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I am just back from a week of walking in Mallorca. I always intend to do
some track work when abroad but never get around to it. This time I managed
it. The tourist office told me that the nearest track was at the
Polysportivo in Pollensa, a few miles from our resort. What an experience!!
Went along around seven in the evening. It was a humid day with temps in the
low 30s, the kind of day when a normal walking pace brings you out in a
sweat, think of the world cup in Germany the first week.
What surprised me
was that, in spite of sweating like a pig, I managed a 10 x 400 session at
the kind of pace I do in CIT, with just 200 jog recovery. The track itself
was five lane, with a carpet like surface rather than tartan. It was softer
than tartan and gave a lovely bounce. I ran in lane one, not a traffic cone
in sight. For company I had three grandmothers out for the evening stroll
around the track and half a dozen kids playing soccer in the middle. Two
local vets did show at the start, with skin almost black from the sun, but
they did their run on roads and only used the track for shower and changing.
Despite the language barrier I got the feeling that the crack with Spanish
runners was as good as with us. The Poly was at the edge of town, backing on
to a farm with horses and a field of jumps, lovely arabians and palominos.
Just behind that was a 800 foot limestone wooded hill with a hermitage to
the Blessed Virgin on the top, where you could get wonderful coffee brought
up on a donkey's back. CIT just don't compare.
This Polysportivo is a standard model for a sports centre found
throughout Spain. Pollensa is about the size of Macroom. In Spain each small
town seems to have one and in the cities, each suburb. The centre space of
the track contained an astroturf area which could be used as three small or
one large and one small pitch. A covered stand lay at one side of the track,
with capacity for around 2000. Under this was clean and comfortable dressing
room, toilet and shower facilities. Up from this lay a number of buildings
occupied by sports clubs. One for the local soccer club, another for the
cycling club, and so on. Other facilities included a skateboard park, a 25
meter outdoor (heated in winter) swimming pool, a kiddies pool, a good kids
playground, a basketball court and two tenis courts. Best of all was a
bar/cafeteria with an outside terrace. Parking is ample, free, and just
outside the complex. No fear of clampers. This place is run by the local
town council and EVERYTHING IS FREE (apart from the bar). The centre opens
in summer from 9 am to 11 pm. It was being used by families with young kids,
grandparents out for a chat, athletic adults and teenagers, and the
skateboard park was clean with not a can of Dutch Gold in sight. Just think
of an Eagle track session here. Those with kids could bring them for a swim
or the playground. One could have a swim after the session and then to the
cafeteria for a coffee, beer, or snack.
The main point is this. We are always being told that we have never had
it so good, Celtic Tiger and all that. I have travelled widely in both
France and Spain and their facilities are way ahead of ours. The Spanish are
said to be a fair bit less well off than ourselves by the economists but you
don't see this on the ground. We do damn all for our teenagers except
abandon them to the bushes and offys. Irish kids are now dropping out of
sports at an earlier and earlier age. We have average facilities which are
expensive to use. (Think of the charges at Leisureworld or what it costs
Eagle for the track). I can only think that the Socialist government which
Spain has largely had for thirty years has something to do with actually
putting athletic resources into the community in a way which just does not
happen at home. Celtic Tiger how are ye?
Paul MacCotter
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