Camino de Santiago - finished!

Just to let everyone know that I reached Santiago de Compostela, or more accurately the cathedral at about 09:30 yesterday morning. 

Since then I have been pottering around, simply enjoying the energy of the place and the massive sense of positivity that is ever present. Much time for reflection. 

And I've been eating 'some' ice cream!!

In bare figures, it took me just over 12 days to travel just under 800km (500 miles). I covered between 54-72km/day, averaging around 63km/day. Including sight seeing, chatting and food rests, I was out for 8.5-12 hours daily. 

However, this was never about time, distance or numbers. Yes, of course it was a big physical challenge, but that was not the primary reason for doing the Camino de Santiago. It is a pilgrimage and it has been has been a pilgrimage for me. I have had many, many very special experiences, encounters, and conversations.  Many moments of sheer wonder. It has been a remarkable experience - one that I will cherish for the rest of my life.  

Now I am looking forward to getting home tomorrow.  

I will fill in the gaps in my daily updates on my return and will upload photos. When I've got myself suitably recovered, I will put some thoughts and conclusions together. 

Thanks to everyone who has followed my adventure and sent encouragement - always greatly appreciated. 

Camino de Santiago Monday 25th May: Day 13

A Rua – Santiago de Compostela

21km, total time on the way 3:30

Woke in a pool of sweat. Body is really breaking down and all the waste products are fighting to get out. Left at 06:00 chomping my standard breakfast on the go. My calf wasn’t quite as sore as yesterday morning and I was able to walk  properly quite quickly. It was also a lot warmer than yesterday morning.

Start thinking about my journey. The start in St Jean Pied de Port seems so long ago but also seems only like yesterday. What an amazing adventure. More than I ever expected, more than I could have ever hoped for

The kilometers roll by. At the 10km marker I begin to feel excited, and start singing to myself like a little boy. But the next few kilometers seem to pass so slowly and my calf is stiffening up.

Through the outskirts of Santiago and into the old part of the city. I arrive at what I think is the entrance to the cathedral….but it’s actually the back. Round 2 more corners to the main entrance. All but the top of one tower is under wraps for renovation, and the classic entrance is closed.

Finally find the entrance on the 4^th and final side.

 

It’s all a bit underwhelming. 

There’s lots of noise, too many people. More than ever, I truly comprehend that it’s the journey that is so important. The sights, the people, those moments of utter bliss and understanding. The birdsong.

I go into the cathedral but I’m told to leave as I’ve got my rucksack on!

Deposited my rucksack at left luggage (for 2€) and decided to get my compostela. There’s a long queue despite the relatively early hour. Some are excited, some quiet and lost in their own thoughts. Meet Nilton from Brazil again.

I ask nicely and smile sweetly, and get my compostela dated on my birthday.

Next challenge…find a hotel. Parador is very expensive. Everywhere else seems to be booked up. One lady say “Oh yes. I have a lovely room for you. Internet, living room, bathroom, kitchen” It’s a really grotty room with all facilities shared. I leave.

I come up with a cunning plan. I’ll walk a further 10km towards Finisterre where there is a recommended albergue. Grabbing some lunch, I set off with my newly purchased guide. After 2-3km, my calves are intolerably painful. I turn round, walk back to Santiago and book into the Parador!!

At last I started to relax a little and very nearly fell asleep in the bath.

I wandered around Santiago a bit more, had an ice cream, and met 3 other people that I met on my journey. What are the odds of that?

Had a walk around the cathedral which was much quieter now. Peaceful and moving. Visited the tomb of the apostle St James. There is a real sense of reverence and something feels very special. Find prayers being held in English just as they are finishing. Lovely chat with a very Irish priest – Father Joe. In my diary for tomorrow.

Nice seafood dinner, followed by another ice cream and some chocolate. Saw Nilton again.

Missing home/Jenny a lot this evening. Decide to move my flight forward from Friday to Wednesday. Will be home for my birthday.

Tomorrow will be a chance to take time and get my thoughts together. Camino Companions at 9, Pilgrim Mass at 12, prayers at 6. Plenty of time to reflect.

The journey is over for now and it was the journey that was so special, so meaningful.

Camino de Santiago Sunday 24th May: Day 12

Ventas – A Rua

58.6km, total time on the way 11:15hrs

If yesterday was tough, then today was…well, tougher.

Rubbish sleep. Really restless and sweaty, and aware of my calf stiffening up all night. Had half planned to get going at 5am but quite honestly couldn’t be bothered and also, in my heart of hearts, I knew that 80km just wasn’t going to happen.

