Cordoba half marathon gone wrong

I ran a marathon about a month ago. When Camilla asked me to do a half marathon, I told her yes right away. It wasn´t until two weeks into our training that I looked it up to sign up. It was in the mountains of Cordoba and it was all up-hill. The last 7 kilometers were more down hill but from kilomete 7 up to 14 was completely up hill. Not only that but it was in Cordoba which is from 30 Celcius up to 40 degrees Celcius or 90-100 Farenheit. It was a crazy idea not worth doing. So from that point on, I did my best to convice her not to run this. I convinced her finally and we decided to go to Cordoba for fun. After a cold front came in, we realized that the weather would be only 20 Celcius or around 70 Farenheit. At this point, we decided to do it for fun.

We didn´t train very well for this half marathon but I had convinced myself it didn´t matter. When we started, we realized there was only 350 people signed up with only 21 girls besides us. It gave us a shock when we heard this. Also, we only had 2 hours and a half to finish it. In my marathon time, my half was 2 hours 20 minutes so up hill would change that. We started off fast because there were bikers behind us pushing us faster than our pace. The first 7 kilmeters were slowly uphill so we were doing ok at this point although we were the last runners. The bikers left us at this point and we now had cars behind us...so we were holding up traffic. I didnt care at first...but little by little it got to me. Camilla started to have breathing problems shortly after so I asked the guy in the car (it was called the escoba(broom) to clean us up or pick us up) if she could ride with them for a bit until she caught her breath and then get back in the race...we were only doing this for fun...they said yes so she got in.

I found it hard knowing that I was the very last runner and I alone, was holding up traffic. I was sweating soo much and had a huge stomach ache from eating too much. I pushed myself as hard and as far as I could. It was very difficult and worse than Prague. There were no hills in Prague. Although I ran twice as much, the marathon was so much easier than the race I was running in Cordoba. I would tell myself, you can do this, you can finish, just run to the kilometer marker 14 then, its down hill...(it was in the map of the race at least). When I got there, it didnt change-it was still uphill and my music died. I decided to throw in the towell. I quit. The guys in the car made me laugh and feel better about the race. They told me there are alot of people that quit during this race, it was the 3rd hardest half in all of Spain and the hardest half marathon in Andalucia. They were giving nic names to all the slowest runners and mine was orejas grandes-los españoles saben que significa pero no voy a traducirlo. Camilla´s was rubia.

It was quite interesting riding with the guys, they took a bathroom break and the ambulance pulled over so I decided to ride with them. I was dizzy but riding in the back of the ambulance, they didnt do anything and it made me more dizzy riding backwards with no windows. The other guy that quit was in there as well. I talked to him a bit-Tony and he told me he had ran 4 half marathons and a marathon but this was psycotic and not worth the pain. After another stop, I switched cars again so I could at least have wind in my face. When I reached the top, I went and got my bag with my shirt in it...it also had another shirt, shorts, a pen, two pins of Cordoba, and socks. There was a pool to swim in, free beer, free sandwiches, free aquarius and water. It was awesome but Camilla wasnt there and I felt like a loser because I really didnt finish the race.

Then all of a sudden, someone shouted my name. I thought I was mistaken but it was Camilla. We were so excited to see each other. She had gotten a ride up as well. I didnt know if she had or not because the guys in the car told me she turned around and walked back.

We laughed about not finishing, we ate, and even got a beer to celebrate trying to accomplish it. Then we got out of there as quick as we could...we were feeling a bit bad since we didn´t finish it. While we were waiting for the bus, the guys from my car offered us a ride back down to the city instead of the bus so we quickly took it. It was quite a funny experience with them and much more comfortable than the bus. When we got back, we showered, ate Salmorejo and some fried fish of Cordoba and headed home. Never again will I run that marathon but one day I will go and run another half marathon- just not as hard as this one.