Among the marathons that have established on the Spanish calendar recently is the Jaén Track Marathon, which in 2024 has celebrated its sixth edition. Often I considered participating, but if it wasn’t the logistics, given the travel distance, was the mid-July date, that held me back.
This year I had two options: the Maratona Atlântica de Comporta, which I ran a few years ago, or Jaén. Returning from Lisbon on Monday night, it seemed too much effort to repeat the trip twice in one week to run the Atlântica. Additionally, the experience was exhausting last time, with its 43km entirely on the beach. To attempt the race in better conditions, it would have required an expenditure on new gear (shoes suitable for running in the desert and gaiters to prevent sand from entering), which would be difficult to use afterwards. So, with some reluctance to run more than 100 laps on a track, after my unique experience at the Lemmings Marathon in 2014, I opt for Jaén.
Having decided to travel to Jaén, I travel early to have time for some sightseeing. Connecting two trains, I check at the accommodation shortly after 2:00 PM, where I found the legendary Antonio Huerta. After grabbing a bite to eat, I decidedto take advantage of the pleasant temperature, just 28°C (the previous day had reached 42°C) to stroll through the historic center, see the Cathedral, and visit the Interpretation Center of the Arab Baths, where I met the other competitor from Valladolid, Jaime “Nina,” with his partner making the same visit and intending to defend his victory from last year (which he did).
After the visit, I go to the hotel where the bibs are being distributed to find more familiar faces. This is a small marathon, with just over 40 participants, and many of the runners are regulars from other races. The marathon world is broad, but marathoniacs are only a small percentage of that crowd. There are Kevin, who would complete his 100th marathon tomorrow, and Antonios Rojas and López (it would be interesting to see how many marathoners are named Antonio, because there are many).
In search of an early pizza for dinner, I retire to the hotel early. The marathon starts at 7:00 AM, and the sooner you get to bed, the better.
The race is held at the Salobreja sports complex, just a 10-minute walk from the center of Jaén. It is still dark when I head to the athletics tracks, changed, and with all my gear. The temperature is around 20°C, ideal for starting to run. There I meet other regulars I didn´t see the day before: Santi Hitos, Carlos, Lola, David, Mario, Gocho, and Pepe Caballer, among others.
I leave my stuff in the stands, including the gels. That’s one of the advantages of running on a track. And also not having to count the laps, for which there are several volunteers, and we have a chip on the bib, both measures which, as will be seen later, seem not enough to avoid errors.
A little late, as I had been warned, we start. It’s half a lap, and then 105 more to complete the distance. The point is to try to stay in lane 1 as much as possible to avoid adding too much extra distance, because in lane 2 each lap is 408 meters instead of 400 meters.
And what can you say about a race with so many laps? In my case, I run without paying much attention to the watch, and with my references a bit lost compared to other runners. Jaime is clearly in the lead, gaining about one lap for each two of mine. Behind him, and also lapping me, though at a slower pace, is a small group of several runners. Then there’s a group that’s more or less at the same pace as me, and finally, there’s a third group, with some runners I lap occasionally.
Lap after lap, I enter a “robot” mode, as the sun rises on the horizon and covers the entire track, gradually increasing the temperature. Occasionally, they call out the laps, though it takes me a few laps to realize that the number they’re saying is the number of laps I have left. In a rough calculation, I see that I’m easily over 4 hours of final time. Additionally, I have the impression that they’ve called out a lap twice, which dampens my morale a bit, thinking I’ll end up running more distance than I should.
I enter no-man’s land between kilometers 20 and 30-something, where I still see that I have many laps left to finish this. With 20 laps to go, which is the distance of a short training run, I manage to pick up the pace a bit and regain some positions.
Finally, I finish in 4:17:35, and although in the first version of the results I didn’t appear, because the runner who finished just ahead of me started to loudly complain about having done an extra lap according to her, I eventually appear in a corrected version, in position 23 out of 39 finishers.
In my case, the GPS give me a distance of 42.25 kilometers, almost exactly the marathon distance, although with a 900-meter elevation gain. Challenge completed, despite the heat in the final hours, although nothing compared to higher temperatures in previous years, as I am told.
Overall, there are quite a few things to improve, from the chip system to help count the laps and avoid errors in the results, to the total absence of isotonic drinks during the race, or the obligation of picking up the bibs on the day before the race, which didn’t prevent a late start. On the positive side, it has a charitable cause, this year with the Aliatar Foundation, dedicated to the human and social promotion of people, especially young people.
Next stop: Marathon de la Quinta.
Rating: 3 / 5