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!
The Dominican Republic has 12 public holidays. One of them, Dia de Las Mercedes, occurs on September 24th. I can’t tell you much about this holiday; what I can tell you is that, due to school deciding to also give us September 25th as a non-work day, we had a long weekend, and an opportunity to get far away from Santo Domingo.
One of many beaches in Las Terrenas
This man had built himself a seat so he could enjoy Playa Las Terrenas in peace
Having a car is incredibly helpful for this. We managed to acquire a car, a Nissan Qashqai, relatively pain-free. The car allows Mini and Maxi to join us on our adventures.
Our car in front of one of many upcoming residential developments
In this instance, the adventure was to the northeastern peninsula known as Samaná. That particular town wasn’t our destination, though; we were headed to a spot sitting on the Atlantic Ocean called Las Terrenas.
Mini living her best life, mainly because we had a garden
The drive took just under 3 hours each way
We were staying with friends for a birthday
The place has a lot of hype here, borne out by the fact that dozens of teachers were also heading to Las Terrenas. The town itself stretches inland a little bit and is distinctly unremarkable. It is said to have a French influence; I only observed that from a delightful French bakery that we visited twice during our three-night stay, and from driving past a French wine shop. There was a lot more English, reflecting a growing number of international tourists.
There are quite a few tourist offices offering tours to waterfalls, other beaches and for diving
Starting the day right with a ham/cheese croissant and a coffee from Boulangerie Francaise
But you don’t come here for the town. Some come for the music and dancing scene, with Last Terrenas being a spiritual home of the bachata dance. As this usually doesn’t start until after we’ve gone to bed, even on a holiday, we were here for another reason: the beaches.
Our nearest beach: Playa Las Terrenas
Some places, like Playa Bonita, are better for surfing
There are many. The country has over 200 officially named beaches, and over 1,500 kilometres of coastline, much of which is white or golden sand. There are several within the immediate striking distance of Las Terrenas.
Our AirBnB for the weekend
Playa Coson
Playa Las Terrenas
The AirBnB we stayed at was across the road from Playa Las Terrenas. Even our dogs were able to walk to that beach without too much protest. This particular area of the sandy strip was relatively free of people, possibly because you stand on seaweed or coral-like rocks soon after entering the tranquil water.
The beach, as seen from our garden
Maxi pretending to enjoy her early evening stroll
Some sections of the beach were quite wide
We were a little bit outside of the centre of Las Terrenas, not that it made the area any quieter. The gentle, upbeat music from the beach shack restaurant across the road was pleasant. The constant revving of motorbikes and ATVs, and blaring of stereos from over half of the vehicles that would pass our gate, was unnecessary.
We walked past this bar at 8am. Different vibe to 8pm.
At one point, we saw someone driving an ATV who looked about 15 years old!
The livelier area, Pueblo de los Pescadores - the same street, just further east from our house - has a nice beach out front, with a walkway over the mouth of a small stream. I liked the fact that they were using technology to prevent litter from entering the sea. Less keen on the amount of rubbish behind the barrier, admittedly, but on the whole, the area seemed much cleaner and cared for than Santo Domingo.
The place was primarily a fishing community before being established as a tourist hotspot
Slight difference in the water...
Further across from here you can find Playa Punta Popy, a pristine and wider beach with many towering and windswept palm trees. I only ended up here because I had gone for a midday run and had to cut that short. Not my best choice, though the trees of PPP allowed me some much-needed shade.
I was thankful for the trees!
Running alongside Playa Punta Popy
Many people we know were in the Las Terrenas area, but staying further west on a beach called Playa Bonita. With a name that translates as ‘beautiful beach’, it has a lot to live up to. Many people come to visit it so we were thankful to have committed to going quite early in the morning, even though the dogs were riled by anyone and anything in their path.
A view of Playa Bonita from its coastal path
Some of the trees currently 'stand' at remarkable angles
A pleasant coastal walk takes you from Playa Bonita to Punta Bonita. It probably is a beautiful point for sunset, and is a valuable piece of land. You can tell that from the quality of the properties stationed on its edges. We researched the most expensive, which rents for $4,000 USD per night. With a maximum capacity of 18, that place could actually be rented for about $222 per person per night, which I think is actually quite reasonable! I don’t have the $8.3 million needed to buy it outright, mind…
The beach and coastal path stretch several hundred metres
I think this was the $4,000 a night place. Next time...
Around the corner is a small beach that had been described as ‘quiet’, ‘peaceful’, and with ‘not many people’. We found all of those statements to be the opposite of our short-lived time there.
What emerged two minutes later were two dogs off lead and two sets of families. Mini and Maxi loved that.
The water was shallow but deceptively strong
From the small beach, you can see a long strip of sand which is called Playa Coson. We drove back here for sunset. The tide was quite high, limiting the beach walking (which was also reduced by Mini and Maxi being absolutely knackered and having no desire to move). There was no sunset - large, distant clouds saw to that - but it was probably my favourite beach of the four that I went to.
The land in the distance is Punta Bonita
More of a beach-sitter than a beachwalker, this one
The closest we got to seeing the Sun set
Las Terrenas is a popular place for many reasons, and I imagine it will only get busier in future months and future years - an international airport was recently completed nearby. For now, it isn’t overwhelmed with visitors, meaning peace and tranquility can still be found. If one beach doesn’t have it, a short hop in almost any direction will find you another beach that may be more to your liking. We enjoyed our weekend up here (aside from the final night, when there was no power and we felt like we slept in a sauna), and are highly likely to be back in the future.
As the girls couldn't help with playing Codenames, they decided to stare at themselves
