellation of the marathon.

There are a few other ways to enter, but most likely out of reach for a few of us, but if you are interested and a budding elite athlete or philanthropist, here are some ideas.

Accommodation in New York is also not cheap, Sports Tours sell packages that include guaranteed entry plus accommodation, flights, transfers and other extras or a combination of your choosing.  Alan being a frugal (definitely not stereotypical Yorkshireman(!!)) knew that the air miles sorted our flights (although we paid the usual air taxes) and we went for the guaranteed entry and minimum accommodation option of 3 nights to save money.  We then used Hotwire to book a cheaper (and better quality) hotel for our last 2 nights.  Hotwire is great if you are a bit relaxed about exactly what hotel you get - it allows you to stipulate an area and price range for your chosen dates and tells you what you might get and then you book blind and find out where you end up after you've paid.  It's always worked really well for us previously (we didn't end up in the Trump hotel - phew no ethical conflict!).  This time it took us to Hyatt House in Midtown/Chelsea area - only a few blocks from most of the places you'd want walk to in NYC, very roomy and a really friendly welcome.

New York Marathon was something Alan and myself both hoped to look forward to and train well for.  The reality was that life got in the way a bit; things like getting engaged in April and married in September, Alan having a slipped disc injury flare up after London Marathon and not running more than Liverpool Half in May, me studying for and completing my CIRF course in September, both of us being a lot heavier than when we were at our running peaks back in 2016, me currently trying to be more than one person at work as well as my own on/off niggly injuries,  This all meant as the weeks passed I was starting to dread the marathon I should be really excited about.

We'd clearly invested a lot of money in our trip and 4 days before race day (having only run 8 miles the Sunday before and the furthest before then being the Leeds Country Way (11.5 miles) on 1st September) I was really ill with a heavy cold/flu and I ended up working from home (not something I tend to do!). I was really worried as to whether I could make it around.

Alan and I had discussed our game plan for the marathon and as a qualified Coach in Running Fitness I would always recommend training appropriately for a marathon as it is a distance not to be trifled with!  So none of the below is what I would actually coach.

However, with money invested and a non transferable place, we decided to research how long was available to complete the course and make it a true sightseeing trip of NYC.  They have 4 waves and 3 different starts, somehow I'd ended up in Wave 3 and Alan in Wave 2.  We checked and he was able to start further back in my wave.  The sweep vehicle is 6 hours and 30, but unlike London starts at the end of the starting pack - so being in Wave 3 would mean we had more like 7 - 7 hours 30 until we were swept up.  They also keep the finishing line open until 7.25 pm.  This was my 11th marathon and Alan's 8th and I wouldn't recommend taking on a marathon as we did without the training, but we have the benefit of knowing what the demands of this distance are on our bodies and how to mitigate for this we knew we'd likely complete it, even if it was slow.  We figured that we could walk run c9mins 15 secs KM and get around in sub 6.5 hours and so that was the plan.

We flew out from Manchester with Virgin at 12.30pm on the Thursday and Alan had strategically booked seats that allowed for him to comfortably stretch his legs and didn't have to pay extra to do so.  For the week between our clocks going back and the Sunday of the marathon, NYC is only 4 hours behind UK time, so we arrived at a reasonable time.  We made our way through crowded transport with the Air Train and then the subway to the Port Authority and we walked a few minutes to the Sports Tours International Hotel which was Double Tree by Hilton New York Times Square West.  It was a good location to get to the Expo the following morning - around 15 minutes walk and also to the transfer buses on the morning of the marathon - around 15 minutes walk as well.  The room was small, but functional and my only issue was that the shower seal was not present so the room flooded when you showered - Alan was also sad there wasn't a bath!  Our first evening was a bit functional as I was still really poorly and so we grabbed a Five Guys for tea after checking into our room and got an early night.

The following day we went along to the Expo to pick up our race numbers and marathon t-shirts which were great - long sleeved and technical.  Only slight niggle was I had to get an XXL as they'd run out of L and XL and M was a bit of a suffocating fit!  However it looks great and I will definitely wear it often (first outing was to parkrun this morning!).