After massive taping of feet, I left at 06:00, eating an omelette bocadillos as I went.

From the outset, my left calf/soleus was incredibly painful and I was barely able to walk. I was close to tears. I couldn’t see how I could possibly get to Santiago and I just wanted to sit down.

There were none of the usual Camino waymarks for a bit and I passed through a village not on the map. I became increasingly concerned that I’d gone the wrong way – and, with the pain no better, I was beginning to panic. I dropped a glove – retrieval was a further black spot.

Reassuringly, I reached Ligonde, which was on the map. I stopped for a coffee and some toast. I was so hungry and so very tired. I was finding it really hard to get warm – I had 5 layers on my upper body and for the first time on the entire Camino, I had put on my running tights. Really miserable. I prayed for strength.

After 1.5 hours, my calf finally began to loosen and I could at least walk properly now. I even managed a mini-jog. “I will reach Santiago de Compostela. I will complete my pilgrimage”.

I reached Palais de Rei. Lots of pilgrims were starting their day here. I visited the church and cried…a lot. Today was going to be an emotional day.

Started chatting to anybody and everybody. Couple from Uraguay – a new country on my Camino list of nations. Realised 3 hours had passed now…relentless forward motion.

Entertaining chat with 2 Irish guys. The Irish are always a good laugh. They christened me “The Camino King of Lincoln Green” but pointed out that “Queen” would have fitted better!!

One can often tell someone’s nationality from a few murmurs before you can actually hear the words.

Passed a Mum pushing her toddler, who high-5’d me, in a buggy. They had started in Portomarin. Definitely the youngest pilgrim I had met on my travels.

Realised that I seemed to be having so many meetings and occurrences this morning, all of which were serving to lift my spirit. My strength was returning as was my positivity. I began to ooze positivity once more.

Met a Californian couple, who were raising awareness for Dewy’s dementia – their father had died from this last year.

“You’re nearly under the world record”

This was never about time or distance.

Through Melide, I started feeling rough again…just so tired. Decided to book somewhere just short of Pedrouzo, which would leave me 20km to do in the morning.

Passing through Ribadizo and Arzua, I was digging really deep. “It hurts so much. I’m just so tired”

Stopped for emergency food. Ice cream, pastry, chocolate, sweets and 2 cans of coke. The 5 main food groups!

I marched relentlessly on, and the kilometres slowly passed by. It felt so frustrating as today’s route was so runnable but my legs just wouldn’t allow it.

Eventually, I reached A Rua, where I had a room…with a bath!!! I had a very long cold bath followed by an even longer hot bath.

After dinner I felt very nauseous. Probably a combination of pain, exhaustion, dehydration and sunstroke…and anything else going.

Today was one of the hardest days in my ultrarunning/endurance memory, both physically and mentally. I probably managed to jog less than 2km – the rest was a forced march. But I asked for strength and I found it.

I fell asleep thinking of Santiago de Compostela. I will be both happy and sad to be finish.

Phrase of the day:
Relentless forward motion

Comment of the day:
Anything that stopped me thinking the pain!

Camino de Santiago - update after 11 days

So, 11 days on the Camino now. Another 64km/40miles or so today. Body/legs feeling it now - very sore and stiff calves, painful feet, nice blister on heel and another involving the whole of a toe!!!

Within striking distance of Santiago now. I've covered the best part of 700km in 11 days - just under 80km/50miles to go. Might have a crack at that tomorrow but given how my calves felt today, I'm not so sure that I can manage that kind of distance after 11 consecutive days covering between 55-72km daily. Plan to get up early and just see how it goes.

Truly an inspirational experience but painful now!!

Lakes 10 Peaks Xtreme

Last year’s Lakes 10 Peaks was tough, very tough; a 73km route with 5600m of ascent. So when the Xtreme course was announced my immediate thought was “Why not?!”

“The Xtreme course takes things to another level! This 100km circular route, starting and finishing in Keswick takes in all of the 10 highest peaks as well as another 10 compulsory peaks including Blencathra, Clough Head, Raise, Fairfield, Seat Sandal, High Raise, Red Pike, Kirk Fell, Dale Head and Maiden Moor. This is a natural extension to the Long Course which follows a similar, but not identical, route to that of the Bob Graham Round. The tough terrain combined with nearly 8000m of ascent make this one of the hardest non-stop ultra distance races on the calendar”.

Sounded fair enough!

So let me simply state that if the “normal” 10 Peaks course is tough, then this is brutally tough but also so totally enjoyable!

The simple facts are that I finished joint 4^th (joint 3^rd male) in 21:25. Apart from smashing into the wall half way up Skiddaw (not to be recommended), I barely had a bad spell all day.

