I set off to the start with the 30km ladies so I could see them off...
...and be at the front of the queue for the 20km
No crowds for me today. And my phone successfully tracked my route today - I started it at 8:53 and put it in my rucksack while waiting in the queue. Here is the route...
Every mile I got a voice telling me I had completed it. My feet felt rather leaden to start with, but I was keeping up with most of the front of the walkers in front of. After I'd done the first 3 miles in 49 minutes I thought I might be going a bit too fast... but there was something coming up that would slow me down. Much nicer views today...
Here we were about to go under the motorway. I didn't know it at the time, but we were heading up to those radio masts in the top right of the picture.
Up we go. From behind me, just around the corner, I could here some chanting... "Push, push, push a bit harder. Push, push, push a bit harder" from a group of dutch ladies. That made me smile.
We were starting to get some nice views.
Checkpoint 1 came not a moment too soon... just round the bend the road got steeper again.
I stopped to photograph those on the path below, still to pass under the motorway. "Do you think they know the pain in store for them?" I asked the lady next to me who was also taking a breather.
Afterwards in the food tent I looked at the walk's profile. It was about a 2 mile steady climb to the top.
But it was worth it for the views.
We descended and went straight on while the 30km route turned for a loop further east. We entered a smart housing estate. The flowers were nice. Here is a lovely yellow bougainvillea.
This couple stopped for a rest and a drink at the fountain.
There were several nice villas like this...
Shortly after, I got to the final checkpoint.... and a chance to take on a fifth bottle of water.
From here it was along the beach back to the start.
It was difficult to maintain a walking rhythm on the sand, but eventually I was able to join the boardwalk. I was feeling a bit hot and the paddling here looked tempting.
I got to the finish about 12:45 so, in the end, was about 15 minutes slower than yesterday.
I knew I would need more than one, so got 2 beers at once today.
The bands were playing again.
By 1/2 hour after I'd arrived, the party was getting into full swing with dancing to the band. I took a bit of video of them playing. See here.
About 45 minutes I finished, Sally, Cathy and Chelle arrived from their 30km.
It was now getting quite warm! It was on the way back to the hotel I saw how warm....
Tonight we met up at the bar and restaurant next to the hotel. But I nearly missed out! I had spent a while with Joyce by the pool chatting and back in my apartment lya down on me bed in my nice cooled bedroom... and fell asleep! I was woken by the room phone ringing and my mobile phone buzzing with a Messenger message. What? Was it Saturday now? But it was just the ladies reminding me we were meeting at 6:15pm. Oops! I must have been tired.
The beach looked inviting.
We then walked along the front and found a fish restaurant. The food wasn't very good but my red mullet was OK. Here are the 6 30km walking ladies waiting to be served. The waiter came up to me. "What's your secret?", he asked. "Your a lucky man", he said. Indeed I was... to have such charming company.
A little bit of a wander afterwards took me to the fountain in the Paseo la Alameda again - now lit up.
As the sun set we had a beautiful sky like we had in the morning.
What a lovely day!
Here is a slideshow of my album of today's photos, (Flash player required) and you can find them here on Flickr.
You can also more details of my route here on MapMyWalk.
Next up - Day 3!
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