Speaking of parkrun - there is one in New Jersey - Delaware and Raritan Canal, you can get a train and an uber, or there was a bus arranged via Facebook...needless to say we didn't partake as it wouldn't have been sensible prep for either of us in these circumstances - they did have a record turnout of 111 as a result of the marathon.  There is also an optional 5K Abbott race that gives you a great hat souvenir and is "race to the finish" for the last 5K of the marathon I believe - again not good prep for us so we gave it a miss.

 

The Expo was fun, and despite feeling gross I managed to enjoy picking up free samples of compeed (Just as we were saying damn...we forgot the compeed!) and we bought some cool looking, roomy and comfortable NYC Marathon branded running belts for $23 each.  I also realised I'd totally forgotten my running nutrition, but fortunately managed to find the same Shot Bloks as I use in the UK, but with exciting new flavours like Margarita with 3 x extra sodium - useful when you sweat a lot!

We grabbed a self serve deli salad for lunch (they do it by weight rather than what you can cram into a container so it was a rather expensive, but delicious lunch!).  And after a bit more exploring we went back to the hotel so I could rest and Alan went to get breakfast for the following morning and picked up bananas, croissants and belvita.  We somehow managed to find a table that evening at an Italian restaurant - Il Punto and filled up on pasta.

That night the clocks went back and fortunately we had an early night as we were still jet lagged and so the obscenely early start of 4.30am to get the 5.30am transfer bus meant we still had around 6 hours sleep.  Classically I had the anxiety sleep I get pre-marathon and kept waking up, panicking about everything - again not what I recommend as a coach.  Eliud Kipchoge reportedly gets a religious 8 hours per night plus a 2 hour nap during the day!

We'd laid out our kit the night before and so we got ready quickly with each of us putting on a throw away t-shirt on and walked down to reception where the Sports Tours International rep met us and at 5.10am walked us down to the bus stop where the marshalls were super enthusiastic even at that eye-wateringly early time!

The bus takes you across to Staten Island and took around 45 minutes as we watched the sun slowly rises over NYC.  The weather was perfect running weather - completely dry, clear sky, but pretty chilly as a result!  We got off the bus and walked through to the security gates - it's a sad fact that you have to be scanned for weapons and bombs and aren't even allowed to wear large fancy dress costumes or camel bak style water packs.  

We then were in the race start village which was great!  We had complimentary coffees, bagels, Gatorade  and water as well as picking up Dunkin Donut hats (brilliant marketing on their part!).  There were also Honey Stinger waffles and bananas available.  We found a spot to sit down at around 6.15am and then had over 4 hours to wait until my 10.35am start wave!  It was a great atmosphere, everyone was in good spirits, but it was FREEZING!  We'd fortunately picked up rain ponchos and so we huddled together and tried to keep warm, but if there is one piece of advice I can give for race day it's please take extra layers and even old blankets to use and then donate to the goodwill bins (which I thought were excellent ideas!).  

About an hour and a half before the start we wandered down towards the blue start village area and I had a quick glance in the Therapy Dog tent (if I wasn't so cold I'd have been tempted to sneak in for a stroke!)  I needed the toilet again (they were plentiful and with not many queues) and as I walked back, I spotted a full goodwill bin and so "borrowed" a blanket for the last hour of our wait to share with Alan (we returned it to the bin after we'd finished with it).

I realised as we were waiting that my hair band had fallen off... I tried tying my hair up with string from the start village bag, but it wasn't great.  At least my buff would keep most of my flyaway thin hair away from my face I hoped. 

We queued up for our wave having heard the cannon fire for all the previous waves!  When you sign up you can either choose a bag drop (as you get at London Marathon etc) or a post race Poncho - we went for the poncho which meant that we didn't have to drop a bag off with the UPS trucks.

We were in our wave, it was all becoming real and we were about to take on 26.2 miles.  The sun was shining, the atmosphere was buzzing and we started to walk towards the bridge for our start.  As we walked over the bridge I noticed there were lots of clothes thrown on the floor (no goodwill bins on the bridge as per all the regular tannoy announcements!) and I said to Alan "I wish there was a spare hairband" and 2 steps later there was one there so I was able to discard the ineffective string and properly tie my hair back!  I then said "I wish I could find £1m" sadly this wish wasn't granted...should have gone with that first?

