For me the excitement of visiting a new country also comes with the opportunity to do a run in a new country. You get new smells ( some good some bad) new terrain and different views. This particular run still reminds me of the smell of citrus and menthol from the fruit groves and the salty feel of the wind as I ran.
Last week I was out in Spain visiting my parents and grandparents and having a holiday. I like to go for a run in any new country or place I go and have run round some small sections of the Laguna de la Mata in Guardamar which is a salt lake right by my parents house.
Having run round parts of it in a cool winter I vowed that the next time I was in Spain I would come fully equipped to run round the entire lake if it was possible. I would fly to Spain and run round a lake ( air land and sea? geddit)
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| Laguna de la Mata in Spain |
Three days into my holiday and having had two ‘probing’ runs of an hour in each direction the previous two days I set off at 9am with a full 3L camelback and my camera. My super wizzy HTC smartphone had died in the heat on the first day so I had a borrowed phone and only a radio to keep me company. It was a shame as the HTC One X takes great panoramic photos. It added to the ambience of the run to have a spanish DJ and songs on the radio though.
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| sign for the nature reserve at the Parc natural de la Mata |
I ran down through the El Raso ‘Urbanisacion’ (housing estate) and out towards the lake. The lake makes up a 700 hectare national nature reserve and I turned left when I met the sandy path and began my run along a familiar route which I had run a few times before.
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| running across one of the waterways at Laguna de la Mata |
The Laguna de la Mata is home to up to 2000 flamingos but they may have still have not got back from the karaoke bars and Nancys ‘Nightclub’ when I was running round the lake.
The lake is surrounded by number of man made waterways that stretch between the two main lakes and also out to the sea (known as a Acequion) and fed from the nearby San Miguel Mountains. These waterways date back to the Moorish occupation in the Thirteenth Century and were how salt was produced for a world without fridges.
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| Wooden View Tower at Laguna de la Mata |
The lake has 4 or 5 ‘bird hides’ for twitchers that are out on pontoons into the lake and also a few high wooden towers where you can climb up and get a better view.
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| View from the tower at Laguna de la Mata |
The view from the Wooden Towers was great and you get a slight breeze which helps you cool down a bit. At the first tower I came to I took a few minutes to have a banana I took with me and some fluid. In 40 Celcius heat bananas do not travel well and in 45 minutes of running had gone totally black and squishy.
As I left the tower and a shaded pine tree picnic area I left familiar territory for the unknown. I didn’t even know if the lake had paths all the way round and I ran on along a wide open path along the shore with great views out into the distant mountains, baking sun on my back and the smell of eucalyptus as I powered through the dust.
The local Spanish greeted me with a ‘Hola!’ as they mountain biked past me with quizzical expressions as to why anyone would be RUNNING this far from anywhere in this heat. I was sweating so much my sunglasses have solid lines of sweat trickling down them. Breathing in and out was like jogging in a sauna.
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| The ambandoned Pump House on the Laguna de la Mata |
I got past the half way mark where I was on the opposite shore directly across from where I joined the lake and I’m just over an hour into the run. This means I’ve overestimated the distance round the lake (15 -18 miles by my guess) and that the lake is likely to be closer to 12-13 miles. My halfway mark was my point of no return and I was secretly pleased the run isn’t going to quite so epic as the heat is very trying.
At the next ‘corner’ in the lake I came across an abandoned ‘pump house’ and another wooden tower. As I got to the North shore the flora changed from open dust paths and shady pine trees to salt marsh and reed beds…….and the path ends at a main road and a locked main gate.
I look around for a few minutes and I am dissapointed that I’m going to have to run the last third back on the road…………………..then I spot some mountain bike tyre marks leading off past a no entry/ danger sign (PELIGRO!) into the reed beds and follow them hoping this might be a unmarked path used by the locals to bypass the busy main road.
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| the ‘danger’ reed bed ‘secret’ path through Laguna de la Mata |
The noise from the cicadias is so loud I could hear it over the ‘musica’ in my headphones and I’m slightly worried what form the ‘danger’ takes here (snakes? quicksand? banditos? aliens?) The path is quite overgrown but the tall reeds offer some shade from the heat .
Eventually the winding path meets up with an area I am familiar with from running in the other direction. This side of the shore is used to grow crops including peppers, grapes, and oranges and lemons. The farmers still use an ancient moorish series of flood gates to flood the crops regularly and keep them watered. This water is stored in fresh water artificial concrete ponds.
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| leaving the Laguna de la Mata and running towards El Raso in Guardamar |
After another 30 minutes or so I’m back where I stared and rejoin the tarmac leading back to the El Raso estate. My running app says I’ve covered a distance of 13 miles in 2 hours 20 minutes and I’m quite tired and achey on my legs as I’m only wearing shorts and not compression leggings or KT Tape to support my calves.
When I took off my running trainers and socks I was amazed at how tanned I’d got in the last 2 and half hours…..until I realised the line on my ankle was a dust line not a tan line.
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| not a tan line….a dust line from running round the Laguna de la Mata in Spain |
Dave (of greensand way fame) wants to do an epic 1000km run through Spain next year. He should try the Laguna de la Mata first as it may give him a rethink. 13 miles in that heat and humidity was one of the most challenging short runs I’ve ever done. 1000km would leave me looking like a dusty raisin. Little was I to know that just a few years later I would be crossing the Sahara Desert in the Toughest Footrace on Earth.
Having cycled for a few days in the spanish pyrenees recently, I feel your pain. The worst thing about the heat is only having 35-40 degree water to drink; you're so thirsty and it's like drinking from the hot tap!
heres a tip for you! i filled my 3L camelback that day with half ice and half cool water that i left in the fridge overnight. not only did it help to cool my back but it didnt get hot for the whole run!