Race blog further down.
European Mini Country Tour 2024
What an amazin running week we had with runners all over the world. Our tour was called European mini countries, Andorra, Gibraltar and San Marino. And some of us took even Monaco “No Finish Line” as a bonus. We start in the Principality of Andorra in Andorra la Vella on Sunday 10.11.2024. Andorra is the sixth-smallest state in Europe. From Andorra we continue to Gibraltar. Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory where we run Gibraltar Marathon on Wednesday 13.11.2024. The marathon number 3 is in Republic of San Marino Saturday 16.11.2024.
OFFICIAL RESULTS
Final results – ANDORRA LA VELLA MARATHON – RESULTS 10.11.2024
Round the rock Marathon in Gibraltar- FINAL RESULTS 13.11.2024
Rio San Marino Marathon in San Marino- FINAL RESULTS 16.11.2024
Race reports of European Mini Country Tour -24
One evening we were chatting with Peter Friis about what countries are we missing from Europe. We noticed how difficult it is to run the small countries so I started to develop Peters idea of organising a Mini Country Tour by myself. It was quite easy to point the countries on the map and match the timetable with Monaco. The only possibility was the week before Monaco. This was the easy part.
Next challange was to plan how we will move X amount of people from a place to another and in which order. Barcelona seemed to be a good starting point and Andorra was closest so that was a good start. The route in Andorra was originally planned to be higher up in the mountains on a guite flat route that I found. Beautiful view etc but…
In the beginning we planned to run this tour as Team Finland (5 runners only) but needed few more runners to share a minivan. When I published the invitation I got immediately more interested runner that a minivan could hadle. We also planned to have this small and follow only Country Club rules. Rich from US contacted me and placed many difficult questions I had not thought about. The event start to get bigger. Thanks to Rich and his experience, views and comments in logistics I desided to move to route away from the mountains but to where?
I started to track routes based on Garmin, Suunto and Kamoot where people had moved in Andorra. I tried to find a route that is as flat as possible and not so many laps. Bingo – the river. The route seemed safe and easy to run.
Marathon Andorra La Vella – Sunday 10.11.2024
It was still dark when we met 07:15 at the start in Park Central. We all agreed that we will go for an early start. The wheather was sunny in the morning 45F or +7C and during the day 57F about +14C. We were 30 runners for the marathon and 1 for half. Totally 14 countries were represented. All runners finished their run.
Our marathon route followed the river down for a +4,2km from where we turned back. Coming back was slight uphill but quite easy to run. In general the route was safe and easy to run. It was a 5 loop race with 2 additional small laps. Maybe due to the mountains many runner got different distance. Some of us had to run the additional loop 4 times and some only 2 times. All runners had to show a min. distance of 42,2km. ”Merci beaucoup à l’équipe de France pour votre aide dans le chronométrage.”
A award seremony was held after the race at Hotel Novotel. ”Wodel” (medal=metal, wodel=wood) and Finisher Certificates were given to all runners. In Andorra everyone was a winner. Thank You all for joining.
Andorra was the most famious marathon due to a fact that there is no normal marathons organized in Andorra. Trailruns yes and in the mountain but not marathons like this.
From Andorra we took a bus to Barcelona airport and a short flight to Malaga. From Malaga Team Finland and Netherlands hired a car to drive down to Gibraltar border. The prices of hotels were more competitive in Spain than Gibraltar. Gibraltar frontier was just some kilometer away from our hotel. Usually no queues and very easy entrance both ways.
In Gibraltar I had the most challanges. The route was planned in beforehand but I could not realise the altitude differences. The route looked good on paper but impossible to run due to shopping streets and narrow roads and uphills. While our runners spent a free day in Gibraltar I tried to find an alternative running route. The new planning brought me +27.000 steps that was good as a day before training. I knew the route will be challanging in the beginning with all the turns in the city center and was sure some runners will get lost, even the route was marked with yellow chalk. I had no chance to guide to runners out of city center
We had agreed with Gibraltar Sport Complex president that we can use their premises as a base. We had access to shower and toilet each time we passed the start. The premises was close to the frontier and suitable for our needs.
We had two marathon starts. The early birds started just before sunrise. Race office and start was from Gibraltar Bayside Sports Complex. The first lap we run along the marina surrounded by restaurants and big ships all the way to the lighthouse. On the way we passed Wellington Front. Wellington Front is a fortification built in 1840 on a site established by the Spanish in 1618. At the end of Qeens Way we passed the big anchor and gates “Ragged Staff Gates”. After the gates and the industial buildings came my favorite part. First Gibraltar National Museum, ten some small narrow tunnels, beautiful scenary along the seaside and Europa Watelfall folowed by the long 580m tunnels before we reached light house. Our turningpoint was at memorial of General Sikorsky. Then same way back to Sport Complex (later SC)
Our second part of the first lap continued from SC toward the airport. This was exiting beacuse the airport is actice and several planes arrive and departure during the day and then the runway will be closed. So we were running throught the runway all the way to Spanish
border. From there we run through the Airport building along the Kingway to Gibraltar Easter Beach and to Riviera Mews. Onelap was +21km so we did this route twice.
The wheather wae sunny and warm but the last late start runner got a really heavy rain on them so we were super wet when we finished the race.
Here are some photos of us.
All races end up with an award seremony and we had that s well.
After Gigraltar we drove back to Malaga where we spent a free day. It was funny to read from teh Finnish news that heavy rain caused flood etc. In Malaga. We asked ”where in Malaga”. We had +27C and sunny all the time and no rain in our Malaga. But Malaga and Spain was cool. We had every day tapas and ofcourse Tinto as well. Good food and a great team.
From Malaga we took a flight to Bologna, Italy and rented a car from there. We drove down to Rimini and arrived very late. I had no chance to check the route before my arrival but our team, thanks to Rick, Jeanne, Cheri, Greg, Ark and Parvanneh they checked the route at daylight. This marathon was our last etape of the mini coutry tour, the San Marino Marathon. Based on the theit feedback some changes were made but the most challanging part was a river crossing. It was not supposed to be there but it was. Small challanges and extreme but we all did it.
We had our earlystarters with their torchlights starting before sunrise but we all had a really nice wheather, a bit cold in the morning but sunny sunny sunny all the day. Many of us went after the race to visit San Marino castle
Next time I will spend a bit more time to visit the city center but before that It is time for Guinness
But the story does not end here even if Mini Country Tour ended in San Marino. We were offered a bonusmarathon in Monaco, No finish line it is called. This marathon takespalce in a park that has a1km loop to walk or run. This is not a marathon where You make yoy personal best time. We started 08:00 together with team Denmark andthe beginning was ok for running quite soon the route was full of walkers and school classes. The best tactic was to enjoy Monaco and the sunshine. No finishline is a concept where the sponsor pays €1,00 to cancer organisati9n for each km,oved in the park. I read somewhere that more than €5Milj has been collected.
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