We were started with a cannon, ticker tape and the sound track of "New York New York" and even though there are 2 starts as per London Marathon, there are more runners (53000) it somehow felt more intimate as a start rather than being moved like cattle over the start line.  

The first 2 miles is just running over the Staten Island Bridge, loads of people stopped for selfies on the bridge, but we cracked on with our slow running plan and cleared the bridge in a solid time of just over 20 minutes.  The bridge workers were super excited to cheer all the runners on!

We then got onto Brooklyn and that's when the support really kicked off!  It's a hard to describe the dichotomy that New York Marathon was both more and less serious than London Marathon and other UK races.  More serious - very few fancy dress costumes at all, no club runners generally, but everyone mostly in serious running gear and certainly walking around NYC before and after lots of very obvious "runners" or as Alan sometimes referred to them "running w**nkers" i.e. always in running gear, wearing their medal for 3 days after the race even in the airport with a hint of arrogance about them.  Less serious - overly enthusiastic supporters who literally screamed with excitement, even by the time we reached some of them after 4 plus hours, people with great sense of humour on banners like at mile 10 "you're nearly there - Fake News! and printing out huge personal pictures of runners faces and even their pet cats and dogs.  NB. I'm definitely printing out massive Maya and Qubit faces for the next race I have to support Alan for!

Brooklyn I think was my favourite in terms of support - it was the longest section and had full on marching bands, rappers and rock bands - we loved it!   Alan kept a close eye on his heart rate and we adapted our pace to make sure we didn't peak his heart rate and so ran walked and got fairly quickly to around 10 miles and I figured as we had the opportunity to do so I'd use the walking sections to share some of the atmosphere, sights and sounds of the marathon on facebook live.  I'd intended to use it as a distraction to Alan from his sore back, but I'm not sure he altogether appreciated it!  The first time I'd taken my phone out I started jogging and ended up throwing shot bloks everywhere!  

The water and Gatorade stations are pretty frequent (every mile?) after the first 3 miles (none on the Staten Island bridge) and they all had paper cups which I think I preferred as it felt potentially less environmentally harmful that plastic bottles and was certainly much less of a trip hazard.  I tend to not recommend using anything on race day that you haven't had in training and Gatorade isn't something I've had much of before, but it worked well for me on the day.  There are also toilets every mile and fortunately we only needed to stop once.  The best thing is that there are formally arranged and informally arranged music stations around 3 per mile!  I had quite a few dances as we were running along and we clapped every single band and singer regardless of talent!

I like to count down all long distance races in miles, kilometres and parkruns to mean that I'm ticking something off every few minutes.  As a distraction (annoyance?) technique with Alan we nominate parkruns for each 5K segment of the race and always finish on Woodhouse Moor of course!  We ticked over the halfway point and then soon reached Queensborough Bridge which is 16 miles in and even though the bridge itself wasn't the most scenic there were some great views across to Manhattan Island as we trudged over onto Manhattan and up into Harlem before heading into the Bronx and then back into Manhattan for the iconic finish in Central Park.

       

I had hoped that by not spiking my heart rate and run walking it would mean my legs didn't get that 20 mile ache where every step hurts a bit.  Neither of us hit the wall as a result of the slower place which was great and actually we could have taken advantage of the 20 mile Biofreeze station, but the end was in sight so we kept going.  We continued with our Facebook live breaks which I certainly enjoyed and it was nice to get support from our friends back home whilst we were running!

 

The last couple of miles you can count down the blocks until you hit Central Park and the support continues to be great - I really enjoyed a brass band just before we hit Manhattan again coming out of Harlem.  Once you hit Central Park it feels like the end is in reach, but there is still a good nearly 2 miles to count down (amazingly our Garmins were fairly accurate despite all the huge buildings that usually skew GPS).  There was an incentive to run the last mile the fastest - we tried, but Alan's back by this point was incredibly sore so we had to walk a bit, although we did manage to run over the finish line!  

