Wednesday, October 30, 2024, 9:23 p.m.
Javi Conde and Jon Salvador have successfully resumed their long list of challenges in different venues in Bizkaia. Yesterday, after almost an hour and a half of effort (1.29.08), they completed the Ten Miles of Solidarity promoted by El Corte Inglés on its seventh floor. There, on the athletics track designed in the sports section, the two Biscayan marathon runners completed 16,090 kilometers this afternoon after completing 143 laps of a 112.7 meter ring. During business hours, with customers making their purchases or enjoying a drink in the cafeteria, Conde and Salvador have added a new success to their account of solidarity activities that as a result will feed a thousand families.
How have they achieved it? “We were clear that it had to have solidarity purposes,” explained Jon Ciriero, director of El Corte Inglés, during the presentation of the event, something very much in line with what the two marathon runners from Biscay have always done. From there arose the possibility of collaborating with the Bizkaia Food Bank, whose president, Luis Crovetto, expressed his gratitude, remembering that “seven tons of food that has been collected in this event means helping a thousand families.” The contribution of firms such as EL CORREO, Under Armour, the town councils of Etxebarri and Basauri, the Basque Government through the Hazi Foundation, Bikainak and Artiach was decisive in shaping the promotion of El Corte Inglés with their financial contribution.
The series came to light as a result of Conde’s idea of completing all the Olympic and Paralympic marathons for charitable purposes. In March 2012, Conde and Salvador climbed to the top of the Bizkaia Bridge to carry out a marathon, and then those from the Gabarra, the Sifón de Deusto, Pozalagua, Gaztelugatxe and the Gernika Tree arrived, the last one before the pandemic stopped this type of actions by the two marathon runners, who gave birth to this new project almost by chance. “If there is a track at the top of El Corte Inglés, it will be for running on it,” they came to say.
The moment of truth
Six months of preparations that culminated this afternoon with the staging of the protagonists, who since six in the afternoon were already immersed in preparations. They had to warm up well and adapt again to a track on which they had already trained. «It is a hard floor that demands a lot. The good thing is that there are three streets and it gives us enough space to run together,” explained Jon Salvador.
The scenario has been most surprising. In the same space, there were volunteers from the Javi Conde Athletics Club, people responsible for timing, sellers of sports equipment, customers who, when making their purchases, met two athletes from here to there cheered on by their followers… The truth is that the seventh floor The shopping center has been very busy for almost two hours, the time in which Conde and Salvador have turned that stage into an athletics festival, as they have done in each emblematic place to which they have taken their solidarity challenges.
At seven thirty, with British punctuality, due to being in El Corte Inglés, the Ten Mile challenge began, a distance also very appropriate for the setting. “We wanted to give a nod to the shopping center that has given us so many facilities to celebrate this challenge and that’s why we proposed running ten miles.”
With the start made by Javi Conde’s father, the scoreboard began to accumulate laps towards those 143 that were the final destination. First they started in the opposite direction to what is usual on an athletics track, but after ten minutes they changed the way they turned. It was about ‘conserving’ the mechanics as much as possible, those legs that have accumulated so many kilometers between their sporting careers and the solidarity challenges to which they have become accustomed.
The turns passed and the customers’ surprised faces increased. “That’s Conde, right?” asked a visitor when he saw the marathon runner from Basauri pass by. “He’s doing a marathon,” said a woman who yesterday discovered that to cross the athletics track painted on the floor of the sports floor you had to look from one side to the other, as if you were crossing a level crossing. without barriers it will be treated. Every 37-38 seconds the duo of athletes passed by while the grandmother looked for the most suitable sports top for her granddaughter and the saleswoman showed the mother and her son the excellent fabric of the shorts she wanted to buy. Combining the usual commercial activity with a career became the main challenge for the volunteers and those responsible for El Corte Inglés, which was met with a good grade.
At nine at night, both were celebrating the completion of those 16 long kilometers in a very different scenario from the previous ones. The smile with which they ran most of those 143 laps gave them away. The experience had been a success and the objective had been achieved. Seven tons of food have already traveled to the Bizkaia Food Band. A symbolic act that was the essence of the challenge with which both marathon runners returned to their favorite activity, and although it was not a marathon as usual, it was not without demand. “It has been very hard,” they agreed in their summary.
«It has been a great experience, but it has been hard because the floor is very hard and from the first moment it has been noticeable in the joints. But well, with the support of the people, the good atmosphere that we have had throughout the test, we have moved forward, which was what it was about because in the end it has a very important solidarity component,” Conde highlighted.
Salvador, for his part, acknowledged that the pace had been more demanding than expected. «We thought it would take around an hour and 35 minutes, but when we saw the pace we were doing, we realized that we were going to go below an hour and a half, which leaves us very satisfied, but I assure you that the pace was noticeable and what it has cost us.
On behalf of El Corte Inglés, its director Jon Ciriero was more than satisfied with what was experienced in the shopping center, a new event that “has given a lot of life to the area during the time of the race. “We are very happy that everything went as planned.”
