Even as those of us from the delayed Monarch flight were checking at Club La Santa, the senior Inchley's were already playing their first competitive round of crazy golf of the trip. For those that have been before, the Canarian sports resort is something of a home from home that can be settled into immediately. For most La Santa virgins, the challenge is deciding what to do first.
As a club, we have been going for the last week in November since the dawn of time to take part in the International Challenge. The challenge consists of four quite different races over four days which can be taken as seriously as you like. The general attitude is that it is a holiday first and races second. We all want to run as fast as we can on the day, but not to the detriment of the night before! There is also no compulsion to take part in the races, but if you are up to it then you are encouraged.
Once you are there, all of the sports facilities are free to use and you can enter tournaments, take lessons in most sports, join fitness classes both in the gym and outdoors, take a bike around the island or simply sit by the pool and get a tan. It is entirely your choice and all are included in the price. There are approximately 20 sports covered and facilities include a 50m pool, a full size track, 6 court badminton hall, 10 tennis courts and the resort's own lagoon for windsurfing. However, there were a decent number of our crowd that settled into their first day by acclimatising in the bar for a few hours.
This years group consisted mostly of Leighton runners but we had four MKACers, a couple of Ampthill & Flitwick Flyers, a Bearbrook Jogger and two biddies from Richard's old tennis club in Birmingham, all of whom contribute massively to the atmosphere of the trip.
