Birzebbuga, a seaside resort in the south of Malta, the place where I was born, where I spent most of my childhood summers, and where I spent by far the biggest part yet of my working life.
A mid-Mediterranean break in the peak of summer, plus a break from running in Belgium and the Watermolen Cup, started here in Birzebbuga with what I like to call the... 'watermelon' race. It's the St Patrick's AC Birzebbuga 10k, a tough, hot and hilly race, each edition of which ends with juicy chunks of watermelon, very much appreciated by the exhausted, heat-dehydrated athletes!
I ran this race just like a beginner, having as a joke proclaimed to a number of my friends that I would be "the man to beat", and then, foolishly, believing it myself... So I ran too fast right from the start, staying behind my good friend Lee Micallef with the intention of letting him lead the way and then overtaking him at the final sprint. Yeah, sure... perfect strategy.
I did actually stay quite close to him for a good part of the race. But it was bloody hot! It was ever so hilly, although I should have been prepared for that - it's not as if the hills have just grown higher this year, or that they might possibly have shrunk. I also hadn't slept very much the previous night, due to the Air Malta flight being two hours late.
So I wasn't in ideal shape on the day. In the long descent from Hal Far back to Birzebbuga I was already tired, and the killer hill, at the Tal-Papa housing estate, was just around the corner. Surprisingly enough, it was at the final part of this hill that I almost overtook Lee. Another long descent and he literally ran away from me, while I was only interested in finishing the whole damn thing. An old acquaintance who is currently staging quite a good comeback, Antoine Zammit, did what I should have done and what I normally do - came from behind and finished strongly. Him I also didn't see again until at the finish.
A heartbreaking characteristic of this race is that you run right in front of the finish with 2km still to go. There are already the fast finishers doing their cooling down, while you have to sweat out an additional 2km loop. I didn't slow down to a walk at that point only because it wouldn't look good at all in front of so many people. So I stuck it out beyond this point, with the intention of slowing down just as I was out of sight of the crowd. But, somehow, I kept going, and I must say that it was quite an achievement for me, on this day, to actually keep running the whole distance.
The finishing time was a respectable 44:29, only a few seconds more than my 'standard' 44 minutes for a 10k. Very good, in fact, considering all the difficulties mentioned.
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