Alicante

Wednesday 27th June

Immy and I got up early to meet Alberto for a final training in El Escorial.  Thankfully he offered to drive with us halfway up the mountainside to the map as it was enough climb to run halfway and running all the way to the startpoint would have been enough training by itself.  So I got to drive thorugh San Lorenzo for the first time and see the massive monastery that is famous there.  Solid rock bricks about 5 stories high with round stones along the streets.  A pretty watered garden out the back with pruned hedges and flowers looked refreshing.

The forest tracks were amazing for running with one going around the hill face perfect for interval trainings (just what they need on Pirongia).  Compass and simplification were important on the El Escorial Norte map for keeping the right height, and choosing the right rock pile while not falling over on the rough ground.  The green stripe was fine to run through, thankfully not prickly today, but some head high sticky shrubs developed on the lower part of the map reducing visibility and making for good confidence training.  On the second downhill course here I had to cross through a paddock and over a rock wall passing past a big cow with horns and a bell.  Scary, it was a matter of "if I dont look at her, she wont notice me", right (-: The course was largely successful, cliffs here are huge similar to Australia.  I got put off a bit on leg 1-2 where tracks were vague.   

Final training in El Escorial

El Escorial map

 After training we tidied up and Silvia delivered us to the train station, where we took a 3hr train ride to Alicante.  Scattered stunted pines on broad spurs and steeper dry gullies filled with broadleaves were the scenery from El Escorial to Madrid.  It looks perfect for running, despite the heat.  We were glad to be in the clean and airconditioned train for the afternoon.  We changed trains at Madrid Atocha station amid masses of people and a long queue for tickets.  We had hoped to meet other team mates here before leaving but they just missed it and got the train 2hrs later.  From Madrid the train quickly left the towering apartments of the city and headed straight (literally no bends on this track) for the Mediterranean coastline.  The citys seems reasonably compact with apartment lifestyle the norm.  On the other side of Madrid were plenty more crop fields growing wheat, grapes and some other leafy stout tree on red dusty dirt and patches of white soil (unsure what that was- salt or fertiliser?could also see it flying in on the plane).  In the countryside houses were scarce despite the cropfields and those that there were looked very typically Spanish with orange/white walls.  It was cool that there were also patches of forest remaining, mostly open and runnable.  It must take forever for the trees to grow in this climate. Xylem water tension limitation to height growth- Mike? (-:  Even with all this vast crop land it was suprising to us to come through towns built with apartment housing.  They dont seem to spread out as much as NZer's.  Each small town also has a cool castle on its nearest hilltop.


As more hills developed in the distance, we sensed Alicante nearing and palm and banana trees popped up.  We must be in the tropics (-:  But it was still dry and hot, next to no rain last winter has made it extra tough.

Alicante is a bustling city, I was amazed by the giant fig trees outside the train station.  Our hostel was in the old part of town, a huge apartment room for five of us.  Out for dinner in the streets. Local tapas-tried 8 between us so lots of variety- special spicy sausage, crushed dried capsicum, garlic mix, sardines with potatoes- potato crisps, beef stew-the best deal, vege mix. Then off to find churros!  Wow so full after that, crunchy doughnut sticks and a cup of melted choc to go with it! 

It was also the night of the Semifianl of Euro cup, Spain vs Portugal so the city came alive.  The streets were packed with fans of all ages, and every bar had a screen on the street.  We wandered between a few then choose to move to the one without such a screen delay.  A close game with no scoring so it went to penalty shooting, both teams scored two then Spain scored an extra and won.  Happy Spaniards (-:

So to celebrate, everyone went down to the beach to watch fireworks, The festival of Fire in Alicante is holding fireworks on the beach for five nights in a row.  Cricky it was crazy, for 20mins plus, boom boom bang, colourful fireworks over the ocean.  Then at the end there were some scary strings of crackers very closeby along the streets!  Spain knows how to party.

Gene and the Aussie team are also in this hostel so it was cool to catch up.

Thursday 28 June

Got up early to go and find some training.  Nothing much is organised so we found our way to the Uni, decipered Spanish to get maps and drove to El Molar which is past Santa Pola near El Marina town.  It was cool to drive back through the actual middle and relay area too.  So we had lunch under "shade" of tree/ aircon of car trying too cool down in midday 30plus degrees as we put off going training. Going on these maps we had been studying for so long made the running was so fun.  It feels real now, and we are able to handle it.  We know what it is like, small scattered trees, ignore the green blotch mapping too hard too read and unnecessary detail to me.  Cliffs are much smaller than in Madrid only 0.5m here.  Well mapped area and fast running despite looking green.     

El Molar training

Stopped at the beach for a swim on the way home, super salty and flat sea, and still warm from the sun but refreshing.  (-:  Paella for dinner this evening, tasty Spanish meal.

Friday 29 June

    

Leaving accom at 6am to get out to training map for long distance terrain (San Pascual Ibi) before heat of the day and to get beck in time for hostel breakfast.  Aircon in room  now which is much appreciated and makes for better sleep but traded for lesser space, but its only one night or so.  Lack of good directions from the event so we tried to find it on google then headed off, but there was confusion in the control circle and we drove round the villages for 45min plus including to the end of a road which we decided was wrong when it turned into gravel.  Looking for a road with a curve here, three hills a plateau and orchards on the flats is not enough description obviously (-:  A call to the camp organiser saved our day and breakfast, we rolled up to the map perfectly.  50mins training was all we had time for and I actually think this was good as we were not tempted to run for longer which would just tire us- quality is more important than quantity.  We got a good feeling for the terrain in this session.  Banks are climbable 50cm and useful to run along the tops as they are smoother than the rocky ground elsewhere.  Green is fine to go through just low vis, and watch your head, my hat was good at blocking trees.  Black circles are huge 5m diam rock water tanks.  Pits are not very big and caves are spooky.

Thanks to some skilled driving we made it back in time to eat all the breakfast food the hostel had on offer.  Then rest the rest of the day while the others in the team arrived. We all moved down the road to a larger hostel then reunited and had lunch together.  Plenty of seafood paella to go around.  After siesta in the aircon rooms we jogged to Monte Tossal Castle for sprint training.  This was the most technical area ever, with tight corners and walls to run around.  the steps were accompanied by childrens play slides only once could I utilise these (-:  In the slope to the north the green was patches of caccti!! Watch out for that! 

Monte Tossal training

Cooling off in the Mediterranean after training