Huella Del Bujo Trail Run, Colomera – Saturday 4 September 2021

and

Deputacion de Granada Travesia, La Herradura Sunday 5 September 2021

The day has dawned for the Huella Del Bujo/Footprint of the Owl trail race, which is a 28 km, 1,200 metre climbing, starting, and finishing in Colomera.  This is our first real trail race competition and having not done anything like this, especially as we will have to complete the race at night with headlamps, it is a little daunting but exciting.

The first half of the race was extremely difficult as it was both steep and technical in many places as well as being hot with the sun in our faces on the first climbs.  As we climbed into Moclin I suffered severe cramps in both quadriceps but particularly my left.   Luckily Julio had some salt tablets which I think helped as once we got over the climb, I managed to recover on the downhill to Olivera and then really enjoyed the walk/jog up through Olivera and then onto the trails back to Colomera as it was now completely dark but so peaceful and I loved the feeling of being out at night on my own.   Also, as I left Moclin I was started by a boar running across the track…..not sure who was more surprised…..but it was a lovely sighting.

I suffered a bit at the end from the legs being quite sore as there were many places I probably should and could have run but did not as feeling tired.   Lots of room for improvement but I managed to finish in a time of 4.51.47, not as fast, unfortunately, as my Garmin registered, but I did get second place in my age group, so all things considered a great result for my first real trail run competition.

Unfortunately, Julio twisted an ankle on one of the technical descents and had to pull out of the train race in Moclin.   We were originally going to camp in the car and cut the drive time to Almunicar/La Herradura the next day to compete in the last of a series of open water swims set up by the Diputacion de Granada.   However, we decided to drive home have a proper shower, food and sleep and see how he felt in the morning.   We got to sleep around 2am and after about 5 hours sleep woke and decided we would go to do the swim as it was the last one of this year and we are really enjoying these open swimming competitions.

We arrived around 10 am and after a little difficulty parking, being beach front and a Sunday, we got our swim gear and walked the fair distance to the start.  This swim was not an out and back, but across the whole bay, which logistically was harder, but it was a lovely swim course and the water so cool and super clear.  I did get a bit distracted watching the fish underneath me as the water was so clear.   The distances of all the other swims were 1,500 metres, but this one was just over 2,000 metres.   Julio had a fabulous swim and his best time yet.   I did ok but was probably a little more tired than I thought from the previous night and had a good swim but slower than I wanted.   I did manage to hold onto my second place behind Mary Rose, who is just too quick for me, so kept up my second-place average for the swim series and for the weekend (*smiles*).

We then treated ourselves to a lovely pizza and cold beer for lunch on the beach front before driving home to a well-earned early night.