During March, Claudia and Brigitte introduced the group to a German charity that was collecting funds for the children and refugees of Ukraine with the intention of raising Euro 100,000 and to date they have raised an astonishing Euro 200,000, admittedly not all of it from our group of runners. We have pledged to run, walk, cycle or swim as often and as far as we can until 10 April.
On March 5th Benidorm hosted their annual 21k and 10k road races starting and finishing at the town hall just below the Bull Ring. Of the 2000 runners 400 were British Expats. John and Geoff competed in the 10k whilst Graeme took part in the 21k. After the torrential rain of Thursday night the forecast for Saturday was more rain, but thankfully the rain held off giving pleasant running conditions for the 18:30 start. Large crowds cheered us on as we set of with encouragement coming from the many bars and restaurants. Once we got onto Avda Madrid on Playa Levante, the crowds were a little more animated, especially as we passed the Tikki Bar, where for a brief moment we were joined by one or two patrons still holding on to their drinks, but as you would expect, they pulled over after about 20 metres, still hanging on to their glasses without spilling a drop.
As for the 10k, John was 7th in his age category with Geoff finishing in 8th but their overall finishing positions were 631 and 633 respectively, I don’t know where the girl in 632 place came from, as there wasn’t a foot between John and Geoff.
The 21k race started at the same time as the 10k and followed the same route for 9km then headed towards the Poniente district before returning to the finish at the town hall. Graeme finished in a time of 95 minutes placing him 190th overall and 11th in his age category. His race was also joined by a stag party and then a hen party, which for him, at the pace he was running at, was more of a hindrance than it was for John and Geoff. Immediately he finished the race he collected his possessions to get the tram back to Alicante then a taxi back to Gran Alacant.
Some many months ago, Chloe went back to the UK and we haven’t heard from her since. Well this week she was back in contact saying she is returning to Spain in April with Elise her newly born daughter.
We send our congratulations to Chloe and her partner on the birth of their adorable daughter. Welcome back Chloe and we look forward to seeing you out and about again, maybe pushing the stroller when you start your running again.
Upcoming local events:
15th April
Brotons Villa De El Campello 10km & 5km
24th April
10km Rotary Elche
30th April
Vertical Running Bigastro
If you want to join us contact Geoff 0044/ 747 685 1356
