I belong to two running
clubs that are all about running marathons in different countries. One is Marathon Globetrotters. The other is the Country Marathon Club. Sometimes, a member of one of these clubs
will organize a marathon in a country that doesn’t have one. That was the case with the Andorra la Vella Marathon.
In July, I learned that
several runners were planning to run marathons in Andorra, Gibraltar, San
Marino, and Monaco, all within an 8-day span in November. The first three races were small races
organized by club members. The race in
Monaco was an existing race.
I chose to just do the
race in Andorra. I passed on the race in
Gibraltar, because the other people running this race were planning to stay in
Spain and just make a day trip into Gibraltar.
Likewise, I skipped the race in San Marino, because they were planning
to stay in Italy and just make a day trip into San Marino. I would’ve been interested in running
marathons in these counties, but only if I was going to stay overnight and have
a chance to do some sightseeing there.
I passed on the race in
Monaco, because it was an 8-day race.
The other runners were planning to arrive on the second day and run just
long enough to finish 26.2 miles. If I
was going to do a multi-day race, I would want to run as far as I could.
Andorra is a small
country in the Pyrenees, between Spain and France. The race was in Andorra la Vella, which is
the capital of Andorra.
Friday, November 8
I arrived in Spain on Friday,
after an overnight flight to Amsterdam, a 3-hour layover, and a connecting
flight into Barcelona. I wasn’t going to
meet up with the other runners until Saturday, so I had an afternoon and evening
on my own in Barcelona.
Hotels near the popular
tourist destinations were expensive, so I stayed at a hotel that was closer to
the airport. I’ve been to Barcelona
before, so I didn’t need to do all the sightseeing again.
After getting settled in
at my hotel, I went for a run. My hotel
was about two miles from the Magic Fountain of Montjuic. The fountain is currently shut down because
of draught conditions, but it was a familiar landmark. I started by running to the fountain. From there, I gradually worked my way up
Montjuic until I reached the Olympic Stadium, which is at the top of the hill. I took a different route down. I had to detour around some construction, but
I eventually found my way back to the hotel.
There weren’t many
restaurants near my hotel, so I spent the evening in the city center, where
there are lots of dinner options.
I had been awake since
the previous morning, so I had no trouble getting to sleep.
Saturday, November 9
I didn’t need to be up
early, but I set an alarm, so I could force myself to get used to the local
time zone. That gave me time to do a
workout at the hotel before leaving for Andorra.
The original plan was to
meet at the airport and carpool to Andorra, but that turned out to be
complicated. It’s a three-hour drive
through the mountains, and we would be required to have snow tires and
chains. Also, everything in Andorra la
Vella was close enough that we wouldn’t need a car while we were there.
There are two different
companies with express buses from Barcelona to Andorra la Vella, so most of us
took a bus. I caught the bus at a bus
station outside Barcelona’s central train station.
The bus ride took about
three hours. There wasn’t a bathroom on
the bus, so I was really glad I used the bathroom at the bus station before
boarding the bus. We drove through a
little bit of rain, but it wasn’t raining when we arrived in Andorra.
From the bus station in
Andorra la Vella, I was able to walk to my hotel. I stayed at the same hotel where packet
pickup was held. It was
about a block away from the small city park where the race started.
After checking in, I
attended a pre-race briefing and picked up my race number. Then several us walked out to where the race
would start in the morning,
I spent the rest of the
afternoon sightseeing. Andorra la Vella
is in a valley. From different places in
the city, you can get views of the surrounding mountains.
One of the attractions is
Casa de la Vall. This historic manor,
built in the 16th century, was formerly the headquarters of the Consell
General, which is the oldest parliament in Europe.
Another attraction is the
Church of Saint Esteve. This church
dates back to the 12th century.
A river runs through the
city, and there are a number of interesting bridges.
There are also several
interesting sculptures around town.
For dinner, I went to an
Italian restaurant near my hotel. For
the record, I’ve now had pizza in 51 countries.
Sunday, November 10
Sunday was race day. The race was originally scheduled at start at
9:00, but there was an early start at 7:30 for runner who needed extra
time. When I found out everyone else was
taking the 7:30 start, I decided to also start at 7:30. We met in the lobby at 7:10 and walked to the
start together.
The temperature was about
40 degrees at the start and climbed into the upper 40s during the race. I was expecting to go at a slow pace, so I
dressed warmer than I normally would.
