The marathon was to start at 0830 and the starting corrals would be opened 0745-0815. Staying at a hotel overlooking the starting area leaving at 0730 I was in very good time. On time we started flowing into our designated corrals, and at around 0800 the pacers starting entering, and “my” pacers (4:00) took up position in the back of the starting group. Perfect – as long as I keep them behind me I’ll be fine. 20 minutes later all pacers moved ahead and positioned themselves from the rear to the front of their starting groups. WTF? As a registered 3:55 finisher this was very confusing and I was far from the only runner being confused by this.
The front group (elites etc.) were sent off on time and a few moments later the rest were sent off in a steady flow and 6 minutes after the start I crossed the starting line. There was a fair amount of variation in the width of the streets during the run, even in the beginning which is arguable the most critical part due to the congestion of the runners. With great difficulty it took maybe 5km before I managed to pass the 4:00 pacers and put a bit of distance to them – together with several other runners.
The start was at a comfy 8-ish degrees with only a few clouds and a breeze so very comfortable running conditions. We started off westward where we circled through a bit of the central part of the city (though not the old part) before coming out to the waterfront in the opposite direction of the start, where we after a few kilometers reached the waterfront area near my hotel and turned out towards the cruise terminal. Here we circled back (not really any other option out there unless you want to go swimming), returned the same way back and continued eastward before we once again circled around and ended up near the starting area hitting the halfway point of the run.
At this point we were split in two; half marathoners were led into their finishing area while the rest of us were led out westward, along the same street we were on before turning out towards the cruise terminal. At around 28km we turned away from the water and ran around in what mostly looked like an industrial area until at 30km exactly we entered Malaga Athletic Stadium where we did a round before leaving again and continuing through the industrial area and towards the city center.
With maybe 4-5km left we reached the east side of Rio Guadalmedina north of the center, and from there we entered the old city, in the end getting back out on the main street and after 800 m crossing the finish line.
Along the way the weather did get a bit warmer reaching around 13-15 degrees, but fortunately it never reached the same humidity levels as yesterday. From the halfway point the streets still varied between nice and wide, and fairly narrow with sharp turns, but with only marathoners left if wasn’t really ever a problem at this point. I was honestly surprised how little support there was for much of the run, the last 3-ish km when we were running through the old part of the city were wild, but other than that there were only few places you felt blown away. Running in the industrial area and on the long stretches along the water (we weren’t even that close to the water so it would probably be more accurate to say “parallel with the shore”) it was almost just you and the other runners and it honestly did make it feel a bit uninspiring and boring at times.
There was a girl the last 10-ish km who was switching between running and walking. When she was walking I was passing her, and when she was running she was passing me, and like that we leapfrogged along during the last part of the run. Because we were passing each other every 2-3 minutes it was easy to keep track of her: she had fairly thick thighs that rubbed against each other and wearing very short tights. At the hem of her tights, due to the rubbing (and the presence of sweat probably didn’t help, either) she was wearing herself raw. For every pass we made just a bit more blood had spread out on her tights and thighs. I can’t imagine how sore and itchy she has been, but she kept going and didn’t show any signs of wanting to give up. And that was amazing. If you’re not bleeding during a run are you really having a hard time?
As usual I was aiming for a sub-4 hour run and at no point was I worried that the goal would be endangered. I did note around 30-32km that I should probably keep an eye on my pace and make sure that I didn’t slow down much more until closer to the finish line – and I managed that with great(-ish) success: an official finish time of 3:58:14. I did lose quite a bit of time towards the end while hunkering down and focusing on my pace, trying to ignore the many runners overtaking me, but at this point it felt like it was pure routine that got me through with the satisfactory result.
It turned out to be a fairly fast run though the time limit for the run is only 5:30, the shortest I have experienced so far. That meant that out of 5748 runners (which meant that there were more than 9000 halfmarathoners) I came in as 3691 (top 64,21%), 3185 out of 4625 men (top 68,86%) and 464 out of 622 in my age group (top 74,60%). Definitely not a good relative placement despite my time being in the same neighbourhood as many other of my runs (second worst overall placement only behind Boston at 69,79%) but overall I was happy with my result. And as an added bonus, as the finish area was the same as the starting area I only had a few minutes’ walk to get back to my hotel.
