Finished 0:42 behind plan. Where the red line rises above green, you lost time.
The plan was 7:17. I crossed the line at 7:59. That gap tells a story, and I'd rather tell it honestly than bury it in a highlight reel.
I went in with a number in my head — 7h 17m — which, for 55 km and 2,839 metres of climbing through the Baix Camp backcountry, was always going to demand a clean execution. I didn't have a rigid pacing sheet, more of a feel for where I needed to be at each aid station. And for the first half, honestly, it was tracking well.
The opening stretch to Cabrafiga (23 minutes) felt controlled, and through Llaberia and La Torre de Fontaubella the legs were moving well. I was at L'Argentera in 3:27, which put me right on the edge of the target window. I spent only a minute there — good discipline — and pushed on toward Serra de Llaberia.
That's where the course started asking harder questions. The climb to Mola de Colldejou is no joke, and by the time I rolled into that aid station at 4:59, I knew I'd been grinding. I sat there for four minutes — same as I'd spent at Cabrafiga in the first hour — and that's usually a signal the body is negotiating with you. You tell yourself you're being smart. You're also just tired.
The back half of this race is relentless in a quiet way. It doesn't have one brutal wall; it just keeps stacking kilometres and elevation onto legs that are already running on memory. Escornalbou came and went, Vilanova d'Escornalbou at 6:42, then Coll de la Teixeta — and somewhere in there the time buffer I thought I had evaporated.
The Ermita Mare de Déu de la Roca aid station at 7:26 was a gut-check. I stayed four minutes again. At that point I knew 7:17 was gone. The final climb — the so-called "Zegama" section, pujada final — is named that for a reason, and I was not climbing like it was Zegama. I was climbing like someone who'd already run 53 kilometres.
I finished in 7:59 at the Poliesportiu in Mont-roig del Camp. Twenty-nine total minutes at aid stations across the whole race. That number sits with me. Some of those stops were necessary. Some were me avoiding the next climb for ninety extra seconds. I know the difference when I'm honest about it.
The 4 Termes course is beautiful and it is fair — it gives you everything you put in and nothing more. The terrain around Llaberia and Colldejou is the kind of landscape that makes you remember why you do these things, even when your quads are screaming.
What I take away: the fitness was close to where it needed to be. The discipline in the back third wasn't. Forty-two minutes is a specific gap, and I'd rather own it than explain it away. Next time this course sees me, I'll know exactly where those minutes went.
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