Paul 502

If it seems like we do a lot of half-marathons we do.  At the start of the year, the Attaché had completed half-marathons in seven different countries:  Malta, Iceland, Holland, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and the US.  I’ve only done half-marathons in six countries and my list is different than hers, but I won’t go into that now because this story is about the Attaché’s running list.  This story is about her goal to reach ten by the end of the year. 

Let me back up a few weeks.  It’s February 1st and she needs three half-marathons to reach her goal and she wants to do them this year.  I booked two quickly.  She hasn’t done a half in Austria so I booked Vienna’s Anker half-marathon for April.  Then I stumbled into a great deal on flights to Latvia so I booked Riga’s half for May.  That left one race for the entire year.  Out of nowhere our friends Paul and Mimi told us they were doing the Barcelona half on Valentine’s Day.  I began the airfare search, wary that it would be too late for a good fare.  I got lucky.  Vueling Airlines: 110 Euros per person. 

I always book the plane ticket before the hotel and the race registration because my experience has shown that airfares are not final until the transaction is complete.  Too often I check ticket prices and see them change when I go to book.  You know what I mean, the dreaded message: “fare unavailable”.  A few times I have found the actual bookable fare has been three for four times more than original search result.  I don’t risk it anymore.  I get the plane tickets first.  The other stuff works itself out. 

Well, most of the time.   In this case, Vueling Air was for real at 110 euros so I booked the flight and a 1 star hotel for 70 euros.  Then I tried to register for the race and found race registration was closed: maximum number of entrants reached.  What does this mean?  Can you enter a race without being registered?  It was worth a try. 

The plan was simple.  It involved a device known in the race fraud industry as a photo copier and the following equation:

(Real Race Number + Photo Copier) X 2 copies = Greg and the Attaché in the race.

Enter our travel buddy Paul.  Paul was registered for the race because he knows how to plan things.  The night before the run we followed Paul to number pickup and snagged his number.  Normally you get a plain old race number like 2410, 3307, or 894 (other examples available on request).  My theory was that no one could possibly recognize two (or three) “2410” racers on the course of thousands.  But for the Barcelona half-marathon we found the numbers were not just generic old numbers but the person’s name followed by the number.

In our case: Paul 502. 

 

That made it interesting.  Can we pull off running with three identical race numbers, all with Paul 502?  Bigger yet, can the Attaché pull it off as a female running with the name Paul?  In our favor was the mass of five thousand other racers.  Against us was the fact that there are no color copiers in the whole of Spain.  It didn’t stop us.  We used the hotel photo copier, burned a couple of crappy black and white photos of Paul’s number, and off we went.  To tell you the truth I was hoping a race official would see Paul and I running together with the same number and try to disqualify me (or him) just for the blog value of it.  Too bad.  No one seemed to care, not even when we all posed at the start with the same number.

We had some bad weather when we arrived.  We had to find our puny little hotel while it was sleeting.  Race day the weather was only a little bit better.  The Attaché finished the race notching her eighth country.  No, she didn't set a personal best time; in fact, she was fourth from the back.  They sweep the course with a couple of chase vehicles to be sure no one has died and the ambulance kept trying to pick up the Attaché and tell her to quit.  She wouldn't let them.  That’s my girl.  

The trip to Barcelona was short and sweet.  It was Valentine’s Day weekend, and Carnival, so Barcelona was lively.  We ate tapas and paella, and visited a small local bar where an old lady in a bath robe serenaded me.  You know, normal Spain stuff.  In all a good trip.

 

Comments

[phil & valarie]

Wow! Looks like 20 people in a 10-person bar ... not counting the old lady in the bathrobe, who obviously just came downstairs to tell her landlord that the hot water had run out ...

False identity cards are big business these days, I'm told - so we're pleased to see you get a good start; when you get to passports, however, better not announce it in the blog - just use the code words "Vinny's gonna travel," and we'll know you've succeeded in the big leagues. Kudos to Our Girl for refusing the nice warm ambulance ride. The guys probably just wanted to watch her butt as she ran ... P & V