pickupthepacepaul

On Saturday 12th April 2025 I took part in the Ibiza Marathon. It was a little different to normal, with a race that started at 15:30 on the Saturday rather than an early morning start. Ibiza Marathon was my 167th Marathon (plus) and my 124th time as an official pacer (including 61 marathons). It was my 6th marathon of 2025, and 5th as a pacer so far this year.

Ibiza was another family trip, as we plan our adventures during the kids school holidays. Our flight was really late on the Friday night, meaning we arrived at our hotel at midnight. We stayed close to the race start, which was only a 10 minute taxi ride from the airport.

The marathon is a point to point race, running from 1 side of the island to the other. This does make it a bit of a mission. The race expo is located near the finish, so we needed to travel from start to finish to collect my race bib, to travel back to the start. We opted to get uber because time was limited, but there were bus options. It cost about 25 each way, so with 4 of us it wasn’t too bad, and we were able to get around quickly and easily.

The expo was full of the Ibiza vibe with music and a nice atmosphere. I was keen to get my stuff and get out. As a pacer I was lucky to be given some official Joma gear, including their carbon shoes. I am surprised as they retail at 120 euro, which are the cheapest carbon shoes I’ve seen. I wore them for the marathon and they felt good.

We then made our way for something to eat, and I fell into the trap of going to the first place we came across. The weather wasn’t nice on Saturday morning, so as we left the expo we just went into the first place. The food wasn’t great, and as we left we found loads of nicer places. The finish area is surrounded by all the adult only hotels. There didn’t seem to be as much to do as the start area. Of course we were not here for the night vibe ourselves.

We then made our way back to hotel to get sorted, then walked to the start area. Walking from our hotel through Ibiza Town to the Marina it was full of shops and nice looking restaurants. It had stopped raining and beginning to feel humid, but cloudy. It was a strange feeling having a marathon start at 15:30. I felt hungry, but didn’t want to eat too much. I didn’t have the usual nervous bowel movement, and so preparation was not the same. For some the finish in the evening would be nice, I found the whole thing a little difficult to manage well.

Ibiza Marathon

We made our way to the start area for 14:30, 1 hour before the race start. There wasn’t a lot of communication for the pace team so I picked up a flag (the wrong one, I will come to this) and we decided to go for a drink in one of the surrounding restaurants. It was a very chilled start, and I left my family at 15:00 to get to the start line. It was strange as I had not had any briefing for the pace team, and I entered as a pacer a long time ago. I picked up the 4 hour flag out of habit, and was chatting to runners as they started to fill the start area.

At about 15:15 another pacer came over and said he thinks he is the 4 hour pacer. You know you have those lightbulb moments when you remember. I was asked to pace 4:30, and with my line up of races and London in 2 weeks, I thought 4:30 would be perfect for an easier pace. As soon as he said he was 4 hours I was slightly embarrassed and realised I had picked up the wrong flag. Funny that it was 15 minutes before the start and other pacers were still not in their waves. I gave him my flag and ran to pick up the 4:30, meanwhile goggling pace chart for 4:30 marathon. It reminds me of the old days when I used to always do my pace with simple mental arithmetic. 10:18 min mile on my watch, and 6:24 min km according to the pace markers. I collected my flag, ran to where my family were to tell them I will be 30 minutes later so they didn’t worry, and made my way to the start pen. I was still there before the other pacers who was running with me.

With 10 minutes before the start my group started to form. Ibiza had about 650 runners for the marathon, but to be honest it looked busier. There was also a 22km and 12km, both these races started on the route as it is point to point, and they followed the same course.

Carlos was my co pacer who had ran Ibiza a few times. He explained the first half was much harder than the second half. I knew it was a little hilly, but the whole course felt like a gradual incline. The course map shows a continuous climb for first half and mostly downhill in second half, but it doesn’t feel that way.

The marathon route was beautiful mostly running through countryside with small roads. It was really enjoyable. In addition the supporters and entertainment on route was much better than what you would usually expect on smaller races. It isn’t a PB race, but really nice.

We ran the first half reaching about 40 seconds below target time. It was a perfect pace and the group ran well. It was overcast so the best conditions we could hope for, but it was humid, so I was sweating a lot. I am surprised about the accuracy of the km markers. Often these are not perfect, but these were very consistent from start to finish, so I felt comfortable relying on the markers. There was water and electrolyte every 5km and food towards the end of the course.

After half way Carlos told me we should be running for gun time and not chip time. We were 40 seconds ahead of chip time so I already felt it was slightly fast, but he began to pick up the pace to make up another minute. I am not interested in pacing to gun time, and so I stayed with runners aiming for 4:30 and stuck with chip time.

Everything was going perfectly, and whilst Carlos had disappeared about 2 minutes ahead of me, I was around 50 seconds ahead at 30km, with about 10 runners who had been with me since the start. At 30km I picked up a piece of banana as felt like I needed something, but this was a mistake. A combination of the humidity, hills and banana started to make me feel sick. At 35km I drank water but it just didn’t have anywhere to go. Again, I knew these feeling and I started to feel unwell. I think I need to go to a nutritionist or get checked out because I’m starting to struggle taking on fuel. I told my runners to go on and I would catch up, as I pulled over and started being sick. I was sick about 8 times, bringing up a lot of fluid and all of the banana. I will be honest, i didn’t feel great, but once I stopped being sick it was game time. I was now 90 seconds away from my group, so I changed my 10:18 pace to a 9 min mile pace, and after just over a mile I was back with my group. We now were about 20 seconds ahead of schedule as they had slowed without me, and had 3 miles to the finish. Now was time to dig deep.

Because of the reliable markers I decided not to push people harder. We had 5km and we were ahead of schedule. Everyone was just about holding on and I wanted us to get to the finish, so I sat around a 10:10 min mile for the remaining section. I personally skipped the last water stations. I didn’t feel great and I didn’t want to risk being sick again.

As we turned into the finish it was great seeing my runners push ahead, some getting over a minute under target time. I finished in 04:29:35, perfect for 04:30 desired time.

The finish had a special marathon section for food and a massage, but in honesty the last thing I feel like immediately after a marathon is sausage rolls and other food. I always like to settle first. I carried on and saw race bags being handed out with water and other food more appropriate such as chocolate. The volunteers refused to give me a bag saying I had to go to the marathon section. The irony is the marathon section was supposed to be a VIP addition for the marathon runners, but the bottled water and chocolate was much more what was needed than a cup of water and savory snacks. Fortunately one kind volunteer gave me a bottle of water which was all I wanted.

I made my way to the bus which was going back to the start. I am so glad I made the 20:15 bus, with 5 minutes to spare, as the next bus was 21:00. I would have liked a massage, but wanted to get back to my family more. After the bus I jumped straight into a taxi and was back at my hotel by 20:50, so a really quick journey home. I was cold and felt awful, but my family looked after me.

Sunday was our last day, with a flight at 00:10 we had a whole day on the island (currently writing my blog whilst drinking beer on the beach). The weather has changed, and more what we expected. It is hot and beautiful and all of a sudden we have more to do. Between our hotel, we have beaches, restaurants, Ibiza Town and the marina, and the weather is beautiful. I will be honest, if the weather was like this during the Marathon it would have been tough. But it is perfect spectators weather. At race start time it became cooler and was less humid. Again, I wonder what would have been better, the usual heat then cooler, or cooler but humid.

Overall we had a lovely family holiday in Ibiza. It was a beautiful course and well organised. It isn’t an easy route and getting warm. For those that like to party I’m sure the after party would have been great, but with kids I didn’t even attempt to check it out.