Imagine my Surprise!

Every day there is a race taking place somewhere on the planet.

I live in a very sleepy town called Pedralba. There are about 800 people in the town itself, and nothing ever happens here of any great interest, or so I thought. In fact, at least once a year a 10K race, called the Carrera Popular Parque Natural is launched from the main street of Calle Colon in Pedralba. What I didn't realise was that this race draws people from all over the Valencian community. I was not aware because I live outside the town limits in the hills, the suburbs, if you will, and I have never bothered to come into town on this day.

This year I decided to see what happens on race day. Firstly, If you live within the town limits, between certain hours you are not allowed to use your vehicle. If you need to go somewhere you will have to move early. Everyone else can only park our cars and bikes on the outskirts. I parked in a farmer's field that had been flattened, but the dirt was very red. Thankfully, it didn't rain, but when the event was done I had to take my car directly to the carwash.

As I walked down into the town, runners who had arrived by car were running downhill, but others were running up hill. As I entered the town proper there were people running one way across town, while others were running in the opposite direction. In fact, choose any street and people were running one way or the other. To confuse things further, a police car, complete with screaming siren, that became even more agitated on corners seemed to be heading some runners, while others completely ignored  it.

As I got to the main road through the town I had to pinch myself because I had never seen so many people in Pedrabla. My estimate, including the townsfolk, is there were between three and four thousand people taking up every available bit of space. I try and imagine the reaction of the farmers, except I suspect they were all out in their fields.

There were runners from places far away, including Chinese, Brazilian, and Eastern Europe, etc, including one black guy and one black woman.

I discovered that there was a principal race that began at 11am. this was the 10K. There were about 1500 people for this event. It was interesting to note that the first runner passed under the starting arch promptly at 11am, and the last one crossed at 11:09.58. Almost 10 minutes to fully start the race.

The day was wonderful, being sunny with a light crisp wind. Not too bad to stand and wait for the runners to return to the end, but absolutely perfect to run in. The first person to cross the finish line did so at 11:34:33, and the last person finished at 13:15:34. She received a really terrific round of applause because she was a really largely built person, so it must have taken tremendous determination to complete the loop.

It was so exciting for me to see my town come so alive, and a whole lot more exciting to have been there than to simply read my account. However, my pride in my little town of Pedralba has grown tremendously. Normally most people don't have a clue where it is located. I always say that it is so remote that it doesn't even have a Chinese 5 and 10 shop. However, I suspect that the Chinese runners would have noticed that. I think we can expect a Chinese Bazar any day now.

Copyright (c) 2014  Eugene Carmichael