Last weekend, a cohort of runners from Newport & District Running Club made an overseas trip to take part in the Benidorm Running Festival. Martin Murdoch was one of those to make the trip, and he sent us this report:

They say you can’t beat a bit of winter sun, and at the same time why not fit in a race. It was that time of the year again: for the Benidorm Running Festival that includes a 10K and Half Marathon.

Aaron Nicholas took on the Half Marathon course whilst Vance Heath, Martin Murdoch and husband & wife duo Liz and Mark McEvilly pounded the streets of the 10K race. We were fortunate to have a support crew of Lou, Donna and Debbie to support us along the way.

The McEvilly and Murdoch party arrived in Benidorm on Friday to temperatures of 15°C, a nice venture through the town followed to collect goodie bags which included race bib an excellent quality T Shirt, an opportunity to take photos and at the same time see the final 400m uphill finish, which was new to myself as the other four had all taken part last year.

My previous adventure here, along with approximately 35 others from NDRC, was the 2020 event, which took place on 29th February; we remember what happened three weeks later!

We woke up on Saturday morning in anticipation of kind weather, looked out of the window and the rain was pounding down off the roads, although this did ensure we could take it easy in the swimming pool until the Aqua-Fit class started and we participated like we were doing Strictly on Water.

The sun decided to break through as the day moved through, with a 4-lane highway being used to accommodate 6,500 participants on the start line with music from AC/DC and Red Hot Chilli Peppers pumping out to get us motivated, then a respectful tribute to those who lost their lives in Valencia with a couple of minutes of rousing Spanish trumpet music which set the hairs on the back of the neck standing.

Martin Murdoch, Liz McEvilly and Mark McEvilly

The first three kilometers were of a gradual incline heading to the west of Benidorm before dropping down through Benidorm Old Town to Lavente Beach, across the promenade to the support of party people and locals shouting encouragement. The split of the course for the two distances came at 9km; the 10k turned back inland whilst the Half Marathon went to the east, taking in more climbs before both events finished with a tough climb to cross the finish line.

They do like a drumming band in Benidorm; there were multiple ones around the course, which did help along the way.

In the 10K race, Vance recovering from injury, returned home first in 55:26, overall position of 1048 and 51st in category, followed by Liz 1:02:56, Overall 1,727th, category 94th, Martin 1:04:33 overall 1,890th, category 170th and Mark overall 2076th, category 154th and also beating last years time by over 4 minutes.

Aaron completed the Half Marathon in 1:45:20, finishing in 786th with a category position of 113th.

If you are looking for a winter race, then Benidorm does come highly recommended with 27 different countries and about 40% of participants being British.