Javea
Amigos
Update
150 Walkers
Faced The Mirador
Challenge In
Record Time
The weather was almost perfect
for almost 150 walkers in 29 teams
who picked up the gauntlet in the
fifth edition of the javeamigos.com
Mirador Challenge, a 29.5 kilometre
route that links all 15 official
viewpoints (called “miradores” in
Castellano) along the stunning
coastline of Jávea. Sponsored this
year by Bar Quo Vadis and VillasPlots.com, the Challenge was to
cover the distance in the fastest
possible time – without running
– whilst passing through each
viewpoint where, for some teams,
a series of tasks was waiting for
them.
The event has grown in strength
and has become one of Jávea’s
premier sporting events of the
year, attracting great interest to
participate.
It was probably down to the cooler
weather that, despite the route
being extended by some 2.5
kilometres for this year’s edition,
the average time to complete the
course was recorded as 5 hours 33
minutes, only ten minutes slower
than 2014 when the course was
shorter but almost an hour quicker
than the third edition in 2013.
It has been credit to some very
serious pre-race training by the
vast majority of the participants
over the previous few weeks that
these times were recorded; it was
a truly stunning battle of fitness
and stamina.
by Mike Smith
Photos Fay
Hughes Smith
The teams were drawn from across
the region with walkers representing
Jávea, Moraira-Teulada, Benissa,
Gata de Gorgos, Pedreguer and
Xaló amongst others as well as a
mother-and-daughter pair who had
flown in from the UK especially to
take part in the Mirador Challenge.
It was a truly international affair with
Spanish, British, Dutch, Polish and
South American participants. One
walker, having been let down for a
lift, actually cycled all the way from
Gata de Gorgos to join his team,
covered the distance in a time that
almost won the title – then cycled
home again!
The teams gathered at Mirador
La Granadella in the gloom of an
overcast and chilly Sunday early
morning, some of them having
dragged themselves from the
warmth of their beds to catch a
special coach laid on to take them
to the start-line.
An occasional short shower of
rain threatened to dampen the
occasion just a little but the teams
were determined and waited
patiently for their turn to depart.
Spanish ladies team Fenoll Marí
led the way, crossing the startline at 8.00am to begin their 29.5
kilometre trek to the windmills in
the north.
Twenty other teams followed, split
into two categories – Leisure, who
would be able to stop and admire
the views for a short while, and
Sport who were walking very much
against the clock.
Waiting for them were a happy
band of volunteers, dotted along
the coast at each viewpoint acting
as checkpoint supervisors as well
as route marshals and support
units.
The Leisure teams had the
additional task of meeting a series
of additional challenges at a certain
number of viewpoints, ones that
called for a bit of mathematical
knowledge.
Two teams competing in the Sport
category, The Nordic Walkers and
Team Mamil, made their intentions
clear quite quickly and despite
having started in 16th and 22nd
position respectively.