Málaga Half-Marathon, 23rd March 2025
A report by Lynne Cornell from sunny Spain:
“It was on 6th April last year that I noticed the Malaga half marathon had a special early bird offer of 18 Euros and I was tempted! I had booked accommodation on the basis of the information provided in April and last week discovered the route wasn’t quite where I thought, but thankfully accommodation was still in an OK place to get to the start.
Friday afternoon saw me going to Estadio de Atletismo Ciudad de Málaga to collect my race number, goodie bag (antibacterial wash along with rice, bee r,cereal bar and biscuits) and the smallest extra small t-shirt I’ve ever got. As people will know, normally I whinge they are too big. No more tapas for me then!
Saturday; did a recce to the correct start line at Paseo del Parque. Nothing to give any indication of a race less than 24 hours later, but lots of runners equally confused. Race Day; the BBC forecast showed 70% chance of heavy rain and thunder storms. Emergency poncho on, I set off early to walk the 30 minutes to the start to be there for 7:45 as instructed. Cold but dry.
Arrived at Paseo del Parque to find the road was still open to traffic. At 7:45 the road was closed, the start line sorted and the starting pens sorted. Whilst the instructions had said you had to start in the right pen unless you were elite, it was kind of a free for all after the elite, but very good humoured.
At 8:15 the race started and we went west along a closed dual carriageway for 5k past Playa de la Misericordia, a loop including the first water stop and then back along the other side of the dual carriageway to the port and the next water stop at 10k. Then along Paseo de los Curas to the marina and a run along Paseo de la Farola to the cruise port and a loop back to the lighthouse and the next water stop at 16k.
The final 5k goes past Playa La Malagueta before looping back to the finish line at Paseo del Parque where we started. A really good, mostly well organised run – 8000 runners and lots of very enthusiastic supporters. Lots of shouts of ‘Bueno Claremont’ along the route, plus at 12 miles I was passed by someone in a Newcastle shirt who spoke to me in Spanish. ‘No hablo espanol’ didn’t stop him – he continued to chat in Spanish then fist-bumped me and shot off.
Lovely medal at the finish and met up with Steve who had a cup of tea ready. I’m pleased to report the rain stayed away until the afternoon, when it was biblical. Definitely one I would do again but currently thinking which overseas race I’d like to do next. Only proviso from Steve is they must do ‘good cake’!”
Well done Lynne, finishing in a brilliant official time of 1:49:15!
