10 Things I Think About Running

10 Things I Think About The Alghero Half Marathon

1. 1% Sardo

I think that running a race in Sardinia was a lot like running in West Cork. It feels like my ancestral home. Unfortunately 23andMe can’t test for West Cork but it can test for Sardinia and apparently I am a tiny bit Sardinian somehow, 1% to be imprecise. The little bit of Sardinian in me returned home thanks to Ryanair and a flight from Cork to Alghero. There just happened to be a half marathon on too.

2. Medical Cert

I think that the hardest thing about races in Italy and France is the medical cert. Italy is even more difficult that France as you need both a medical cert and evidence of Athletics Ireland Membership which is surprisingly hard to prove. When I went to collect my number in Alghero on the day before the race they gave me my number no problem but said I’d have to return at 8am in the morning as the man from FIDAL (Italian AAI) needed to see better evidence of Rhona’s AAI membership.

3. The Man from FIDAL

I think that the Sardinians must have been more worried about Rhona winning the race than me. When I turned up to meet the man from FIDAL at the appointed time it turned out that he wanted to see evidence from a lot of Sardinians as well. The line was very long, it was quite entertaining to watch the person at the front of the queue plead and gesticulate at the man from FIDAL before eventually obtaining a number. While I was waiting, I spotted two lads wearing Cork Marathon t-shirts. They looked Sardinian so I presumed they had taken advantage of the flights. Then I reached the top of the queue, showed the man my evidence which he didn’t believe, this prompted the local race organiser to come over and in Italian say something along the lines of just give him the bloody number which he did.

4. Half not 10k

I think that after the delay with the man from FIDAL I was lucky not to miss the start. When we arrived at the line we found a lot of people ready to go, I ran off to get to the front before being told that it was the 10k start and not the half. This was both great and terrible as another 5 minutes was another 5 minutes of it getting hotter and hotter. By 0935 it must have been close to 30 degrees. Sure how hard could it be. After a bit of razzmatazz and some Italian I didn’t understand we were underway.

5. So Easy

I think that I have never felt as good as I did for the first three miles of the race. It was almost effortless, jogging along at the front of a race in Sardinia at 5:35 pace thinking this is going to be great, I’m going to win €500, I even gave an interview to the guys on the back of a moped videoing the race. It didn’t even feel hot with the low humidity and ample pine trees shading the course. It didn’t last.

6. Boa

I think that it was all going perfectly until we reached the boa at 9k. One of the things I like about doing races abroad is learning what things are in other languages. Boa seems to be turnabout in Italian. Anyway, the boa was the end of my chances. Suddenly 535 pace became impossible as did 1st place. The Sardinians seeing my weakness in the heat pounced and very quickly I was distanced.

7. Go On Boi

I think that no matter where you go in the world there will always be Cork people around. As the course was an out and back and out and back course we got to see everyone in the race. The guys in the Cork City Marathon t-shirts who I thought were locals who had been to Cork turned out to be Cork people who had gone to Sardinia. There must be lots of Sardinian blood in Cork.

8. Fertilia

I think that by the time the race reached the small town of Fertilia which is about the same distance from Alghero as Cork is from Ballincollig my race was over. The road between the two towns is sort of like the straight road just with a beach with crystal clear water, pine trees and sunshine in place of the flooded fields and a permanent headwind. Fertilia was very hot, hot enough to induce get home without ending up in the hospital on a drip mode.

9. Settle for Sette

I think that it was handy to have the Cork lads in the race as they were able to tell me where I was in the race. 7th. Unfortunately the money only went to 5th so the best I could hope for was a masters prize. By the last three miles it was way too hot for an Irishman even with a tiny bit of Sardinian blood, even the 100% Sardos were complaining. I spent the last mile wondering how I would explain how hot it was for Strava as the time was not going to earn many kudos on Strava. I never came up with a good way so I just took a screenshot of the weather forecast.

10. Podium

I think that it was only right that I got to stand on the top of the podium it being my homecoming race. I won my category and proving the man from FIDAL right Rhona won her category too. The podium was outside in the sun at 1pm by which time it was stand under a tree for fear of burning alive hot. Despite the heat, the podium was excellent. We both got wine and pasta which was handy, I just wish it hadn’t been so hot as I really wanted to win a race in Sardinia. I’ll have to go back again, or perhaps emigrate there. It’s a very very nice place, I can’t understand why my ancestor left.