Running without being able to leave the smallest town in Spain: "If I go fast, I get dizzy"

• Athletes rebuked. "They've never looked at me so badly"

Emperador is such a small town that it only has seven streets and none exceeds 200 meters. Emperador is such a small town that it does not have a millimeter to develop: there are no orchards, fields, or open fields. Emperador is such a small town that the Emperador restaurant is outside the municipal limits.

Emperador is the smallest town in Spain, only 30,060 square meters, that is to say, three football fields, and you can imagine the odyssey that these days involves meeting phase 0 of the Plan of Descaling. The 687 inhabitants of this municipality, which is 10 kilometers north of Valencia, have a difficult time keeping a safe distance in any of their activities, but for runners, each training is an adventure. The Government established that sports cannot be practiced outside the limits of the municipal area and that is why, for them, the goal is always too close. They need motivation and, at the same time, organization. Because despite the size of the town, the Grup de Correr Emperador has more than 60 members and continually bump into each other.

We do what we can. After spending 50 days running on the balcony, it is already a major change. But, of course, the town is like a running track with tight turns. If you go a little fast, you get dizzy. And if we coincide a few, we see each other all the time, ”jokes Gregor Aldea , president of the popular athletics club and long-distance runner. This year, in fact, he had obtained a number for the Zegama-Aizkorri, the mecca of trail running and now he will have to wait for the next one. In his first training session after confinement, last Saturday, he completed several laps on a one kilometer circuit until reaching seven. He does not rule out making long zig-zag runs. «It is what it touches. We cannot expect the decree to suit us. It is a pity not to be able to go further, 20 meters from the edge of town there is a greenway, but it is what there is. We are legal », says Aldea.

Its problems are the same that take place in the 16 Spanish towns below the square kilometer of extension or in the 29 that do not exceed two kilometers. In these, there is a curiosity that you can go further by walking than by running. In these, it is curious that the precious path, the precious mountain, the precious promenade, is always close, very close.

On top of a rock

Genís Grau is one of the best triathletes in Spain. If there were no Mario Mola, Javier Gómez Noya and Fernando Alarza, three of the four best in the world, Grau would have a place for the next Tokyo Olympics. But he lives in Castellfollit de la Roca, the eighth smallest town in Spain, barely 730,000 square meters nestled on top of a volcanic rock, and that meant that for two days, last Saturday and last Sunday, he was the object of jokes in person and through social networks. From Monday you can go out all over the province of Girona for being considered a high-level athlete, but before ...

"It was funny, it was very funny. I did my session of two or three hours on the roller and then I went out for a while with the bike to give me air in my face. In the town there is only the entrance road [it has no exit], so it made its 800 meters up and down. When I accelerated a little I was already up and, come on, down. All my friends are still there, on the road running or cycling, I am very lucky », admits Grau, who in a few days will even be able to go running on the beautiful running tracks of Olot and who has already swum in the Fluvià river , of abundant flow.

The mount, two steps away

It is a privilege for which they sigh in other places, for example, in Villava, the smallest town in Navarra, just one square kilometer where 10,204 people live. There, therefore, the restriction is twofold: they cannot leave the limits of their narrow municipality and, furthermore, like all towns with more than 5,000 residents, they must comply with time slots. Only the bank of the Ultzama River lightens the passage of corridors through its streets, despite the fact that on the other side of it is Mount Miravalles. Having left home is already a gift, but seeing the mountain, which belongs to neighboring Huarte, so close and not being able to ascend it is a chore.

«I live very close to the mountain and I have gone for a walk there because it is less than a kilometer away, but I cannot run. I miss it, but after what we've been through, anything is fine. I made a circuit through Villava and I got to leave 13 kilometers. By the river, in the polygon, taking advantage of the fact that there is little traffic on the road ... I hope that the restrictions are open, but for the moment I am not complaining, "explains Koldo Alberdi , long-distance mountain race runner, who this year was inscribed on the famous Ultra Trail of Mont Blanc. He will have to wait and, until other phases of the Government's Plan for De-escalation are reached, keep repeating streets and more streets, as Gregor Aldea does in the tiny Emperor, like the friends of Genís Grau in Castellfollit, like so many Spaniards in small towns.

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