Monday 20 February - Umbrete

Where's Bertie? He's at an Aire a couple of kilometres away from the centre of the town of Umbrete. Exact location: 37.36889, -6.16812
Weather: Overcast but warm.

My first task having rolled out of bed this morning was to look at the options as to where we go next on this trip. I came up with enough places that, if we were to stay at all of them, and for the maximum 3 nights each, then we would well and truly miss our Chunnel back to the UK at the end of next month. The one I picked for today wasn't for any merit other than that it was close to Seville, so it was an easy hop that would leave us most of the day free to do some work.

With that settled, Mick grabbed his towel and took himself for a final shower before we left, only to return a few minutes later reporting that there was no water, not just in the shower, but anywhere on site. This was a minor inconvenience for us, as we were going somewhere with a service point, but more of an issue for those people in small vans without toilet facilities.

A short while later, we pulled up to the exit, paid our bill (no discount offered for the lack of facilities!) and headed the 1km to our first stop of the day: a supermarket.

The next stop was 5km further on (LPG at 99.9c/litre), then 1km (Decathlon - incredibly we've got four weeks through the trip without visiting a Decathlon. They didn't have the item we went in for, but we still managed to make a couple of purchases), then it was 12km before we dived into a petrol station, with Bertie's fuel light having come on during the drive here. It's a peculiarity in Spain that you'll have a cheap petrol station without a manned cash desk, yet there's still an attendant who will do the fuel-filling bit of the process for you, whilst you stand around wondering why you couldn't just do it yourself. Another kilometre, and at the Aire we arrived.

After yesterday's exertions, various bits of my body are sore today*, so other than walking around the supermarket, Decathlon and a few gentle laps of the Aire, I've not done anything. Hopefully my legs will feel sufficiently recovered tomorrow for us to take a look at the town.

^{(*The sore quads were expected, and I've certainly had them in a worse state than this. Unexpected was the bruise in the small of my back. I usually run with my phone in a pocket on the side of my leg, but the skirt I wore yesterday doesn't have that option, so I had it in a pocket on the back of the waist band. I've carried it there many times before, but now that I think about it, probably not for any great distances, and whilst it feels like it's held securely and not bouncing, there must have been enough movement to leave a bruise.)}

Sunday 19 February - Maratón de Sevilla

Where's Bertie? He remains unmoved in the Aire in Seville.
Weather: Mainly overcast, with just a bit of sunshine in the middle of the day. 14 to 24 degrees.

I've long felt that I ought to run a marathon at least once in my life. Indeed, I selected one in 2019 and duly trained for it. It was due to take place in April 2020 when, of course, nothing took place.

Seville Marathon is rather a contrast to the one I originally intended to do (12000 runners vs 400; flat tarmac vs not flat trail), but after Mick ran here last year I could see its benefits. In particular, the logistics are really easy, in that the Aire is within easy walking (and even easier cycling) distance of the start/finish.

Thus, at 0730 this morning, an hour before the start, I was still sitting around in my pyjamas. I left Bertie at 0800 and, in hindsight, I could have waited another ten minutes as it only took me about 5 minutes to get to the start (Mick had set out earlier, as he was on foot at that point, whilst I took the bike).

Fourteen degrees said the two thermometers at the start. With a bit of a breeze, it felt like a good temperature for a run.

The crush to get through the gates into the starting pens had me fearing for my life, but once through there was plenty of space. Curiously, even though I'd been able to hear the tannoy announcements from Bertie before I set out, once in the starting pens I heard nothing. Thus, the first indication that the race had started was when those in front of me shuffled forward. It took just under 5 minutes to get across the start line.

Mick cheered me on, handed me gels, and filled up my water bottle (handy to have a small bottle, even though drinks stations were frequent) at 12km, 22km, 27km and 36km.

He also snapped a photo of me at 12km as the route crossed a bridge, back to the E side of the river.

By 36km I was ready to be done and moaned that running 42.2km on flat roads is harder than covering 130km on technical trails in 24hrs.

I'd set out with two targets:
1) to enjoy myself;
2) if compatible with (1), to run under 4hr30.

I failed on both - but only marginally. On the plus side, I didn't hate the experience (unlike the Tissington Half, of which I hated just about every step), but nor did I enjoy it (as I did Thunder Run 24hr last year). My finish time was a bit annoying, in that I was still on target at 39km, when I started getting cramp in my calfs. I was moving fine between bouts of cramp, but then would have to stop, stretch and carry on. I would have had some salt tablets with me, if I could have located in what safe spot I'd stored them for the trip (probably along with the missing foot cream).

