7 of us entered some of the other race categories of the Transgrancanaria 2022, Duncan Brown the 30k, Fiona Fulton, Eleanor Mackenzie, Billy and Dorothy Elliott, Richard and Sandra Chandler the 43k Marathon.
The Marathon starts from El Garanon at 1,650m in the centre of the Gran Canaria mountains and through 1,350m of ascent and 3,000m of descent weaves its way down to the southern beach resort of Maspalomas.
Coaches ferry you up up to the mountain start, the drive up through the beautiful lush mountain villages providing a startling contrast to the arid but sunny southern beach resorts.
The weather at the mountain start… mizzle, wind and 5 degrees made us all feel right at home…but dropping down through the pine forests we entered into glorious sunshine.
At this point the fasties doing the Classico and the Advanced races started to pile past us, calling out “¡pasar!” to come through at astonishing speed given how far they had come and so nimble on their feet!. The tracks are mostly pretty tough going with a memorable (!!) dry, bouldery river bed to greet you in the final few km… which I think our poor feet will definitely remember for a while.
The scenery from top to bottom was both really diverse and beautiful and together with the vitality and fun that comes with a European race made for a truly memorable and hugely enjoyable race.
Fiona Fulton, Duncan Brown, Eleanor Mackenzie, Billy & Dorothy Elliott, Richard & Sandra Chandler
Richard Chandler