EXPRESS CATLLARÀS KLASSMARK 2022

Today, the first running race of 2022, the Express del Catllaràs de Klassmark with 15 km and 915+.

I had a lot of doubts when signing up for the race. This year I have done a lot of mountain biking, but I only run one day a week. Last year I did the Trail mode and, despite having trained intensively, I suffered a lot, so this year, I finally decided on the Express mode, which despite being less km is quite uneven.

So, today I was at the starting line in Pobla de Lillet.

We started very quickly going down through the village. After 300 m on an asphalted road, we immediately started climbing a path. My legs were fine and I was the only female with the first ten men (I had just started). I had two guys in front of me which I took as a reference and we went up at a good pace, until I saw that I could go a little faster and I overtook them. The climb went on up to kilometre 3.5, through the middle of the forest, on a path, with tall trees on both sides. Luckily, the sun wasn’t shining on us, as the temperature was starting to rise. Then we went down the track and I could already see that today it would be a bigger effort going down than going up. We immediately got back on a path, a bit steeper now. We continued climbing through an area with many leaves, which was a quite slippery. I was still feeling very good, even better than last year, when I was more used to running races. In fact, today as kilometres were passing, and my heart rate was rising, I thought: come on Cris, it’s only 15 kilometres, and at the Titan in Morocco you did 100 kilometres every day! When racing, you always have to think about small goals, especially when you take yourself to the limit, that’s how you keep motivated and what makes the race not so hard.

We kept going up! We already had 500 m of difference. God forbid! Luckily, when we got to the top, the rest would be downhill.

At kilometre 7, we continued to climb through quite stony terrain, alternating between brisk walking and running. There we started to overtake people who were doing the trail mode (they left 30′ before us), and they started cheering me on, seeing that I was the first girl. This always lifts your spirits and makes you run a little faster!

It’s not long before we reached the first refreshment stop, at kilometre 8.4, almost at the end of the climb we had been on since the beginning. Suddenly, I heard the cheering, “come on, Mama, you’re going first”!, and my children started running beside me. Luckily, a gentleman warned me about the Express detour, which was to the left! I, with the emotion, was going to pull on the right, which was the detour from the Trail.

We only had one kilometre left to climb, so let’s go! And gave our very best, because we had already done the hardest part.

Now it’s all downhill, but quite technical, with many leaves that made you slip a lot and with a very dry ground that made you slide off even more. When I started, I stumbled 3 or 4 times, and I thought, “today you will have to be very careful, or you will screw it up”! Going downhill, I was very much aware that I hadn’t been racing for a long time, as I lacked the agility and technique to descend quickly like I used to. Fortunately, I have strong legs and can hold on well.

During the descent, I was overtaken by 5-6 guys. I wanted to follow them, but I slip 2 more times and already realized that I couldn’t go any faster. I was just thinking: Cris, you don’t know how far away is the second female, if she overtakes you in the last kilometres, you will be very angry! Hahaha!

With only 2 km downhill left to reach the finish line, I picked up the pace a bit and gasped! There was very little left to cross the finish line, and if all went well, I would get the first position. We were now again at the path we had first climbed (I knew it from before!), until the end, I pressed on, and I arrived at Pobla de Lillet, and to the surprise of many (not me, since I had done it in the past) I ran along the middle of the river, passing under a stone bridge at the entrance to the village, where you see everyone from above cheering you on.