Sevilla!

The next stop was Seville, Spain. Derek and I were driven to the airport by Andy first thing in the morning. We thanked him for hosting us. He and his team of guys were so welcoming and treated us extremely well. Every detail was organized beautifully.

Our flights took us back to London, then Madrid to Seville. Our flight from Madrid was delayed so we didn’t arrive until 10:30pm. Two drivers were there to greet us, one of whom spoke English and French. He found out I spoke French and insisted we speak in French. The other driver didn’t speak anything but Spanish but nodded a lot and smiled.

We missed dinner so Loubert had the hotel send up some food to our room.

 

Jon had scheduled a 45′ for the day. It did cross my mind to drop it and suggested to Derek we just settle in and eat but he thought we should shake out our legs so off we went. Jon told me later that that wasn’t the smartest move since our travel day was so long….doh! I’m a goof! Our run was done in a thick blanket of fog. I was amazed we made it back to the hotel. We ate our food as soon as we got back…oh and did I mention we had to share a room? Yep. And we were both too chicken to complain. We didn’t want to cause any problems. I found out later that it wasn’t usual that the race organizers would room a guy and a girl together and would have given us our own rooms. Here is the room we stayed in…

 

…we really should have said something!!! Anyway, we managed to stay out of each other’s way but it was a bit weird.

Wednesday I did a 60′ run. We found a  gravel service road right across the road from the hotel. We scouted out a good section on it to do the wo the next day. That afternoon we tried to find someone from the race to ask when and how we were to eat our meals. It seemed we were the only athletes at the hotel thus far and weren’t sure if there were organized meals. We eventually just ordered room service since the cafeteria didn’t open at 8pm as the hotel’s information booklet indicated.

Thursday was a wo day. I had a pretty light session: 3′-1′-1′-3′ with 60″ rests. The first interval felt a bit sluggish but the others felt great and smooth. That night some athletes finally showed up and there was a buffet for dinner so we got to mingle a bit and finally met the race organizer, Jesus.

Friday morning we got a call from Thelma to see how we were making out which was so nice of her! After breakfast, we headed back to the gravel road and did an easy run before breakfast and then headed into town. It was an adventure just trying to find the correct bus stop but after a lot of sign language we finally got the correct information and made it downtown. It was well worth the effort as the city was really very pretty. I loved the architecture!

We walked a lot and took in the sights and did a bit of shopping too.

Plaza de Toros de la Maestranza – bullfighting venue!

Saturday was a restful day with just a 30′ run and some strides followed by some lounging time next to the pool. The weather changed and we got a beautiful day! We met a lovely couple that afternoon, Hugo and Hilda Kibet, Lorna Kiplagat’s niece. Hilda is Kenyan but runs for the Netherlands and is the 2008 European xc champion. We had a great chat and had dinner that night with them. She started training seriously about 5 years ago and has dropped her 10km time from 37 minutes to 30 minutes for that distance!

We picked up our race packages and found out the departure times for the buses. My race was at noon the next day while the men’s race was at 2pm. Jon called to wish me luck and said I could afford to work the first few kms a bit more aggressively. Juicey called too and said he was excited for me. I was feeling confident and after last week’s mediocre effort I was itching to get out there and run hard!

Sunday, Jan 18th

I woke after a good sleep and headed down to breakfast on my own where I met Hilda and Hugo. We grabbed the second bus going out to the course. As we walked from the parking lot towards the course, we were stopped by a few kids asking for autographs and pictures. It was pretty funny. Little did they know I was a nobody!

We had to ask around to find the elite tent. The course had crowds of people all around as other races were going on so finding our way through the crowds was tricky.

We finally found the gate we had to get through to get to the trailers. We dropped our stuff off and we started our warm-up joined by Sopie from France. We discussed whether or not to use spikes as we jogged parts of the course. The surface was hard and fast but the course itself had two significant hills and many sharp turns (like eight or nine!) The course was basically a gravel road and since they had had very little rain, it was pretty hard. The three of us decided to opt for flats which in the end was a good idea. We were eventually corralled into the race start area. It was all very, very exciting! I looked around at all these amazing women as I did my strides and felt really amazed I was there running with them! Agaian, it was all very surreal. There were only about 40 elite women in this race so it was a bit intimidating but I was determined to get into the mix right off the top and not be such a chicken this time. Off we went and a minute or so into the race I found myself running with the lead pack, right at the front. The pace felt very comfortable though so I ignored the voice that said “what are you doing??” A quick glance at my Garmin on a flat section about 3 minutes in read 3:20/km. ‘Ok, I’m ok, the fastest women are taking it easy and will peel away in a another minute or so.’ Sure enough, just as we headed into the second lap (we had one 1.5km and 3 laps of just over 2km) off they went…bye-bye! I continued on, settling into pace at this point. I could feel a small group slowly closing in from behind and it was with this group of four women that I ran most of the race.

I managed to hang on until the last lap where two of the women pulled away. I spent the last two km battling it out with another woman. I saw up a head that we were closing in on a woman so I switched my focus from my running mate to the target up ahead. This tactic worked as I slowly pulled away and closed in on the woman in front. I didn’t catch her in the end but I certainly closed the gap in the last km and finished strong. I ran 28:48 placing 19th. I was very happy with my effort and felt I raced well. Here’s a write- up on the race: Cross Internacional de Itálica and here are the Results.

I did a good warm-down with Hilda and Hugo and then hung around before walking over to the far end of the course to watch the men’s race.

 

[Hilda placed third overall!!]

Now the men’s race was also prettty cool to watch!