--- title: "Seven and a half tips to conquer Sol y Arena" published: 2016-05-14 updated: 2026-08-04 source: "https://dev-abp.massivoai.com/en/articles/siete-consejos-y-medio-para-superar-la-sol-y-arena" --- # Seven and a half tips to conquer Sol y Arena **There are as many anecdotes about the Clásica Sol y Arena as participants it has had throughout its 35 editions, some good and some bad. For example, once the tide was up to my neck and I decided to run the entire race on soft sand; I died. Another year I had just gotten to the beach, lifted my head, looked into the distance and saw the pier so close that a lopsided smile escaped me, like saying "but this is nothing, the pier is right there"; I died again.** And after that I've died a couple more times in the country's most popular beach race, but every cloud has a silver lining and from each death I've learned valuable lessons that I'm sharing with you here: 1. Avoid loose sand. If you run on loose sand you'll burn much more energy, you'll go much slower, your shoes will fill with sand and on top of everything you'll run more distance because imagine the beach as a giant athletics track, you'd be running on the outer lane of the track, meaning you'll run more. Look for compact sand that's closer to the sea, but be careful you'll get your feet wet… 2. Don't even think about looking at the pier. It's an optical illusion that science still hasn't managed to figure out, but the pier looks super close when you're 10 kilometers away from it, and then, as if by magic, it refuses to get closer as you run and run toward it. The fact that the pier resists getting closer is a lethal blow to the psyche, a blow from which the body won't be able to recover. This phenomenon in more detail in the article: [Don't pay attention to the pier](../../../New/detail/116/no-le-haga-caso-al-muelle). 3. Arrive early. There are about 2,200 registered athletes plus an unknown number of unregistered athletes that could be very similar to the number of registered athletes. In short, there will probably be about four thousand athletes. If your goal is to be at the front of the pack, you need to arrive early. If your goal isn't to be at the front of the pack, you should still arrive early considering that the 4,000 athletes come in cars, minibuses and buses, and naturally some "shortcuts" are taken to get into the Port, and we never have traffic lanes when we need the blessed traffic lanes, and it's normal that we forget water, or our shoes, or the car keys don't show up, or… Arrive early, everything is more enjoyable, you save yourself a lot of rushing around and unnecessary stress. 4. Don't roast yourself in the hours before. For races like Sol y Arena it's vital to arrive as fresh as possible at the start. Try to stay in the shade, sit down for a while if the wait is very long, keep yourself very well hydrated with cold water or sports drink. 5. Enjoy. Maybe it seems strange to you that one of the tips is "enjoy". And what good does that do me? Well, Sol y Arena is many things, depending on how you look at it. You can say "ugh, what a hassle all these people" or rather "how cool that it's so packed". You can say "what horrible heat" or "this little bit of heat is just right for running"; "Ugh the sand is full of holes and sticky" or "how nice this compact sand is"; "what a bunch of people getting in the way" or "how awesome all these people cheering". Do you get what I'm saying? Go in with a positive attitude, it's a race to enjoy, to live, to watch the sunset while you run. In the end that's what makes the difference between a good and a bad experience. 6. Bring water. If you're one of the fast ones and you're in the front half of the pack, then carrying a water bottle on your waist might affect your time and besides you don't need it because you'll find water at the hydration stations. If you're one of those who finish in the back half, carrying a little water bottle won't bother you much and could be a lifesaver. Good hydration in hot races like SyA is vital, and those who go slower don't always find water at the hydration stations. There are a lot of people who grab water by the handful and aren't even registered, the hydration stations aren't infinite… 7. Arrive well fed but not too full. The race is at 4:30 p.m., so you need to have lunch, but not a lot. Avoid fats and proteins, the former because they can play a bad trick on you while running, the latter because they digest more slowly and the body needs more water to digest them. A light lunch is ideal, save the fried pork, seafood and the churchill for after the race. The last tip, which isn't so much a tip as it is a request, is please don't throw water bottles on the beach. Of course there will be people from the organization picking them up as much as possible, but as much as possible in this case isn't enough and the sea swallows hundreds of plastic bottles that never come back out and cause the death of animals and pollution in our seas. It costs nothing to keep the bottle! Are you going to tell me that because of that you're going to lose a few seconds? It costs nothing to put them in your shorts, in your visor or carry them in your hand. . . \*Updated in May 2024. A Buen Paso uses [Massivo](https://massivoai.com), the event-registration platform that powers this article.