It was my first time to run this race, and indeed my first time in Seville, and I absolutely loved the place, and the run!
I hadn't realised how short the flight was to get there, only two and a quarter hours. Yet it feels so different to London - the buildings, the plants, the bright colours and patterns, the warm breeze, and the smell of oranges wafting in the air.
Andrew, Sarah and I hopped over on the early morning flight from Gatwick on Saturday. Once we arrived, we caught the EA bus into town, and found our hotel, the Hotel Don Paco, and checked in. I loved this hotel. I think, in the 60s it would have been state of the art, from the 70s to 80s maybe not quite so, from the 90s to 00s definitely not cool, but now, again, it is bang on the money! Plus, it had a roof top pool! Thank you Vanessa for the recommendation.
After topping up our energy levels with ice creams from Cafe Square, we headed over to the Expo to collect our numbers, and soak up the pre-race atmosphere, and bumped into Bushy, Caroline and Paul.
After getting our numbers, we headed back to the hotel, changed, and went on a short recce run to the start of the marathon, by the Parque de la Maria Luisa, to suss it out. The whole run was absolutely beautiful. The gardens and parks were like the very best botanical gardens here in the UK, but in Seville they were all just free to wander around! Seeing oranges growing on trees was magic!
We had an early dinner at La Mala Brunch underneath the Seta de Sevilla, followed by ice cream #2 and an early night.
My early night was disturbed by 1) the football, 2) everyone in the rooms around having showers at very strange times of night, 3) a generator, 4) being about 20oC hotter than the UK has been for at least 5 months, 5) feeling nervous!
Up before the crack of dawn to get ready, and head to the start. There were around 12,000 people running the marathon so, after London, I think it is the biggest marathon I have ever taken part in. I like marathons, and enjoy doing them regularly, but I was so nervous this time, and felt like I had never done one before!
The start and finish were in the same place, so it was straightforward to drop off our bags, and queue for the very scary port-a-loos. If anything can persuade anyone to run a marathon, I would have thought that just one look at a start line port-a-loo would encourage anyone to run as far away from it, and as quickly as possible, as they were able to. That experience thankfully out of the way, we all headed to the start line, which was a bit chaotic, and being on the short side, I found it a bit stressful getting stuck between all the tall blokes shouting and pushing forwards, but soon enough we were off.
Sarah and I ran around together, and had the best time, "Vamos!"-ing and "Chicas!"-ing! It was such a good atmosphere with great support. There were DJs around the whole route, playing classic tunes, and the crowds were really amazing. We high fived a giant cockerel. The route went up the river, over it to do a loop (by the Isla Magica and Agua Magica, which reminded me of Blackpool, and then past the Centro Comercial) and back to cross the river near the start at around 12.5 km in. Then the second loop went up the river again, but this time headed east, and did some loopy bits around more residential areas. The last part was all around the old town, and absolutely stunning! I loved running around the Plaza de Espana - wow!
Sarah and I finished in 3:56 which I am super happy about, although who cares about time, when it was the best of days!
Andrew, after saying he was dropping out as soon as the pubs opened (due to his injury hampering training) smashed out a 4:35, and crossed the finish line like a rocket on steroids.
100 Club shouts outs - loved seeing Peter, Bushy, Sam, Gina, Paul and Caroline, and meeting Dave from Wolverhampton.
Watching the finish line was magical.
Afterwards, refuelling and sightseeing was in order, and we stayed an extra day to see some more of Seville, seeing the Seta de Sevilla, cathedral, Plaza de Espana, and having a good walk around the parks. I really loved the city, and would love to go back.
I know that in Spain, Seville and oranges aren't really a thing, but I loved the oranges so much! Just seeing them growing on the trees all along the roads, and in the parks, just casually (like you do if you are an orange tree), was such an unusual thing for me to see, and so magical. Each time I saw a rouge orange laying in the road, even squashed by a car (orange juice?), it felt like a little discovery. Not only had I said "I would really like to see an orange fall from a tree" whilst wandering along with Sarah and Andrew, than we turned a corner, and they were actually harvesting the oranges! An army of men in hi-viz, with special ladders, aprons and buckets, working methodically along the orange trees lining the road, shaking them so the oranges fell to the ground, and collecting them up.
I like very much travelling to do marathons. You get a nice run in, which in itself is a very nice way to see a lot of a place, and then having a couple of days extra to explore is really nice. Plus, being surrounded by your friends, makes it a very lucky thing to be able to do indeed.
Now to think about what next.....
