We left our home town of Kendal on Friday afternoon to travel to Liverpool Airport where we stayed overnight in a hotel before catching a 6.30am flight Saturday morning.
After spending the evening in the hotel bar and then getting up bright and early to check-in for the early morning flight we felt rather jaded before we began!
When we arrived in Madrid we got the Airport Express bus into the City Centre and easily located our hotel with the help of a map we had picked up at the airport!
By the time we had booked into the hotel and unpacked it was around 11.30am. We decided to go to the race expedition to collect our numbers before going for lunch. This was a big mistake!
We had booked a hotel very close to the race start and had assumed that the race Expedition would also be here, but we were wrong!
We had to take the metro and travel for about 30 minutes changing twice to get to where we had to collect our numbers and then we had to queue for over an hour and a half outside in the hot midday sun!
Eventually once inside we received our race number and a T Shirt, together with some chicken soup, pasta and porridge! Obviously all the ingredients for a carbo-loading pre-race evening meal and breakfast, but having no cooking facilities it wasn't to be for us so we gave it back!
By the time we got back into the city centre we were starving and exceptionally thirsty as it was nearly 3pm and we hadn't eaten since breakfast!
We quickly located a little restaurant and enjoyed our first Spanish meal washed down with a jug of Sangria!
Probably not the best preparation for the race the next day ... but we were on our holidays and we needed something to restore our humour after the stressful experience of getting our numbers!
By the time we had eaten I think we were probably suffering slightly with sunstroke and dehydration as we all felt ill and had to take to our beds for a couple of hours!
We did manage to go out for a carbo-loading pasta meal later in the evening but this time we all stuck to water!
Consequently, after feeling so dire we were all very nervous about running the next day!
We set our alarm for 7.15am to give us plenty of time to eat breakfast and get ready! I didn't sleep very well at all and after tossing and turning for most of the night I was pleased when it was time to get up!I was still feeling exceptionally nervous and matters were made worse when we went down for breakfast and there wasn't any porridge! I ALWAYS eat porridge before a race and I really didn't know what to have instead! My stomach felt very unsettled as it was and I didn't want to risk upsetting it further!
Once we had finished breakfast we returned to the room to get our kit sorted and headed out the hotel at 8.30am for the 9am race start!
When I entered the Madrid Half Marathon I hadn't considered the fact it would be hot at this time of year or about the effect it being the highest European city might have on my body!
The race start was exceptionally close to our hotel! So close in fact that when we decided we needed a nervous wee with just 10 minutes to go it was quicker to head back to the hotel then it was to go to the portoloos!
We said our good lucks and fond farewells to each other as we were each going to run our own race and from 9am on wards we could hear the announcements as all the faster zones were set off.
Finally at around 9.20am it was our turn! We walked the considerable distance to the starting line before we were off! There was a small crowd of spectators but there was very little cheering, clapping or party atmosphere!
With it being so hot I had opted to carry my own water bottle, which I was pleased about as I was very thirsty very early on!
Initially, I kept the pace fairly slow as it was hot and I didn't want to push my body too hard, but I had the intention of speeding up in the latter stages! However, I found it a difficult race, and became tired very quickly. I’m not sure whether it was the heat, altitude, Sangria, not fuelling properly or whether it was just all in my head!
However, I gritted my teeth and pushed on! I would describe it as an undulating course and I was very disappointed with it! I didn't find it at all scenic and we just ran through the city streets that all looked the same! There wasn't even a lot of crowd support to keep me going!
Despite carrying my own water I still collected an additional bottle at 3, 6 and 9 miles and I still ran dry before the end! I tried to get an energy boost at around 5 miles by taking a gel but it didn't seem to have any impact!
After resisting the urge to walk on more than one occasion I headed into the park towards the finish line!
I could see a finishing arch in the distance and I tried to speed up thinking it was the finishing line! However, it was like a mirage ... there was in fact 5 finishing arches before I finally ran over the finishing mat!
I had managed to finish in 2 hours 1 minute 23 seconds. This is about 12 minutes slower than my Half Marathon PB but on this occasion I was pleased just to finish! You can view my race stats on Garmin Connect here!
Once over the finishing line I was handed a drink, a banana and a medal and I sat myself down to wait for my 2 friends!
Although the half marathon was a disappointment I loved the city and will definitely return - just not to run!
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