The course was a loop
that we ran five times. We started at
Parc Central. From there, we ran on a
bike path alongside the river for about 2.6 miles before coming back on the
other side of the river.
In general, we were
always on the left side of the river, but there were a few exceptions. Sometimes, we had to cross a street, and
there was only a crosswalk on one side of the river. In those spots, we would cross the river,
cross the street at the crosswalk, and then cross the river again on the other
side of the street.
This was a small race, with
only 31 runners. There weren’t any aid
stations, so I needed to carry a bottle with me. There was a drinking fountain in the
start/finish area, where I could refill my bottle after each lap. I brought a few packets of Gatorade powder,
so I could mix it each time I refilled my bottle.
When Raoul, our race
director, measured the course on Saturday, he found it to be a little
short. To make up the distance, we needed
to do two laps of a much shorter loop.
Raoul called these “penalty laps.”
We ran our “penalty laps” first, which gave Raoul time to begin marking
the turns on the main loop.
By the time we finished
our first “penalty lap,” it was clear that there were four runners who were
starting much faster than everyone else.
I started out at an easy pace. I
quickly found myself trailing the four leaders, but I was ahead of everyone
else.
Some of the runners had
walked the entire loop on Saturday, so they were familiar with all the turns,
and in particular, they knew were to turn around. I wanted to follow somebody who knew the
course, and it quickly appeared that the only way I could do that was to stay
within sight of the four leaders.
I accelerated enough to
keep from falling too far behind. I ran
the first mile in 9:05. That’s faster
than I was planning to run, but it wouldn’t break me to run at that pace for a
few miles.
The second mile was
faster. I ran that one in 8:12, but I
was still barely keeping pace with the leaders.
That pace felt a little tiring, but not as tiring as I would have expected. I didn’t realize it yet, but as soon as we
started our first full lap, we were going downhill.
In the first half of each
lap, we were following the river downstream.
The river descended fairly rapidly.
There were rapids almost everywhere.
That made the fast pace seem deceptively easy.
Before the turnaround, we
crossed Pont de Madrid, which is an easy landmark to recognize. We were still on the same bike path, but now
we were on the opposite side of the river.
Next, we ran by this gas
station. I knew the turnaround was
somewhere near the gas station, but I didn’t know exactly where. It was the first place after the gas station
where there was a road going to the right.
By the time we reached
the turn, I was catching up to the four leaders. Then we made a big 180 degree turn that led
us onto a street that gradually brought as back toward the river. We ran on a sidewalk until we got back to the
river.
Immediately after the
turn, we started climbing. Going uphill,
I could no longer keep up with the leaders.
I dropped farther and farther behind, but I worked to at least keep them
in sight.
As the road came back to
the river, we got onto a bike path again.
Later, as we ran by a large athletic complex, the paved bike path was
replaced by a rubberized surface resembling a track. I enjoyed running this section, but I was
still falling farther behind the leaders.
In our pre-race briefing,
Raoul had told us that there was a place where the path would end, and we would
have to cross the river. I knew we were
getting close to it, when I got a glimpse of two of the leaders on the other
side of the river. I wanted to keep at
least one of them in sight long enough to see where we crossed the river again
to get back on the left side.
I saw one runner making
that turn. By the time I got there, I
had lost sight of everyone ahead of me, but I recognized where I was. I was about to run past the bus station. I knew the way from there, because I had
walked from the bus station to my hotel on Saturday.
By now, another runner
had caught up to me. His name was Ricky,
and he was from Denmark. I ran with Ricky
for the rest of the lap.
Lap one was tiring. In lap two, I slowed down, but only a
little. I was talking to Ricky, and I
wanted to keep up with him. We ran
together for all of the second lap. It
wasn’t as fast as my first lap, but it was still tiring.
Halfway through the
second lap, as we turned around and got onto the sidewalk, there were several
metal posts that we had to avoid. I got
distracted by our conversation and ran into one of them with my right shoulder. I hit the post so hard that my shoulder hurt
for the rest of the race. It’s good that
I didn’t hit my head.
We continued running
together for the rest of that lap. At
the end of each lap, we each ran into the park to refill our bottles. There were bathrooms in the park, so I
stopped briefly to pee. As I was
leaving, Ricky told me he was also going to use the bathroom too. I went ahead and started my third lap, but at
a slower pace.
