Midnight on Good Friday; John Ryan, Alan Renville and myself were on Beinn a’ Ghlò lost in clag, with a biting freezing wind and sleet showers, the last training run before we were to head out to Andalucia, Spain for the Ultra Sierra Nevada races. Perhaps not the best of prep for running in 30C heat.
Last autumn I had hatched a plan to do a road trip to visit my sister, who had moved out to Spain last year to set up a Yoga Retreat at Casares, and coincidently the dates coincided with the Sierra Nevada Ultra near Granada. Having persuaded John Ryan and Alan Renville to enter a race too, Anne Renville joined us to bring some sensibility to the trip.
To keep our green credentials, we decided on hiring a motorhome from Murrell’s Of Fife and we would collect discarded cans and bottles along the way through England, France and Spain, load them into the motorhome and bring them back to Scotland to recycle them in the new Deposit Return Machines getting 20p for each item and hence finance the trip.
Then disaster, a week before we were due to depart our Niesmann and Bischoff hire motorhome was seized by the Polis, and taken to a restricted building.
Undeterred, we booked flights to Malaga and hired a Hybrid car from the airport arriving a few days before the race at Pradollano, which would be the base for the race series: 158km, 98km, 62km, 42km and 25km. At 2,100m it was also a good place to acclimatise as the race would take us up over 3,000m, just below the summit of Pico Valeta.
First off was John at 10:30 on Friday doing the 100 mile “Extrema” with 7,690m of ascent. His route immediately climbed up to 2,700m before coming back to the cheering crowds in Pradollano, and then off, up, down and around the foothills of the surrounding area. After seeing John through the next road crossing, and going well, we heading back to Pradollano to get ready (a siesta) for the 98km “Ultra” with 5,470m of ascent, starting at 22:00 down at 738m in Granada.
Granada itself was buzzing with full cafés and restaurants, and about 250 runners. We found a café near the start and caffeine’d ourselves on strong coffee. Shortly after we were running through the city and past the Alhambra, before leaving the city for the olive groves and hills. The first 65km were on well maintained tracks and trails, undulating up to a high point of 1,500m, although the darkness meant we lost all sense of direction and whereabouts until the sunrose at 07:30.
I was by this time at one of the eight aid stations, at Pinos Genil, 774m, but didn’t linger long as from here it was a unrelenting climb of 2,322m up past Pradollano to the high point at 3,096m and the day was warming up. The trails around Embalse de Canales reservoir were the most technical, including a few parts where a slip would have had serious consequences and the organisers had put fixed ropes in place.
From the top of the climb it was possibly one of the best descents to the finish of any race; 1,000 metres down a snow covered ski run wearing microspikes to prevent a slip, dodging between the late season skiers as the snow softened on the way down.
Anne was in Pradollano to see us all finish within a few hours of each other, and we enjoyed the afternoon sunshine and the enthusiastic Spanish compere before heading out for pizza and beers, and an early night.
A relaxing few days down at my sister’s exploring the local area was a perfect end to the trip.
We never found a charging point to recharge the hybrid car, and I only brought back one plastic bottle. Must try harder.
Race Info: https://www.ultrasierranevada.com/race
Results: https://sportmaniacs.com/es/races/ultra-sierra-nevada-2023
Graham Nash