Three President’s Gold Award holders – Warren Muscat, Mark Anthony Sammut and Maria Vella-Galea recently took part in the Malta International Challenge Marathon, which sees participants run a full Marathon distance over a period of three consecutive days. Now in its 20th year, the Challenge is a grueling race, which gives runners little recovery timeframes.
Gold Award Holder Maria Vella-Galea shares her experience of this Challenge.
For someone whose idea of running was sprinting into the cool seawater on a summer’s day, the idea of a full marathon distance covered in three days was never on the Agenda. In all honesty I always found running to be a boring sport, which made me go out of breath in five seconds. That all changed however when I decided, after having taken part in Lifecycle Challenge, to keep on a training schedule and I decided to start training for triathlon – swim, bike and run. My first major target was the half Marathon in February 2010. My aim was to finish the course, so with no previous times to match or improve on I had one less stress.
Fast forward nine months, with a triathlon season under my belt, participation in the Hellfire Challenge and a respectable time at the London Duathlon, I decided to undertake the Malta International Marathon Challenge. I knew it was going to be tough, but I was not going to be deterred.
The first race, 11.195 kilometres took place on a Friday afternoon, an uncharacteristically hot and windy November day. Half of the route saw us run up a few tough hills and once over were greeted by some strong winds along Dingli Cliffs.
The second race took place the next day at noon on an equally hot day. Being 6 kilometres,
runners do get a bit of respite but the race is fast and half of the route is a gradual consistent uphill. Getting to the finish on these two days was not a major issue for me even though I was not feeling 100% well.
The major task is the third and final day, which sees runners cover a distance of 25 kilometres, starting off in St. Paul’s Bay following the coast line till the end of the race in City Gate, Valletta. Apart from the long distance, runners have to tackle three steep hills – Coast Road, Sa Maison and Republic Street Valletta which leads to the much awaited finish line.
The special thing about these challenges is that it brings runners from all walks of life and
various countries. Some of the runners were experienced runners, battling for a third or fourth win, others where there to improve their previous years’ times and others, like me, were there to complete the Challenge in the best possible time. The support and camaraderie shown by fellow runners is amazing and it is no wonder that I completed the Challenge with a smile and jump in the air!