As we crossed the finish in 5 hours 51 minutes (my second slowest ever time next to Medoc - the wine marathon!) we held hands and it was an amazing atmosphere.  We then walked down to pick up first a heat sheet (necessary as it's a 30 minute walk to get your poncho or bag), then the great big apple medal, then a very good quality (and reusable!) goody bag which included water, an apple, pretzels, more Gatorade, protein shake, Honey Stinger waffle, biofreeze and I think some other things!

We walked down to our poncho collection point and they were fleece lined, waterproof and felt like a hug!  It was funny watching all the runners dressed in them as we walked out of the marathon area.  Fortunately we had no need for the reunion point as we ran together, but like all big races phone signal is patchy, so definitely worth pre-arranging a meeting point if you need one.  We staggered a bit confused to the subway and managed to get on a train back - it was only 20 minutes walk, but we'd done just enough thanks.  The trains were rammed and one lady even passed out and had to get off the train early - she seemed ok thankfully.

After a shower and change of clothes we had just enough time to walk down to the pre-booked post race celebration party (kindly only 5 blocks away from the hotel) for £20 we got 2 cocktails and canapes which included tasty mini slider burgers and meant we didn't need to buy dinner.  We chatted to one of the reps who was lovely (I feel this may be my future "retirement" job!) and after the food was done and we'd had a final JD and ginger to celebrate we walked back to the hotel stopping off at Shake Shack for a celebration Salted Caramel milkshake and then went straight to bed clocking up 66267 steps for the day!

All in all, whilst it was nearly a personal worst for me in terms of time, it was definitely a personal best in terms of experience and atmosphere.  It was lovely to "run" a whole marathon with Alan and cross the finish together and not once did we argue about stopping or pace.  The views were incredible and the organisation was great!  I said as we set off and as we shivered in the start village "I definitely won't want to do this again"...but I might have changed my mind...

PS. if you want to do NYC 2020 it's their 50th anniversary and I think the day before Trump is either re-elected or knocked out of the Whitehouse - could be an interesting time to visit!

Mexico... the first 3 days of our holiday... and the quest for WIFI andInternet Access!

I’m very fortunate to have been on holiday in many places in the past 5 years, up mountains in Nepal over 2500m high, in remote parts of India in a Feudal Lord’s homestay, and have always managed to get online pretty successfully.  When we booked to come to Mexico and Cuba back in March and chose relatively “upmarket” hotels, I complacently assumed that internet access wouldn’t be an issue and pictured myself and Alan watching Netflix after a busy day of sightseeing in the hotel room.

The reality has been somewhat different.  

We could buy internet access in the hotel in Mexico, but for extortionate amounts, so we purchased some roaming data instead for our phones (which was also pretty pricey) and we were able to be online most of the time we were in Mexico…Cuba however has been entirely different and I’ll come onto that in a later post.  Needless to say that the digital detox has been at the same time frustrating and freeing - being totally unable to check work emails for the first time in 5 years when on holiday has been quite relaxing and refreshing.

We arrived in Mexico on the 8th November after a very relaxing flight.  Alan had upgraded our seats to extra legroom as he’s 6”4 tall and it was totally unnecessary for my little legs, but made for a very pleasant 10-hour flight.  During the flight, I managed to watch the David Brent film, Absolutely Fabulous and a very odd coming of age type film called “Goat” that was apparently critically acclaimed, but in reality, was just a lot of examples of “hazing” for people to get into an American frat house, if there was any deeper meaning to it, it was certainly lost on me.  We collected our luggage…eventually as Alan’s was literally the last case off the belt, in fact he had to climb onto the belt to grab it as the belt had just stopped!

Our transfer was smooth to our resort – Occidental and we checked in and got our bags into the room before venturing out first to try and book some excursions as we knew we only had 5 days in Mexico, but unfortunately they were closed, so we took some leaflets and headed down to the beach club for our first buffet experience.  The air was warm and humid and the resort had familiar tropical plant type smells that I remember from being on holiday in place like Bali and there was a buzz of crickets as we walked along the lantern lit paths down to the beach club.  I’d spotted some small lizards on the walls as we’d walked to our room.