I expected Ricky to catch
up to me, but in the meantime, I had time to stop and take a picture. By now, the morning sun was hitting the
mountains ahead of us. This is the type
of view we had throughout the race, as we ran through the river valley.
Ricky caught up to me as
I was putting my phone back in my fanny pack.
I ran with him briefly, but I could no longer keep up with him. I gradually fell behind.
I no longer had any
reason to keep running fast. In the
first lap, I was trying to keep the leaders in sight. In the second lap, I wanted to have someone
to run with, so I ran at Ricky’s pace.
Now, I realized I would probably be on my own for the rest of the
race. It was time to slow down.
We were mostly running on
bike paths, but there weren’t many bikes.
In my third lap, I was passed by a few bikers, but I didn’t see any
before that.
Now that I was going at a
slower pace, I could afford to stop and take a few pictures. All of my pictures of the course were taken
in the third lap. Here’s a picture of
the river that I took in the second half of the lap, when I was following the
river upstream.
To take pictures, I had
to take my gloves off. It was still too
cold for that. My hands were getting
cold, so I had to put my gloves on as soon as I was done taking pictures.
It was during that lap
that I reached the halfway mark. I was
on pace to break four hours, but only because I had started fast. I expected the second half to be slow.
By the time I finished my
third lap, I was feeling pressure in my intestines. I needed to make another bathroom stop when I
got back to the start/finish area. This
one was going to take longer, but I was no longer worried about losing
time. The rest of the race was going to
be slow anyway.
I had to take my gloves
off to use the bathroom. After my
bathroom stop, I didn’t feel any need to put them on again. It had warmed up noticeably since my previous
lap.
I felt a little sluggish
as I started my fourth lap. That didn’t
last long. I was back on the downhill
side of the course. That made it easier
to gradually pick up the pace.
About a mile into that
lap, I started to feel more pressure in my intestines. I wasn’t done yet. I was going to need to make another bathroom
stop, and I couldn’t wait a whole lap.
Raoul had told us about
some other bathrooms along the route, but I never noticed where they were. I remembered the gas station just before the
turnround. I knew I could use a bathroom
there, but it was still more than a mile away.
I had to hold it in, and running downhill didn’t make it any easier.
When I finally got there,
I ran into the gas station and found the bathrooms. I was in there for a long time, but I was
confident I wouldn’t need to stop again.
By the time I left the
gas station, my watch was reading just over three hours. The last time I ran by this gas station, it
was still less than two hours. It had
taken me more than an hour to run one lap.
That was discouraging.
As I made the turn and
began the uphill half of the loop, I saw a few runners just ahead of me. At this point in the race, I was sometimes
passing slower runners who were a lap behind me. I caught and passed a couple runners, but one
runner was always about the same distance ahead of me. I eventually realized that he must be on the
same lap as me. I never saw him ahead of
me before, so he must have passed me while I was in the gas station.
The first half mile after
the turnaround was the steepest. I
always struggled there. I was working
hard to try to catch up to the runner ahead of me. That was the only reason I worked hard going
up this hill. Having someone to chase
kept me motivated.
Now I was hot. Earlier in the race, I needed the warm clothes
I was wearing, but now I felt overdressed.
I would be hot for the rest of the race.
I followed the same
runner for the rest of the lap, but I couldn’t catch up to him until he stopped
in the start/finish area to get a new bottle.
I needed to stop to refill my own bottle and mix in more Gatorade
powder. By the time I started my last
lap, he was well ahead of me again.
On the downhill side of
the course, I was able to gain ground. I
caught up to him, and we ran together for a few minutes. His name was Martin, and he was from France. We were both on our last lap.
As we got to the steepest
part of the descent, I started to pull away from Martin. I wasn’t trying to get ahead of him, but I
always pick up speed going downhill, and it was steepest in the last half mile
before the gas station.
When I reached the uphill
side of the course, I slowed down substantially. It helped to know that I was running this for
the last time, but it was still a tough uphill grind.
By the time I finished
the steepest section, Martin had caught up to me again. We ran together for the rest of the race.
I was just reading a
split from my watch when Martin asked me what distance I had. I told him I was at 24 miles. His watch was reading in kilometers. His was just over 38 kilometers. As I thought about what was left, I was
skeptical that we still had 2.2 miles to go.
I told him if my watch was reading low as we approached the finish, I
was going to run an extra “penalty lap.”