This was a bit of an on/off race for me. With a gap of only 4 weeks to the Lakeland 100, I was in 2 minds as the whether it was sensible to invest not only the physical effort but, more importantly for me, the mental effort into another tough event. My rather pathetic attempt at the Hardmoors 160 really made me realize that although my body may recover quickly, it takes far longer to recover mentally from these big events – from the mental preparation before the event and the mental effort during the event.

Family illness a couple of weeks prior to the race and the fact that it was Jade’s birthday the day before tipped the balance so I withdrew. Then a window of opportunity presented itself, and I reinstated myself on the Wednesday before the race!

I decided that the best way to circumnavigate the use of mental energy prior to the race was to not really think about it! So I went for the no taper approach. This seems to have worked previously in the Frostbite 30 (Dec 12) and this year’s Hardmoors 55. So having run just over 50 miles on Monday – Wednesday, I hadn’t spent all week with ever increasing taperitis! With Jade’s birthday dinner on the Friday evening, there wouldn’t be much time to psych myself up either.

I left Lincoln just after 10pm, arriving at Keswick shortly after 1am. I then curled up on the passenger seat expecting to wake up at around 02:30. Next thing I know is that the clock says 02:53. Race start 04:00. Oh well, no stress allowed today! I made and ate my porridge, went into the football club announced myself present, registered and changed. Quick hello’s with Andrew Hayes, Jon Steele, Annie Garcia and anyone else who was listening, and suddenly it was 03:55. Decided I’d better focus a little…….well, at least put my rucksack on!

And then we were off on the approach to Blencathra. Up Blease Fell, I was in a lead bunch of 8 or so runners as we peaked in poor visibility. Down Hall’s Fell Ridge, and out of the cloud, I watched in vain as several of the mountain goats sped off into the distance as I picked my way down – this was really demoralizing.

Down though Threlkeld and over the A66, I worked hard up Clough Head and recaught the lead bunch. Around the Dodd’s in clag, and approaching Raise, the call of nature called somewhat urgently and that was the last I saw of the first 3 runners.

I peaked Helvellyn with Bill Williamson whom I subsequently spent most of the day with. I lost some time going down to Grizedale Tarn but reached the top of Fairfield just behind Bill. This was to prove the pattern for the day with Bill pulling ahead on the downs and then me catching up on the ups.

Up and over Seat Sandal, my first new Wainwright of the day, we raced down to CP2 at Thirlmere. Then it was the long, boggy climb up to Greenup Edge and High Raise. We took the Bob Graham route up Bowfell, with me going a little off piste. Once on top, the clag had lifted and we started to pick off some of the long course competitors. Over Esk Pike to CP3 at Esk Hause where there was a food shortage.  Then up to the Scafell plateau, rapidly dibbing at Great End, Ill Crag and Broad Crag and then Scafell Pike itself.

I was feeling remarkably strong and full of running. Working hard up the ascents and then running nicely where possible.

Going up Lord’s rake to Scafell, Bill developed bad cramp. I waited for a minute but then pushed ahead. Not the greatest place to get cramp. Before exiting the ‘Rake’ my phone rang – I decided it was not the best place to take a call!

As I reached the summit plateau, there was Bill just ahead of me. He had taken a sneaky direct route - as though Lord’s Rake isn’t steep enough!

Down towards Wasdale there were a few darker clouds gathering and some moderate drizzle started. My prayers were answered and it soon dried up. After some excellent scree skiing, we reached Wasdale CP. The main excitement on arriving at any CP now was the thrill of not knowing what flavour of Clif Bar there would be on offer!!

After the nasty climb of Dorehead Screes, it was up to Red Pike and my 2^nd (and final) new Wainwright of the day. I was feeling good still and pushing harder on the climbs. Then it was swiftly round to Pillar. The run down from Pillar to Black Sail Pass was frenetic – I think Bill was making a final effort to shake me off on my weaker downhills.

Up and over Kirk Fell to CP 5 at Beck Head where there was water rationing in force. Great Gable was surprisingly quickly summited. It was a great to get here feeling so good. Then it was the pleasant run down to Honister YH, and CP 6. I passed on the hot food and had a Mars Bar and probably a Clif Bar!

Skiddaw awaits... 

Dale Head and Maiden Head were soon ticked off, and we circumnavigated the summit if Cat Bells before heading onto Keswick. We ran well to CP 8 at Nichol End Marine, passing several Long Course runners. Still feeling pretty good, I had a mini-feast of Soreen and mini-Snickers. Probably a Clif Bar too!

