When I was rejected from the London marathon for this year, I wasn’t at all upset as I have done it 6 times but felt like I wanted to enter a big city marathon for April. I looked in the marathon listings and found the “Rock n Roll” Madrid marathon which sounded like a good idea. In retrospect I don’t even think Madrid is in any way a second choice over London.
Doing Madrid marathon was my first international marathon since Paris in 2005. It was a great to be back on the international scene and be digging out my Union Jack running shorts from the back of my draw for their first outing in 7 years.
We had family and friends joining us and it ended up being a party of 10. This included the Collins family, friends John & Lisa with their 2 kids, Ameilia and Regan and Yuk-Lam’s sister Han Ket with her boyfriend Phil. I had even talked John into running the marathon.
Madrid is a lovely city full of fantastic architecture and lovely parks. On the Saturday John & I went to the marathon Expo to collect our running numbers while the mums kept the kids occupied by taking them to the Zoo in Casa de Campo which is the cities largest park. We joined them to see the animals before letting the girls do some shopping while us boys had a wonder through the lovely Retrio park before chilling out in the hotel.
Sunday was marathon day, John & I had an early breakfast before making our way to the start, there was a lovely big race atmosphere in the air. I started off a bit shaky, maybe nerves (yes I still get them from time to time) or maybe because breakfast was later than we both would have liked. Anyhow after a mile I wished John all the best and speeded up to see what I could do with this race. By about the 5th mile I was well into my rhythm , the only problem was then masses of slower runners in front of me making me have to do lots of swerving and dodging which kept affecting my pace.
Madrid is a lovely city to run round, an interesting mix of old and new architecture and some lovely parks. I wouldn’t really call it a PB course as it has several fairly long gradual climbs but I would recommend it if you are looking for a big city marathon event. The crowds were fantastic, not all the way through the course but in lots of places. I even saw one man banging an old frying pan with a wooden spoon to make as much noise as possible while cheered on the runners.
I finished in 3 hours 34 minutes and 17 seconds. John finished in 3 hours 54 minutes well inside his 4 hour target, very good going considering the hilly course and warm conditions.
To round off the weekend we went for a walk around the centre of Madrid to take in some for the sights including the beautiful Plaza Mayor square where we stopped for a drink and an ice cream.
We stayed in the excellently positioned hotel, Petit Palace Savoy Alfonso XI (www.hthoteles.com) just off Retrio Park where the marathon finish was. What a fantastic hotel! A very cleverly designed hotel with modern design and technology carefully blended in with the building’s traditional classic architecture. Probably one of the best hotels I’ve ever stayed in.
We had lovely weather. Maybe a bit warm for a marathon but I’m definitely not going to complain, lovely sunshine both days which we all enjoyed.
To sum it up, the whole weekend has been brilliant even though it has tired me out!
It has wet my appetite to have more mini breaks abroad.
Lastly I must thank Phil once again for some more excellent photography.
