Before putting on their shoes, hundreds of runners travel kilometers by car along the Maestrazgo roads, a beauty that captivates cyclists and motorcyclists, but that does not cure the depopulation, that driving alone, without another vehicle in the mirrors. The Zoquetes Trail is an event as faithful to its roots as the town that structures it, Alcorisa, with graffiti from each generation of fifths and a blue zone that does not function because its slightly more than 3,000 neighbors stood up. That identity has turned a place with just enough to show, peaks that do not exceed 900 meters above sea level, into the first stop on the national calendar, a reason for 950 participants from 23 different provinces. Fernando Mateo, one of the organizers, a rancher who runs social networks, explains it: “Since we don’t have mountains, we give love. And people come here like it’s a party.”
The idea arose in 2011 when a group of runners set up a club, Alcorisa Fondistas. Some wear t-shirts with a design more typical of pajamas and 5:15 on the back, the time they have left to train and arrive at work on time. Although zoquete is a common nickname in Aragon, the name of the race is explained because the route involved a game of orchards that was called that. “People think it’s funny, but it’s not.” Corridors between olive and almond trees.
At first, they were home races, but things took off after the pandemic. “Do something more striking. You had to look for money and in Teruel no one gives it to you, not even the institutions; Now that people are responding from all over Spain, they want to get on board, but very little. There have been years when we have put it to the test,” Mateo summarizes. First, he blew up what was on the map. “We don’t have big mountains, they are hills. There is an unevenness because it is a very leg-breaking race.” The project convinced high-level runners and won over the public with affection. “What we offer is closeness, we have no other deck. I wish it were in the Pyrenees; If the philosophy works for us in Teruel, we would want it there.”
The weekend starts on Saturday with two rides, 11 and 19 kilometers. That’s where the love begins, a goal with fried eggs, freshly cut ham, wine or beer. On Sunday it’s time to get up early for the races – the earliest, of 36 kilometers, starts at 8:00, followed by the half marathon, the queen test, of 22 with 1,100 meters of positive gradient, and another of 11 -, so There is coffee and cake: old-fashioned sugar and caffeine, no modern things like pills or gels. The cherry on top is a brotherhood meal, a restaurant for 600. Something non-negotiable, since the numbers were sold out two months ago and they don’t release any more because they don’t fit in the meal. And it is organized in lines, like in the military, while a speaker announces whose turn it is.
It is the union against depopulation. “Teruel is forgotten,” laments Mateo, part of a town that has defended itself with associations. “I pick up the phone and I know that tomorrow I’m going to have 40 people to set up whatever.” Climbing, tennis, paddle tennis, indoor soccer, swimming pool, athletics or petanque clubs. The largest association in the town is Paraíso Caracas – it manages the famous restaurant and a large 500-seat cinema – which is called that because a neighbor fell in love with the Venezuelan capital.
The date has become strategic because there are not many races in January, but like everything in Zoquetes, it does not respond so much to marketing as to tradition: it was always the second week of January and it will remain that way. Despite the meteorological risk. “It can snow here, it’s cold, it’s windy, it’s winter, it’s not about coming here to have a good time. It doesn’t influence us, we make the race no matter what.” If anything, goodbye to firebreaks or ridges when there is snow or ice, because these hills have steep drops. But it runs. This time only the wind showed up, which hit really hard in some sections, but did not overshadow a sunny day, with maximum temperatures of 10 degrees.
The danger of a race with so many short climbs is that the body does not spare, it knows that crowning each stud is a quick pain, compared to the caution imposed by a large wall. This means that the engine is constantly revving, with hardly any rest: it can always be given one more point. And these energy advances are charged with interest, which is why Zoquetes claims more victims than some races with special category ports. Silvia Trigueros knows it, the first elite to trust the idea, who won the Dumb of the Year at the presentation, in that cinema typical of big cities, the Hollywood of Bajo Aragón, proud of its hills.