On the way towards Keswick, Bill and I decided that it would be reasonable to finish together – we’d be running together since just before CP2. Shortly after, Bill hit a low patch, forcing us to walk for a while. Fortunately he seemed to eat his way out of it.

At the foot of Skiddaw, I was feeling pretty good but very much looking forward to finishing! A few minutes later the wheels fell off. I started to feel really nauseous and then I could feel the energy literally draining out of me. I really didn’t feel I could stomach any food, but given that I was virtually at a standstill and getting cold, I chewed on a few Clif Shots which helped a little. We stopped to put on head torches and windproofs. I braved a gel and by the time we reached Carlside Tarn I was feeling significantly better, and able to eat a little solid food.

By now, the wind had picked up significantly and the temperature had plummeted. On the Skiddaw summit plateau it felt bitterly cold, and my only though was to get down as quickly as possible.

Soon, we were running down into Keswick and the long-awaited finish at the football club.

Apart from smashing into the wall on the way up Skiddaw, I had felt really good the whole day. In particular, I felt really strong on the climbs. I’m not sure what happened going up Skiddaw as I’d been eating and drinking well all day – just one of those things, I guess. It does throw the whole business of the taper into turmoil. Having already run 50 miles in the week, I had no right or expectation for the race to go quite so well. Perhaps I was just lucky!? Either way, I was very happy with the day out, and it has left me feeling really confident about the Lakeland 100.

It was great to run with Bill. His knowledge of the 'good lines' was a real learning lesson as was the simple 'run on the grass' message

The Lakes 10 Peaks races are amongst my very favourites. A truly tough test in simply superb surroundings. If you like tough, if you like brutally tough, then you can’t do much better than this.

Thanks to Mark and Paul for putting on such great races, and to all the volunteers, often in remote places.

So next year……Lakes 10 Peaks Mega-Xtreme?

The route!

Not the Hardmoors 160

Well, that didn’t go quite as planned!

The grim facts. First person to pullout from the race, after 30 miles at CP3 (Cropton). A fully conscious decision, and one that I was happy with at the time and still just about am!

It just wasn’t happening.

I felt my preparation had been good. I done a couple of long recce’s since the Viking Way and my legs seemed to have recovered OK, apart from some residual calf tenderness. Mentally, I was looking forward to the event but was aware that the excitement, the build-up, wasn’t quite there.

I packed all my gear on Thursday, putting a lot of thought into what I would need at each particular stop. Jenny would be supporting me through to late Saturday evening, and I knew that Tony Holland & Archie Stewart would be around on Sunday.

We arrived at the start at Scalby Mills in good time, and I was beginning to get that ‘buzz’. It was good to see some the usual suspects - Annie Garcia, Allan Rumbles and Ben Davis amongst others. Andrew Hayes, Tony Holland had come to support the start which was great.

Soon we were off. Initially things went well. Eventual winner, Lee Knight, Shelli Gordon, and Neil Ridsdale shot off, leaving the rest of us in their wake.

As usually happens, my legs started to feel a bit lethargy and achy after 90 minutes or so. This generally eases by 3 hours as I get into the race. However, this seemed a bit different, almost crampy. Instead of getting better, my legs just got tighter and tighter, but I was still moving along nicely. I was running with Matt who had ‘rescued’ me on the Spine this year. Apparently I had been walking around in circles; I didn’t think I’d been that bad!

I acquired my head torch from Jenny at CP2 (Levisham)

Then it began to rain. As we stopped to put on waterproof tops, it started to rain a lot. Waterproof trousers were donned. In torrential rain, conversation stopped. My legs seemed to hurt more.

We got to Cropton and that was that.

So what happened?

From a physical point of view, I’d done a couple of good long runs and had also done a couple of really nice shorter, tempo runs since the Viking Way. My legs had felt really stiff and sore for 2-3 days prior to the start but I had put that down to taperitis. Just one of those things or fallout from the Viking Way? Not sure really but probably cumulative damage.

Mentally, I didn’t feel the same as I had before the Viking Way. Once the rain started, my will disintegrated. Ultimately the want, the desire just wasn’t there.

Bottom line is that 5 weeks isn’t enough time to recover from a 147 mile run. Now there’s a surprise. Physically, perhaps, if you’re lucky, but mentally it’s just not enough time to get yourself up again. Not enough time to regain the drive and the desire required for something of this magnitude.

I’m not beating myself up after this one. Yes, I’m disappointed but it just wasn't going to happen. Any Jon Steele said he’d hit me if I got all depressed about it!

So, lesson learnt.

Probably not.