Cursa de la Mercè

So here we are, back again, one week later. Today started cloudy and not as warm as last week eventhough there was a rather high humidity. This time I slept well and had an easy morning preparing for the race. Everything went very smooth and just before entering my "box" I met Andrés and his wife Silvia - somehow we always run into eachother if we run the same race - and we wished eachother good luck. With 16.000 runners the start was very crowded and when we were shot away at 9h30 the first meters we had to take care to not fall. One runner unfortunately did so, I hope he is ok!

After the first turn onto Parallel we have lots of space and when we arrive at the next turn the pack
already has stretched out. The first kilometer passed way too fast in 3m34 and the second was still going at the same pace 7m08. But I was feeling ok so when turning onto the long stretch we would run on Gran Via I really settled for a good pace and hold this pace untill the 5k mark which I passed in 18:37, very fast considering the race of last week, eventhough it was good to feel I could run at this pace for at least 5k again. From then on I had to slow down. I still don't have enough stamina to push the second 5k. I manage to run around 4m per kilometer. Just before the finish line I hear my family cheering me on and wave. With a second 5k split in 20m40 I finish in 39m17, much better than last week, but still a lot of training to do to go for 37 minutes!