Cross de Sants: hardlopen en warme chocolademelk op een mooie zomerdag

(translation of the title: running and hot chocolate on a nice summer day) 

The 33^rd cursa popular de Sants was my third official race as a vastard runner. I am typing this report, while Uri is sitting behind his computer with a big smile looking at the data of his race on the Garmin website. It was a nice and warm (feeling like a Dutch summer) day. We woke up early in El Masnou, luckily we had one hour extra to sleep thanks to the change to wintertime. We took the train at 8:15 and arrived in time in Sants. The preparations for the race were ongoing, and as 2 weeks ago in Amsterdam Llorenç and Oriol A. promised me hot chocolate with coca at the end of the race, I was happy to see the prominent sign saying ‘xocolata’. We picked up the dorsals and bumped into Roger. Soon the rest of the vastards also arrived and we moved to the start. At 5 minutes to 10, it seemed as if we were starting, but in the end that appeared to be not the case. At 10 o’ clock exactly, the race started and I lost sight of all the vastards within the first few seconds. The only one who I could follow was Oriol G. but I lost him after kilometer 4. I felt like starting very slowly, but in the end, the first 5 kilometers I ran at 5:30 per km. The track was going up and down a little (but of course much more than I am used to in the Netherlands) , which made it a little tough. And the warm weather did not help either.  In the second part I had to slow down and when I arrived at plaça de Espanya I felt like I had a lot of kilometers to go. In the end it was only 2 kilometers more from here, but going up, which was a little hard. Finally I still had enough energy to sprint the last 50 meters and I arrived at 56:15, an average of 5:38 per km. Not bad, although I hoped to be below 55 minutes. Well, next time better. At the finish, the xocolata was waiting for me, that was very nice, although a little strange on a warm day like this. The other vastards had variable results. Some were happy with their times, while others were a little disappointed. For the latter ones I hope the race in Clot will be better.

Renee

391      Eduard Ramos Verdú           45:11     (22:34-22:38)     4:32     Vastard Runners
423      Llorenç Arnau Guitart           45:38     (22:32-23:06)     4:34     Vastard Runners
505      Marc Lladó Sales                 46:53     (23:03-23:51)     4:42     Vastard Runners
568      Oriol Morell                         47:50     (23:42-24:08)     4:47     Vastard Runners
616      Roger A.                               48:29     (23:47-24:43)     4:51     Vastard Runners
699      Jordi Robles Bañeres            49:26     (24:34-24:52)     4:57     Vastard Runners
778      Oriol A.                                  50:41     (24:50-25:52)     5:05     Vastard Runners
786      Miquel Albiac Canet             50:46     (25:39-25:07)     5:05     Vastard Runners
1013    Oriol Guix Casas                  54:46     (27:05-27:41)     5:29     Vastard Runners
1083    Renée Beekman                   56:15     (27:45-28:30)     5:38     Vastard Runners