I’d had a slightly nauseous flight and this had continued once I was off the plane and I probably should have taken it a bit easier on the buffet, but I managed to tuck into various salads, meats, cheeses and plenty of dessert!  We wandered around the huge resort and jumped on a little golf type train back to where our room was and by this point it was probably the equivalent of around 3am UK time and so we had an early night at around 10pm. 

After around 5 hours at 2am Mexican time we were both aware that we were both awake and that the room next door was playing extremely loud Mexican music through the TV – Alan went to reception to ask to be moved, and I could hear their telephone ringing (I don’t think they answered) and then a security guard managed to knock at their door and got them to turn down the music and we managed to get back to sleep.

We woke up at around 8am and decided to head down to book our excursions.  We booked for Xel Ha a waterpark with natural rivers and caves to explore that Alan’s brother had recommended and for Xichen Itzu which was the main reason that I’d wanted to go to Mexico.  

We met some Scarlet Macaws that were in Lobby area and looked like a cute couple grooming each other and squawking.  We then headed for breakfast at the buffet which had been temporarily moved to the Beach Club and we feasted on a whole range of continental and Mexican breakfast food as well as the mythical “breakfast pudding” where I sampled some lovely hot chocolate with croissants to dip in.  Buffets are never a good idea for me as I love to try everything which usually means even if I only put a tiny portion of each thing on my plate, I end up massively overeating. 

We then we exploring the Occidental resort and started nearby where we had eaten breakfast which was the saltwater swimming pool and were delighted that there were Sergeant Major fish and even a puffer fish swimming around our feet and nibbling our toes!  We relaxed on some sun loungers and I read a little more of one of the books that I had brought on holiday “The Art of Travel” by Alain De Botton and we got to enjoy some of the “all inclusive” perks by getting some cocktails brought to us.  It then started to spot with rain, and then it rained a bit more so we decided to head back towards the room.  We took a quick look at the gym and the spa and ended up booking for 4.30pm a relaxing “Moon and Stars” couples massage…as the name suggests it should have been outside, but in the end due to the torrential tropical rain, it was in one of the very nice treatment rooms and included a bottle of wine.

We headed down for our massage and got to enjoy half an hour in the hot tub and drink some mint water before we went in for our treatment.  The massage we booked was 80 minutes long and enjoyed a very relaxing time and I was delighted that my back (which had been sore before we travelled anywhere and had been made worse by all the flights) felt much better.  After the massage finished we put on our robes and went into a room to drink our wine and it was very cute that there was a heart made from tealights and rose petals on the floor.  We drank the wine and then headed back to our room in theory for a rest before dinner, but ended up falling asleep and waking up at 10pm!  So we decided to just carry on sleeping – we must have been very relaxed indeed!

The following morning was an early start for us as we were going to Xel Ha!  The frustration was that breakfast didn’t start until 7am, but our pick up for the excursion was 7.15am!  We managed to find a small coffee stand that wasn’t in the “all inclusive” part of the deal and bought some coffee and pastries and made our way to the pick-up point where we were given our wrist bands for the day.  The coach didn’t take too long to Xel Ha, what took the most time were the multiple pick up points at the Hard Rock hotel. 

We arrived at Xel Ha and followed our guides instructions to one of the larger changing points “Brown” and I put my neoprene socks on as well as my swimming costume.   Xel Ha is like a natural water park and we saw beautiful trees and greenery surrounded by turquoise water.  We walked up to the bottom of the river and jumped on some bike to cycle around 1km up to the top of the river.  As we walked to the bikes, Alan nearly tripped over a huge Gecko lizard at the side of the path!  The bike ride was about 1km and I made sure to track it on Strava, the forest was humid and smelled of a fresh jungle smell and it was a refreshing ride with a bit of a breeze as we cycled and swerved to avoid trees.

We got to the top of the river and took the option of jumping in an “inner tube” rubber ring and putting on some life vests to float down the river and we let the very gentle current pull us along the mangrove section of the river and spotted a few points of interest like the “Cliff of Courage”.  

We got to a section where we got off the rubber ring and climbed up some “Ninja Warrior” type ropes and tried to cross from one platform to another – I gave up quickly and just jumped back into the water.  Alan managed to get across the whole of the rope bridge in one go, I gave up when my arms felt like I was having to stretch them out of their sockets to reach the rope.   

