In a previous blog I alluded to the fact that a lot of people run here. Many of them were targeting one race in particular: Maratón de Santo Domingo.
Half marathon finish
There were three events in the city this year - if you did all three, you could create a super-medal.
Finishing in 1:42:23.
To be clear, I wasn’t doing the full distance of 42km. Not in these conditions.
5am start. Still red-faced.
It's used as a qualifying event for the Boston Marathon
A day or two after arriving in the Dominican Republic, I registered for what is called a medio maratón in Spanish: half marathon. 21k.
More than 5,000 people ran in this event
It was first held in 2018
Wide range of distances
Training mainly took place in the city’s long park trip called Mirador Sur. Starting a run anytime after 6:30am made them activities to endure, rather than enjoy.
My happy place in Santo Domingo
Some train indoors to beat the heat - this gym is over $80 a month after a discount, so I didn't run here.
This is mainly down to the humidity. The temperatures aren’t significantly hotter than places I’ve been living in for the past ten years. The real feel, however, is a change. A sweaty, energy-sapping change.
Before Hannah arrived, I was up and running at 5am
See that 97% humidity?
As with almost all races like this these days, you collect your kit the day before. I began to get an idea of the scale of the race when I spent almost 20 minutes trying to park in a hotel multi-storey car park which was seemingly built before the invention of the SUV. Tight corners.
Internet picture of the Hotel Catalonia - parking was behind it
Interesting swag, ranging from a headband to a bag of rice
Kit collection was chaotic. A very small line to register and get a race number, followed by a very long line to collect your bag…which didn’t contain a race shirt, because of course you needed to go to a different line to get that. All lines criss-crossing each other, naturally.
Part of the very long line
Amongst all this, there were no medium shirts. Luckily, 'large' seemed to be a medium.
This experience made me realise that driving to the start line, in a fairly soulless area called Centro de los Heroes, was going to make my life difficult in the morning. With the half marathon starting at 5am, that means organising an Uber at 4:15am.
Not sure whether this man ever ran a half marathon
Glad I didn't drive - this was over 500 metres away from the pedestrianised area
Understandably, given what I’d seen the day before, the area was buzzing. As I weaved my way through crowds, I saw the end of a priest’s speech on a platform with a shockingly right screen behind him, and almost got run over by someone filming what I can only assume was a TikTok reel. The full marathon set off minutes after I arrived, fireworks illuminating the dark night sky.
The start was at Centro de los Heroes, an area of municipal buildings between the park and the sea
Our 5am start did leave on time. Having set myself a target of 1 hour 45 minutes, I was in the first section, allowing us to move away from the pack. Well, we would have done if people had been running instead of filming. I was - briefly - guilty of that.
A screen grab of the start of the 21k run
The route took us along the Malecón, a long esplanade on the city’s southern shoreline. Initially we headed west until reaching a large brewery, at which point we did a U-turn and started the long slog to the Colonial Zone, almost 7 kilometres. It was at this point that some people tried to jump into the race, which annoyed people in front of me.
I'm towards the back of this picture
The Malecon has much less to see at 5:15am
As I was targeting a time, I didn’t take pictures. What I saw:
two brass bands;
a fire truck which was sprinkling people as they were running;
a very enthusiastic dog sprinting with the pace-setters of my race;
supporters wearing inflatable unicorn and bee outfits;
lots of plastic water bottles flung to the sides of the road.
I have not found any pictures of the band, fire truck, dog, unicorn or bee...so here's a lot of runners
An Instagram post I saw later that day detailed quite how many plastic bottles were flung to the sides of the roads
Before heading into the Colonial Zone, the route took us across the river that divides the city into west and east. We didn’t spend a long time on the eastern side, but that was where one of the ‘hills’ was. My watch said that I went up a whopping 10 metres in that kilometre. Very flat and easy course.
Thankfully, the cobbled look of this street was just for show!
Strolling out of the Colonial Zone
Starting at 5am certainly helped, as did the fact that the weather seems to have become less harsh in the past two weeks. Most people I know who have been here longer than me have said that it will be pleasant in November. Here’s hoping! Seeing a band of orange on the bottom of the skyline as I exited the colonial zone was a lovely moment.
I don't know whose technique is worse in this picture...
Less visible: thin film of sweat
It was also the time when I decided to get a move on, feeling that I had enough energy in my legs (and gummies if I didn’t) to finish a bit faster than 1:45. I crossed the line with my watch telling me I had been running for 1:42:23. It also told me that my heart rate was 199 at that point, which seems…high…
This muscly man inadvertently paced me for a lot of my run
The giant fans behind me were a great way to immediately cool down!
Post-race I was immediately presented with a chunky medal, as well as enough food to satisfy a small army. Less impressed with the drink offering…
The sign at the end reading: Congratulations Runners.
Red Bull coconut - this should not become a thing
It’s not been the easiest start to life in the Dominican Republic. Running has therefore been a bit of a release for me, and having a target like the Medio Maratón de Santo Domingo has been something that has helped me physically and mentally. A rewarding way to spend a Sunday…even though almost all of Sunday was still left!
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