Getting ready for Sants

It has been a long time since I last wrote about running. As you may remember my last race was the Cursa de la Tardor in Sant Andreu de la Barca and I finished quite satisfied about it. In the next few weeks there are a lot of popular races; some of them very important like the Jean Bouin but I don’t like it because there are too many people.

Before the end of the year I have decided to take part in the Cros de Sants . For me it is one of the main ones in the year because I run near home and the circuit goes through different streets which I am familiar with. I think it is one of the best races and one of the most important things is that there aren’t too many people.

The Cros of Sants is on the 30^th of November and I am training hard to be in my best. This week,since I am not working I am taking advantage to train a bit harder than usual. However, next week I will have to reduce a bit the number of kilometres to arrive to the race totally fit.

Another thing I like about this race is that Jéssica is there to cheer me and she waits for me at the finish lane. This year it will be more special because my friend Patricia is also training to run it so I think I will enjoy it more. I am thinking to run on my own –I am faster than her- or to follow her pace.

The Cross of Sants, if nothing changes, will be my last race this year. In 2015 I will start running Cursa Sant Antoni that is also very special for me because it was the first one I ran. Every year there are more people but I think it is worth it. I will also run the Half-marathon of Barcelona and depending on the training I will try to finish under 1h 40 min, something I haven’t been able yet. Last year I nearly made it, but I exceeded by just a few seconds.

As it happened last year, I still have to think whether or not to take part in the marathon. This past edition was very hard because it was very warm and I was glad not to run it. In a way I feel like trying again despite it means a lot of effort and big sacrifices. However, I think I am doing a good job and that I am in the right direction if I finally decide to take part. We will have to wait and see.

1h 40 mins

I imagine that some people will find it funny that in a blog about running I don’t write usually about this sport. As I said when I started, it has to do more with my thoughts or things that happen than with running. But, this time, I am going to do an exception and I am going to explain my last half marathon.

It was last Sunday. For the fifth year on the row, I decided to run the half marathon. For me it is one of the competitions I can’t miss because I really enjoy it and I like it. And also, I was still thinking about running in a month time the Barcelona marathon.

As usually I got up, had my breakfast and caught the metro to Arc de Triomf. All the carriages were full of people that were going to the same point; it was great. This is one of the things I like more and, specially, when you find people from other countries.

When you run you normally have an aim: finish the course, improve your personal best, enjoy the time. Before I started running I really thought that I will be happy finishing the 21,097 meters and finish between 1h 40mins – 1h 45mins. But once I started running, I felt great and I decided to try to get below 1h.40 mins and improve my personal best.

Everything was going great until the kilometer 15. I had plenty of time in advance and I calculated I could lose a few seconds every kilometer and I still be under 1h 40mins. Somehow, everything started to go wrong. I started to feel tired, thinking of giving up because I didn’t have any strength in my legs. Again, in the last kilometers, I threw all the good job I had done in the previous kilometers.

The worst thing about it was that I was really concerned about my difficulties when it came to the Vila Olímpica and again I failed. In the end, I finished with a time of 1h 40 mins and 6 seconds; my personal best of all time but I wasn’t happy. So I Imagine I will have to go back next year to achieve my aim.