So, maybe if I'd had the salt tabs, the last 3km would have gone better. Maybe if I hadn't had shingles (followed by a thigh strain, no doubt due to all the time spent sitting around with shingles) and lost some training, the last few km would have gone better. I'll never know, but certainly if I'd been more diligent with my strength work I'd have been in a better place.

I crossed the finish line in 4hr32, so not far off target (2). Close enough, I think, to not feel that a rematch is essential.

Having crossed the finish line, I promptly lost the ability to breathe. It's been so long since that last happened (2019) that it hadn't occurred to me that it may return to plague me (in the absence of having a card in my pocket telling anyone concerned that I wasn't having an asthma attack, and the worst that would happen is that I might faint (at which point my pharynx would unspasm, or so a doctor once reassured me), it's a shame I didn't have Mick to hand).

A minute or so later, I was fine again. A medal was put around my neck, then I found the goody-bag giver-outerer (mainly drinks, including a beer, plus the obligatory orange, because we are in Spain), and a couple of hundred metres later I was out of the finish area where Mick was located exactly where he was supposed to be.

Reunited with Mick, medal around my neck, clutching a banana.

Same snap but facing the other way, with the thermometer behind me reading 25 degrees. Most others I'd seen on my way to the finish said 24 degrees. 

It seems that I'm far from the only runner staying at the Aire. I was fourth lycra-clad woman in the queue for the shower when I wandered over there a while later. The water wasn't even pretending to be tepid today.

Verdict: I'm happy to have 'run a marathon' ticked off the to-do list, and Seville's course has great merit, taking in many of the best sights of the city, although I can think of better ways to sightsee!

I'm also now pretty convinced, as many have reported before me, that off-road ultra distance events are easier than road marathons. Aside from the variation in foot fall in the former, the longer off-road distances tend to involve plenty of walking in amongst the running.

Alas, I'm now in limbo, as the 24-hour event that was next on my agenda has just been cancelled, and I've not decided on what I'm going to do next instead.

These chaps were done and on their way for a roast dinner by the time I crossed the halfway mark!

Friday & Saturday 17-18 February - Seville

Where's Bertie? He's in an Aire, in the port on the S side of Seville, where he also spent 4 nights at this time last year. The price has increased since then from €12 to €14 per night (electricity is available for an extra fee).
Weather: Fri: Mainly overcast, some sun, very windy, but warm. Sat: Cloudy start with a couple of brief showers, clearing to sunshine by late morning. Warm.

Last year we arrived in Seville on the Thursday, only to then realise that the location for collecting Mick's marathon race number was 10km away across the city. I went by bike to pick it up on the Friday morning. This year we took the race number logistics into account, arriving in Seville a day later, allowing us to swing by the exhibition centre on our way.

I'd identified a huge Bertie-friendly car park (the access road proved less Bertie-friendly, but he made it through) a kilometre away from the exhibition centre. There I left Mick and Bertie, set off on foot, arriving within minutes of the doors opening. Five minutes later, I was on my way back to Bertie, having profited from last year's experience and knowing exactly where I was going (and being blinkered to the stalls and activities that lay between the entrance and the collection desks). 

Onwards then to the Aire, situated in a big car yard, which is still as unattractive as it was last year, but it serves its purpose well. For most people, that means going into Seville for a look around. For the second year in a row, it's likely we won't do any touristing, except for that done by Mick on his run tomorrow and me on the marathon route on Sunday.

The less eyebrow-raising of the two electric hook-up points at the Aire. We've not partaken of this offering.

Saturday

Whilst Mick went out to run 24km along the river, amongst hundreds of other runners, and with plenty of activity on the water to entertain him too, I did a bit of organising. My kit is all layed out for tomorrow and Mick's phone now has the marathon route marked on two different mapping Apps, plus he's got pins in Google Maps telling him where he's going to cheer me on with notes on how far through the route those places are.

Snapped by Mick during his run. The building site on the right used to be a car park and is where we stayed in Colin-the-Motorhome back in 2016.

I also got the bike out of the boot for the first time on this trip, for Mick to use tomorrow, and having pumped its tyres I thought I may as well put it to good use by cycling, rather than walking, the 1km to the supermarket to pick up some salmon for tea. 

Mick got back just as the day was getting toasty, and not long later off I went for my final pre-marathon jogette. I headed over to the start/finish area, where a thermometer in the street told me it was 24 degrees (although not shaded). The forecast for tomorrow morning says it's going to start at a pleasant 12 degrees then build to 22.

