Cursa dels Nassos 2011

With many lessons learned from the last race, the Jean Bouin on 27th of November, which gave me my first oficial PB in 38m40 on the 10k and a good last week of training I was feeling well prepared for "la Cursa dels Nassos". The morning of the 31st of December I woke up with a painfull left calf and I spent the rest of the day worried, keeping the leg cool and trying to massage the muscles hoping it would not bother me running. Around four a clock the whole family left for going to the area at the other end of Barcelona where the race started. The warming up was good news feeling that the pain was not bothering me when running and after a last stop at the toilet and washing down a sportsgel with water I entered my box to wait for the start.

The first hundred meters there was a lot of pushing and tripping and the pace was far from ideal, so getting away with a 3m48 on the first kilometer was not bad at all. The second kilometer there was a bit more space and I made up for the time lost on the first coming through in 7m30. The next kilometers where going easy and relaxed eventhough from time to time maintaining pace was hard because of groups of people forming barriers running at a slower pace. Half way was just passed 19 minutes, so much slower than the 18m45 of the previous race. Kilometer 6 passed without me noticing it while we were more or less stuck on a biking path in a group that was going just a bit too slow. Kilometer 7 I was still only a few seconds behing the 38 minutes schedule and feeling quite ok. I maintained good pace upto the 9th kilometer passing 12 seconds behind schedule. I decided to maintain pace untill turning the last corner and going straight for the finish line. 1 minute and the finish looked to be really far away, but I had breath and energy left for the sprint! Half way I heard my wife Montse shout my name, but I was too tired to find my family in the crowd and sprinted on to stop the clock at 38m02. I guess I should have watched the watch a second time to see I really could finish under 38 minutes, but I also know the next time I have a good chance to do so anyway!!!