Jumping back in the inner tube, we continued to the “end” of the river signified by a checkered flag and jumped onto the zip line which was one of my favourite bits of the day.

By 11am we were pretty peckish and I was keen to try out the Mexican buffet, but after we’d wandered up there it wasn’t open until 11.30am so we walked over the floating bridge to the other side of the inlet to use up some time.  The bridge was very wobbly and it was if you were drunk trying to cross it!  Around Xel Ha there are lots of points where you can scan a bar code on your wrist band and then look at the nearby camera for a photo and so we spent some time swimming in a cave and trying to get photos, but managing to look the wrong way! 

Back at the Mexican buffet we were first in the queue and I took full advantage to sample as many different Mexican dishes as possible including some Mexican coffee with Churros to dip in and lots of Guacamole! 

After restocking our energy levels we biked back up to the start of the river and picked up some snorkel equipment and this time we snorkeled along the river and clipped our life jackets together so we could point out different fish to each other.  We saw parrot fish, scholes of little neon tetra, more seargeant major fish and some huge deep blue coloured fishes.  When we got to the “Cliff of Courage” again we decided to investigate whether we had enough courage to jump off.  We got out of flippers and snorkles and walked over a bridge up to the jump off point.  It was probably around 4m high, but looked much higher when you go there.  Alan went first and then I quickly scanned my wrist band and jumped getting loads of saltwater up my nose! 


         

After swimming back to the end of the river and dropping off our snorkel equipment we had a couple of drinks and then booked to go on the “Zip Bikes” that were not included in the “All Inclusive” price and walked up to the start of the Zip Bike tour.  The Zip Bikes were sit down bike on a wire that took you on a tour around the forest canopy and down and through some caves, all powered by your pedal power!  The pedaling was harder than I anticipated at times, but it was some amazing views and we got to go quite high up above some of the mangroves and then down into the caves.   There was a wonderful moist rainforest smell as we pedaled away. 

It was nearly time to head back to the bus to get taken back to the hotel so we got changed and walked back past the dolphin area.  We had debated swimming with dolphins, but I wasn’t convinced that it was right and kind for them, from a quick google it didn’t seem like most felt it was good for them and the enclosures looked a bit small, so we decided that it was best not to.  I’m still not sure whether in general it’s good for them to be swimming with humans, more research will be needed.  We bought the photos that we’d taken around the park and look forward to downloading them later.

My stomach had not been well all day, and so we opted for a trip to “Pacos Tacos” for tea and Alan had a spicey taco dish and I had a very simple, but really nice pizza to hopefully be kinder to my stomach than all of the buffet deliciousness!

The Color Run 5KM

Back in March this year Alan and I booked our first holiday together.  I had always wanted to visit Mexico and see Chichen Itza and perhaps add in a Caribbean Island as well, so we booked a trip to Mexico and then Cuba.  We also somewhat reluctantly booked onto the Abbey Dash again this year a few weeks ago as it's part of my run club's "road" calendar - I do quite like the race, but I get a bit bored/fed-up/irritated that it costs around £24 to run up and down Kirkstall Road, even if the atmosphere is usually really fun and it's great for PB Potential and I'm still chasing my sub 45 minute time for a 10K.  

So how did we end up in Spain today running an untimed 5K colour run?  Unfortunately we found out less than 2 weeks ago that Alan's Mum who lives in Spain needed an urgent operation.  As a self employed miniaturist, she would miss out on being able to go to an important fair in Madrid if her husband Frank was looking after her after the operation.  The best solution was for Alan to fly out the day Frank was to set off for the fair and look after her.  The only slight issue was that the dates fell exactly before we were due to go away and so we are ending up visiting 3 Spanish speaking countries in 3 weeks and having more time away from work that anticipated.