My mid-run snap

Back at the Aire we confirmed simultaneously that the water temperature in the showers here hasn't improved from last year. Our showers were both short by virtue of the temperature being on the cold side of tepid.

Thursday 16 February - Osuna

Where's Bertie? He's still at the Aire in Osuna.
Weather: A few clouds building for a short while mid-afternoon, but otherwise wall-to-wall sunshine. 20 degrees.
Mick ran relatively early this morning. I waited until the day had warmed up (in the interests of last-minute heat acclimatisation, having seen Sunday's weather forecast). Then it was lunch time, then there was a bit more work to be done (I'd already tap-tapped away whilst Mick had been out). Finally, at around 2pm, it was time for us to head out to have a look at Osuna. Bad planning really, as we should know by now that mid-afternoon = deserted town. That doesn't detract from the architecture though, and there's lots to see in Osuna, even if the majority is of a religious bent.
We didn't have to go very far before we started spotting information signs
Buildings spotted down side-streets drew us to them. This one now houses the courts. 
On the edge of the main square, this sign told us that Calle Tia Mariquita is one of the town's most picturesque streets. We walked five sides of the square before we found it about twenty paces away from this sign:
Hmmm. This is Calle Tia Mariquita. In what way is this picturesque?!
This is looking left from the end of the allegedly picturesque street. A far more appealing place, no?
Up was then the direction to a huge church of which I failed to take a snap, but this is the view from outside.And in another direction
And a selfie to celebrate the fact that we've finally got some t-shirt weather!
Behind the church was the historic university and as its door was open we nipped in for a look at the courtyard. It was the only building we found to be open, having hit the closed-for-siesta period of 1430-1600.
Outside the historic university building.
Another square with another huge church. There's no lack of churches, convents, monasteries and hermitages in this town. 
Verdict: it's a really nice town and well worth spending a couple of hours wandering around (more if some of the visitable locations are open). There's quite a few way-marked walks hereabouts too (we ran out and back on one of the nearby Petit Randonees this morning), so if we were passing by, we'd happily stay here again to explore further.
^{(News from the Aire, which emptied out by mid-morning and has since gradually been filling back up, is that some ignorant twat was today apparently confounded by the (completely standard, by Spanish design) service point and rather than tipping their toilet waste down the sewer hatch, they poured it down the grid below the fresh water tap. It didn't go down the restricted drain there, so spilled all across the surrounding area. Even if it started as an honest mistake (and I struggle to see how that could happen), you must be the most selfish breed of ignorant twat (sorry for the repetition; I'm struggling to come up with a different description) to continue to pour your toilet waste when it starts spilling. I bet they rinsed their cassette with the fresh water tap too, rather than the one on the other side of the pilar (that lies immediately above the sewer hatch). Fortunately, there's a drinking water tap out on the street, so that's where we've filled our bottles. We've since seen some kind motorhomer hosing the area down.)}

Wednesday 15 February - Osuna

Where's Bertie? He's in a municipal Aire in the corner of what, by all appearances, is a supermarket car park, in the town of Osuna. Exact location: 37.23137, 5.09669.
Weather: Cool start in Guadix, but a fine day and reaching 18 degrees on the approach to Osuna.

Not much of anything to report today, but (for my own benefit) I'm going to report anyway. If you missed yesterday's post from Guadix, go and read that one instead; it's far more interesting. 

It started with a run along the cycle path then track alongside the dry river bed, then things became a bit of a rush as I got back to Bertie to learn that we had a video call scheduled for 11am. In between times I showered*, breakfasted and nipped out to a cashpoint.

Guadix is not short on banks, and there were many that were closer than the one I visited. However, most banks in Spain charge fees for using their cashpoints, and the last time we withdrew cash in the country (last March), it cost us €7 (we then spent none of that money until we reached Germany last summer, where we could have withdrawn it without charge...). I'd done a bit of internet research last night and found a list of banks that don't levy a fee, hence a slightly longer walk across town. What a different place Guadix was this morning - bustling with people, unlike yesterday when we'd been out and about during siesta time.

The transaction at the bank took a while (was I sure I didn't want the Spanish bank to make the currency conversion for me? Was I really sure? Did I understand that they couldn't guarantee the rate I would be charged? Did I understand that my own card issuer may make a charge?). By the time I had money in hand, a queue had built up behind me. It was good timing on my part, but bad timing on theirs, that "Out of Service" came up on the screen as soon as I was done.

Back at Bertie the video call was completed, and minutes later we were ready to hit the road. Our intention to use the service point was abandoned due to the wait we anticipated (one van using it, another waiting), and onwards to Lidl we went.

