Ari and I met Sebas and a couple of other friends at a climbing crag, Les Banyadores, Cabrera de Mar. I’d climbed there once before earlier in the year. We did a couple of climbs in the sun with views out to the ocean and then caught up with Sebas for a kebab.
In the evening we drove to Coberta de Vallromanes for a running race. Anaïs, Ari and I had done the same thing in 2023. This year Anaïs wasn’t joining and I was unsure whether I might be getting ill again so downgraded from the 17km to the 11km race. Ari did the walk again and we both started at 7:30pm once it was dark.
It was a nice course. I decided it was short enough to run hard and set off from the back at a 4:15-ish pace passing people as we ran up the long street and then came to the first trail. On with the headlamp and we started climbing up rough tracks and winding about. I counted down the kilometres. I caught a glimpse of a nice sunset at one point.
My legs felt surprisingly good and I passed quite a few people on the climbs early in the race. The trails are really steep and rutted in parts probably due to mountain bikers using the tracks. At one point I passed Ari on a track while I was executing a cunning overtaking manoeuvre on a particularly steep bit. She was standing to the side of the deeply rutted track letting runners pass.
The course took us slowly back down towards the town in the valley and then more steeply down. I duelled with a woman in second place (of the female runners) passing her on the uphills and lagging behind on the downhills, her physique much better suited for the steep descents.
A couple of guys passed me in the last km and I tried to stick with them as we ran hard through the town looping back to the finish line. I came in 3 seconds after them finishing in place 28/102 overall and 10th in the Veteran 40 category (about 30 seconds off 7th place). Ari surprised me by finishing much quicker than I expected (3rd woman!) and we sat around at the finish drinking our aquarias and taking selfies.
It had been a nice run and I was happy that I’d downgraded to the shorter course as running hard had been good fun.
La Nocturna Trinxavambes 2025
Time: 1:09:01 Dst: 11km Place: 28/102 Overall, 26/100 Men, 10/20 Veteran 40
Ari (walk) Place 5/70 Overall, 3/? Women, 3/9 Veteran 40