We continued, and as we
got within sight of the bridge we crossed at the end of each lap, I took another
look at my watch. It was obvious that my
watch was going to measure less than a marathon. Martin’s watch was also coming up short, so
instead of crossing the bridge, we each began a “penalty lap.”
I thought for sure that
would be enough, but as we ran into the park, my watch was still a little
short. I did a little extra running
through the park until my watch read 26.22 miles. Then I stopped. I finished in 4:18:52. Martin’s watch was also still reading short
of a marathon. He continued to run for a
few more minutes after I finished.
My second half was more
than 20 minutes slower than my first half.
Bathroom stops accounted for at least 10 minutes of that.
After finishing, I talked
to a few other runners who were still in the finish area. Everyone I talked to had the same
experience. Their watches were reading
short, so they did extra “penalty laps” to make up the difference.
If this was a certified
course, I would trust that the course was measured accurately, and I wouldn’t
worry if my watch read low. It doesn’t
happen often, but it happens. Under the
circumstances, we all felt it was important to keep running until our watches
had recorded a long enough distance.
How much of a difference
was there between the first and second halves of the loop? Here’s the elevation profile my watch
recorded.
Ricky said his legs were
already getting sore. I didn’t have sore
legs, but my shoulder still hurt. When I
got back to the hotel, I looked to see if there was a bruise. I couldn’t see any bruising, but it hurt with
any movement.
After I had time to get
cleaned up and recover, I went walking with Ricky and Lone, who were both from
Denmark. We walked through a part of the
city I had not seen yet. Then we stopped
at a bar for beers.
Later in the afternoon,
there was an awards ceremony at the hotel, where everyone received their medal
and finisher certificate.
I went to dinner with Ricky,
Lone, Raoul, and Peter. Raoul and Peter
are both from Finland. We wanted to eat
right away, but most of the restaurants didn’t open until 7:30 or 8:00. The restaurant I went to on Saturday opens at
6:30, so we went there. Everyone seemed happy with that restaurant choice.
Monday, November 11
When I woke up on Monday,
I still had some soreness in my shoulder, but it wasn’t as bad. It no longer hurt to move my arm. Other than my shoulder, I felt fine.
I had breakfast with the
same runners I had dinner with the night before. After breakfast, I had time to do a workout
at the hotel before taking the bus back to Barcelona. Several of the other runners were on the same
bus.
Some of the other runners
flew to southern Spain, so they could drive to Gibraltar the next morning. I was planning to fly home, but first I had
one more night in Barcelona.
I stayed at the same
hotel in Barcelona, so I was already familiar with everything nearby. After checking in, I went for a run. I could’ve run the same route that I ran on
Friday, but that would have been too strenuous for a recovery run. I started with a few level miles. Then I started up Montjuic, but I didn’t go
all the way to the top.
After a quick shower, I
went into town. I had a little time before sunset but not much. I went to La Sagrada Familia. I toured the basilica in 2017, but it was
still under construction. I wanted to
see how it looked now.
I arrived as the sun was
going down, so there wasn’t much light for pictures.
While I was there, I
randomly bumped into Ricky and Lone. We
stayed to see the basilica at sunset.
Then we went to dinner together.
Tuesday, November 12
I woke up early on
Tuesday. While I was trying to get back
to sleep, I heard my phone vibrate. That
surprised me, since I usually put my phone in airplane mode overnight. I apparently forgot to do that.
I had a series of
notifications from Delta Airlines about delays to my flight from Barcelona to
New York. It was originally scheduled to
depart at 10:15 AM. That was delayed to
12:30 PM. Then it was delayed to
1:45. Then it was delayed to 3:15. That last delay meant I would arrive in New
York too late to make my connection.
As soon as I was awake
enough to be coherent, I called Delta.
They were able to rebook me on different flights. Instead of connecting in New York, I
connected in Atlanta. That was good
news, since it’s easier to make an international connection in Atlanta. The flight times were similar to my original flights, but my seats
were less desirable. They gave me a $100
credit for the inconvenience. After I
got off the phone, I saw another notification.
My original flight was cancelled and the next available flight to New
York wouldn’t be until Thursday.
I had a little bit of a scare when I got to the airport. I went to a kiosk to print my boarding passes, but it would only give me the boarding pass for my first flight. It didn’t show me having a second flight. I could see that flight in the app, but it wouldn’t show me my boarding pass. Thankfully, the gate agent was able to print my boarding pass. It would've made me nervous to arrive in Atlanta without a boarding pass.
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