With a big shop all stowed, we tarried in the car park a bit longer whilst we ate lunch (eeeh, we know how to pick the best picnic spots...), then onwards for the 2.5hr journey to Osuna. Mick wasn't impressed with the first section of that journey ("This isn't doing the MPG any good at all!" he observed of the loooong uphills), but I thoroughly enjoyed the mountainous surroundings with attractive settlements dotted around.

After huge amounts of downhill, there were many exclamations of "So many olive trees!".

Approaching the Aire just before 1530, the question was whether we were going to find an official motorhome spot free, as I wouldn't have felt comfortable taking a supermarket parking space. Happily, there was. 

The rest of the day (bar a short leg-stretch around the block) was spent tapping away on the laptop, but we may well spend two nights here, in which case we'll have a little look around the town tomorrow.

Only photo I took today. Yesterday I snapped a Renault 6 that caught Mick's eye as he used to own one. Today this one caught my eye, as a Renault 5 was my first car.

^{(*The heating came on at 0600 (because the temperature inside had dropped below 8 degrees) and again at 0715 (on a timer). A by-product of having the heating on is that it heats the water too. So, it made sense to take advantage of having some hot water and, killing two birds with one stone, do something about the state of my hair too!)}

Tuesday 14 February - Guadix

Where's Bertie? He's at an Aire in a truly vast car park almost in the centre of Guadix. Exact location: 37.30407, -3.13320
Weather: Clearing to sunshine, 10 degrees.

On our way south through Spain last January, we drove around 50km out of our way to visit Guadix, but just short of our destination decided not to come here after all, after belatedly checking the weather forecast. We did an about turn, and intended to pop by on our way back east a few weeks later. A few weeks later, Mick was more interested in getting to San Juan than visiting Guadix, so we drove straight by again. I was determined we were going to visit this year, and with today's forecast daytime temperature being 12 degrees (the same as our cooler days on the coast in this unusually cool winter), there was no argument against.

I'm not sure what time we left San Juan (after Mick had been for a run, we'd breakfasted and second breakfasted) nor what time we arrived here, but it must have been somewhere between a 2 and 2.5hr journey.

The snowy Sierra Nevada mountains came into view in the latter part of the journey

The drive into town gave a good first impression: at the end of the dead-straight road along which we were driving was the imposing cathedral, with the town behind, and beyond that the snowy mountains. I took a few snaps, none of them are worth sharing.

Here's one of the vast car park in which Bertie is parked, although you can't see it all in this snap.

Pausing only for lunch, we headed out for a look around - our first bit of touristing in 3 weeks in Spain*! The main thing for which Guadix is known is its cave houses, of which there are apparently around 2000 that are still inhabited. There's an entire underground quarter of the town, so that was our objective.

The cathedral lay on our path, but we only admired the outside...

...we then followed our noses and happened upon Plaza de la Concepción...

...before some typical rural-Spanish side streets (i.e. lots of abandoned buildings in various states of disrepair)...

...took us to the Barrio de las Cuevas.

An interesting place, with a backdrop of shapely rocks. We did note, however, that some of the houses look more like a mound of earth piled on top of a house, whereas others are clearly built substantially into the hills. Hopefully these snaps give a general impression of the area:

Note all the ventilation chimneys - some of which were in a sorry state of repair.

Our way back took us via the Alcazaba (not open today)...

...and a huge convent of which I failed to take a snap. An indirect route was then taken back to Bertie, but with the benefit of passing a supermercado to pick up the missing ingredient for tonight's tea.

Verdict on Guadix: an interesting place, and worth stopping by.

A Renault 6, that caught Mick's eye as he used to own one. He says he doesn't remember it looking so old fashioned! 

^{(*Our plan didn't really pay off. For the first three weeks we were happy to just sit around in seaside resorts, soaking up the sunshine and acclimatising to running in the heat. The ingredient that has been missing is the heat! Meanwhile, my daily photo memories of years past show us gallavanting around in shorts and t-shirts at this time of year.)}

Monday 13 February - San Juan de los Terreros

Where's Bertie? He spent a third night in the car park at San Juan, with an ever reducing number of other vans (only because the market car park is a more popular choice on non-market days).
Weather: Mainly overcast, around 14 degrees.

Laundry, a short run, some work and a walk up the hill for drinks with Simon et al, then back in the dark for our final night in San Juan.

Incredible how many motorhomes we passed on our way through the residential areas to Simon's villa. There are a surprising number of car parks in San Juan (some serving development sites that currently lie as wasteland), and motorhomes are their main users at this time of year.