La Behobia is also a Carnival

It is neither the one in Tolosa, nor the one in Cádiz, nor the one in Rio… although the Behobia-San Sebastián Carnival has little to envy when Carmelo de la Fuente makes an appearance. The indefatigable athlete from Burgos, a man who does not allow anyone to get bored if he is around, will run again on Sunday the twenty kilometers of the popular Gipuzkoan route in disguise, a habit he acquired in 2010.

Every year she surprises with one of her outfits. His looks do not go unnoticed among the runners who come across him year after year. «Why do I run in disguise? There are those who say that I like to give the grade, but I am who I am. And I am like that. I put passion into everything I do. My goal in life? “Be happy.” At 65 years old and recently retired, this proud resident of Villacienso, a small town of just over 250 inhabitants where he has always lived, will come of age in Behobia. “It will be my eighteenth participation, although I didn’t run it for a long time.”

He debuted in 1987, ‘disguised’ as an athlete at that time. «I finished in 11th position. There were about 3,100 of us who ran at that time. I used to do it back then, both in the Behobia and in other tests, with a feather on my head. “I have never been at the level of athletes like Abel Antón or Martín Fiz, but they greeted me and knew me as the runner who carried the pen.”

Carmelo remembers that he was “a shorter distance athlete, but several people from Burgos were going and I signed up. It’s been almost forty years since my first time. I started running late, almost twenty years old due to a heartbreak. I was a goalkeeper and I thought I would replace Iribar, but… I consider myself a lucky person in life, I have a surplus of happiness.

Write down all the races you participate in in a notebook. And there are already 1,189 that add up. Almost nothing… «My best Behobias were in the 90s. I came in fifth. And in 1992 I ran in 1h04:50,” recalls the athlete from Burgos, who continues running fast a few years later and carrying the costumes he wears.

Barefoot in 1h35:17

Although there were many friends he made in Behobia, Carmelo left it between 1998 and 2010, the year in which he returned in style. He ran barefoot, dressed as Jesus Christ. «1h35:17 I did it when I was 50 years old. Not bad, right? And not a scratch on his feet. I remember that it was raining, that I carried the chip hooked in a bad way with a zip tie. I didn’t train too much by running barefoot. Of course, I have been on a Stations of the Cross for Jesus Christ for 18 years in a town in Burgos, so I already knew what it was like to walk barefoot on roads. I also did a marathon without shoes in Australia…”

«In 2011, I made Behobia into a tuxedo. We are nine brothers and it was the suit in which Bonifacio, one of them, married. Then came the costumes of a cook, a miner, a monk, Neptune, Tutankhamun, a doctor after Covid, Don Quixote, an Amazonian Indian with colored feathers… «In 2019, when the race coincided with the elections generals, I wore a t-shirt that said “I vote Behobia-San Sebastián. And he carried an urn. “There are always messages in my costumes, reasons.”

Going for a world record

A lover of poetry and other art such as running, Carmelo is extremely emotional. Away from social networks, WhatsApp… he confesses that inspiration “always comes”, even if sometimes it is “at the last minute.” He already has a costume for Sunday. And he will seek to beat a world record that, in this case, has nothing to do with athletics. «I will be a Basque stone lifter. How do you say it in Basque? Harrijasotzaile, Carmelo. With ‘h’. “Wait, tell me again and letter by letter, and I’ll write it down, so when they ask me I can respond judiciously.”

It won’t come at its best, no. But it will continue to give color to the Behobia. «I fell off my bike in the summer and I’m not able to run much. I have a great capacity for suffering and endurance, which surely helps me, but I am not physically well. Of course, the costume will not be missing this year either. I will carry a rectangular stone, made from a cardboard box and covered with vinyl. A friend has helped me. I’ll also wear a vest. “They told me that the world record is 329 kilos, so… ‘there goes the hell’, I’ll have to go with one of 330.” Promise.

But does Carmelo train in his costumes before running the Behobia? How do you do them? «This is not the only career in which I transform. I usually do some testing for at least a couple of days, to ensure that nothing bothers me in competition. With Don Quixote’s, for example, I realized that there was a part of the shield that was rubbing against me. Little details. I ended up doing 2h05 in that costume. The stick was heavy…”

“I usually like to customize the shoes I run with, I am part of the costumes and I also have a good friend who usually helps me.” Carmelo even keeps life-size photos of his looks at Behobia in his house. “By the way, as in this race they rarely encourage.”

A very fast popular

His prodigious memory helps him remember hundreds of facts about his performances in different races, although, logically, he does not remember all the details. That’s what the booklet with the notes is for. «I have been a six-time Spanish master champion, a veteran. In 1,500, 5,000 and 10,000. And world and European half marathon runner-up. It doesn’t run slow. In fact, even when he does it in disguise he continues to rush and try to go fast,

«I have a personal best of 30:09 in 10,000, 14:42 in 5,000…». Age no longer allows him to improve these records, but what still excites Carmelo de la Fuente is going out for a run. And if it is filling those around you with joy and color, all the better.