We both drove down to my parents in Surrey and then flew from Gatwick to Seville where we picked up a cute Fiat 500 in a jazzy red colour and drove just over an hour to Rio Tinto Hospital which is set next to a mining area and is fairly rural in location.  Fortunately Alan`s mum Angie was in good spirits and was recovering well.  We spent most of our time at the hospital with Angie for the first 3 days and she was discharged around lunchtime on the Saturday.  Unlike England they don`t have set visiting hours so we were able to stay with her for most of the time and try to keep her amused as well as run errands for her like getting cups of tea and conditioner.  I found it interesting to try and pick up some Spanish as I have never studied it at all and did German and French at GCSE and then French A-Level...but that was all 18 years ago!  In Rio Tinto and the smaller village where Angie lives of Campo Frio there are very few English speakers, so I had to learn how to order Coffee and orange juice to give Alan a break.

Alan & I are still training for another marathon which is only the weekend after we return and should be flat, but challenging as it goes along the canal, but with only 50 entrants I suspect there won`t be too many water stations!  We were keen to keep up the training, but the last time I managed to get in a run was at Bradford 10K as I`d had a few late nights at work getting ready for being on holiday.  Alan had researched potential races in Spain and the only one that was in a reasonable distance was a 5K "The Color Run" so we entered in the hope that Angie would be well enough to either watch us or at least be ok at home for a few hours.  In the end on the Sunday she wasn't quite well enough to come with us, but had a restful few hours whilst we were at the race.  We were definitely overdue a run - I can't go more than a few days without feeling really twitchy that I've not been out for a run!

We set off before dawn to drive to the start of the race (slightly annoyingly we'd had to pick up our race numbers from a Skoda dealership the day before which was a bit of a faff.) and initially went to the wrong location, before realising that we needed to get to the start which was at the Olympic Stadium.  We were in the first wave at 9am as the later waves had all sold out so we were there really early and managed to park with no issues and visit the toilets before we got in the start pen.  We were wearing our "The Color Run" t-shirts and headbands and we noticed that everyone was also wearing their green mini rucksack bags, so we grabbed them from the car and got ready to run.

There were loads of groups wearing various colourful additions to their costumes like wigs, stripey socks and tutus, groups of children and general lots of excitement!  We moved from the start pen to stand near the start in front of the stage where a lady was revving up the crowd in Spanish - I had no hope of understanding it...but for some reason we were told to run backwards when we started.

There was a countdown (in Spanish) and we were off!  There was a lot of tripping over with the running backwards and we were quite far back from the start and so it took us a while to be able to actually get to a position where we could "run" and we weaved our way around various groups of people jogging and walking.  At 1K we hit the first colour station and got covered in blue powder (I cursed the fact I'd forgotten my sun glasses!) and the people in front of us had massively thinned out.  We were at a comfortable "parkrun" pace and overtaking most of the other people who were mostly ambling along and enjoying the experience.  One thing that was rather annoying was the green rucksack bag flapping around me.  At about 2K we hit the second colour station and were covered in pink powder (the powder didn't taste as nice as it did at Color me Rad that I ran last year!) we overtook a small group of children who appeared to be taking it seriously and then by around 3K we realised that there were only a few people ahead of us and we could see the pacer car within the very near distance.  In fact I saw the pacer car passenger get covered in paint by a mischievous volunteer!

By the time we'd gone through the 4th colour station which I think was orange I said to Alan that if he wanted to go for it he should and he caught up with the lead group of 3 Spanish lads who were pushing each other on and giving it a good effort and then pushed on up to the pacer car.  I could see him in front and people were cheering him on from the out and back section saying  "está primero!" and he was clapping them on.  He ran on with a sprint finish to the end and crossed the finish line first and I followed about 30 seconds later in 5th place.  I'm not sure how much of a real "race" it was, but it was certainly fun to be at the head of the pack - not something that either of us have done much in the past at all and Alan was delighted to have the experience of being first over the line.  

Of course there was no prize and no time as it wasn't that sort of race, but we got to enjoy walking around the festival at the end and picked up a few freebies like some skittles and some photos.  We went to the stage and waited for it to get a bit busier and then enjoyed throwing pain powder around and dancing to music - interesting experience when completely sober on a Sunday morning as the sun started to pick up.

It wasn't quite the Abbey Dash, it wasn't quite the long run we should have done for our marathon training, but it was a fun way to get some exercise in before we left Spain and gave Alan the first finisher experience.  And as the announcer at the start claimed...it was a very happy 5K!