Way of Legends - Day Six

So I've made it to the last day and my story is nearly over. however I have neglected to mention some very important people, both groups of women. Firstly I've not really said anything about the leaders in the women's category. This is not because I don't care or I think they are less important, I've been beaten many times by women and I have the utmost respect for female ultra runners - I have to, my wife is one. The only story I can tell in my blogs is mine, it's never the most interesting or exciting one but it's the only one I feel qualified to tell. In this particular race the first women were very close behind me so I didn't see first hand how the race unfolded each day. In fact it wasn't too dissimilar to the men's race. Christina Khinast dominated the women's category from start to finish, and Lori Ligouri was second throughout, generally, I have to say, a slightly more comfortable second than I ever managed throughout the race. This was even more impressive as it was her first ever multi-day ultra! Third place swapped from Darshana to Sharon to finally Carmen Lambert. Carmen ran the entire race with her husband Martin. In my experience it is very unusual to find a couple that can run together and perform so well but they certainly did.

The second group of women I have neglected to mention are possibly the most important people involved in the race - Maria and her amazing team, Nuria the chef with her assistants Iciar and Emi. I will be amazed if I ever run a race which is better catered than the Way of Legends. Simply amazing food including the best guacamole ever and of course this is the only race I have ever entered with an official race wine. The best bit about running 50 kilometres a day as far as I was concerned was that I could eat as much of the delicious food as I wanted each day with no real worry about putting on weight. I should also give a mention to the unofficial (I think) third kitchen assistant. Stan Lee has done all three editions of the Way of Legends and is now so much part of the event he was usually to be found helping out in the kitchen each evening or doing the washing up.

The Dream Team (Photo Credit: Sam Guo)

Maria was pretty much responsible for everything to do with how we were looked after and to be honest I have no idea how she could do so much and still be always smiling - I'm fairly sure she covered more distance each day than we did. She would greet me with a smile at the end of every stage. If we had a room she would direct me to it and my bag would already be there, when we were in dormitories she even carried my bag upstairs for me! I wanted a massage? No problem, she would put my name on the list and come and find me when it was my turn. WiFi password? Maria sorted it. Basically whatever I needed or wanted at the end of the day, Maria would have it sorted and if it wasn't it would be within minutes.

Today was the last stage of what had been an amazing adventure. I had done better than I could ever have expected or even hoped but much more importantly I had had a fantastic week with a wonderful bunch of people.

At he start of the last day (Photo Credit: Sam Guo)

The last day really was quite straightforward so we could enjoy the last day and have fun. It was still a timed stage but Jean and myself had kind of agreed the night before that rather than race to the finish and arrive within a minute or two of each other hot, sweaty and not having been able to enjoy the last stage, we would just run at a steady pace and have fun.

Sam on the other hand fancied a couple more bottles of wine and so after yesterday no one was surprised when he took off like Mo Farah running for the last bus home. I wasn't intending to run particularly quickly but I think Day Five had conditioned me to try and follow Warny. Fourth and fifth were very, very close between Tristan and Warny so they were still racing. After a while I stopped worrying that I would get lost - the course was very well marked and once we reached the river the route was basically keep the water on your right until you see a cathedral - and I allowed myself to slow down and let Warny out of my sight.

The run through Burgos was made more special by the support from locals out running and the local school children. Soon I could see the cathedral and decided a selfie would be in order with the cathedral in the background. Unfortunately the sun completely washed out the cathedral and so the picture is just me, hence I've not included it. At this point Pit caught me up which seemed kind of appropriate as we had been together at the end of the first day too. He stopped for some better photos than I managed and I continued until I was directed to turn away from the river and up onto the bridge to the cathedral. The finish was slightly amusing in that I had to politely weave my way through a group of school children on a trip to see the cathedral as I crossed the bridge. Then I could see the finish banner and the end of the 2018 Way of Legends.

Even I can't get lost from here

I'd done it! Second place in the 2018 Way of Legends! It was terribly dusty at the finish and some grit got into my eyes - that's my story and I'm sticking to it, emotion had nothing to do with it...

Sharon finished not long after me and we went to a little shop, she had an ice cream and I had beer, a slightly understated celebration but the big party would be later...

We did it!

Not only did Sam take a second stage record, Lori also set a new women's record! Not a bad result for her first multi-day, second woman and Stage Six course record holder. We all waited for everyone to finish in glorious sunshine. Hugues Jacquemin was last to finish, he was suffering terribly with blisters and Achilles problems but still managed to be smiling as he crossed the finish line.

Once we had all finished and taken photos we were directed to our hotel. check-in was very quick and Sharon and me found our bags and went to the room to do showering and changing type things. Those done we could get on with the important stuff, like wine and tapas.

We found a nice place opposite the cathedral. It was probably twice as expensive as it was opposite the cathedral but it's tapas menu included black pudding so I didn't care. We also accidentally ordered a bottle of wine so we passed some time eating, drinking and watching people take photos of themselves sat with a statue on a bench. I suspect the photos were slightly spoilt by the fact that someone had chained their bike to the bench but no one seemed to mind.

A bit battered but very happy to have finished

As there was still some time to kill before the wine tasting, meal and presentations in the evening we may have stopped off at another bar on the way back. When we decided to go back we passed another bar outside which were sat a large number of our fellow runners and volunteers. We decided it would be rude not to stop and talk, which made us thirsty so we had to get a drink. Then it was time to go - except that Jean bought us another drink. It is now about 7:45 pm and the meal starts at eight. The hotel is five minutes away which all sort of adds up apart from this glass of wine in front of me...

Anyway fortunately everything was now on 'Spanish time' which is like normal time except a bit more relaxed and so when we stepped out of the lift changed and ready to go everyone else was still in the hotel foyer and nothing had really happened. Shortly after we were all directed to the dining room where we all split into groups around large tables. We were on a table with a largely British flavour. Joey was there looking even more happy than usual as she had finished, Vivien provided entertainment with her unique take on eating bread rolls and we had Sharon's saviour on the mountain stage, Annie. Annie had helped Sharon when she fell over and given the amount of wine we had already consumed that looked quite likely to happen again. However when the owner of the vineyard that has supplied the wine you've been drinking all week brings some of his best wines for you to taste and to tell you about it would be rude not to try them. We also had Hugues and Gary on our table. Sharon had spent the entire week unable to tell one from the other to the extent that Hugues had started introducing himself to her as 'Not Gary'.

Do these two look alike?

David Sebastian (the viniculturalist) doesn't speak English so Manu was again translating. At least, unlike the Druids at the start, David spoke Spanish and not ancient Iberian so Manu didn't have to resort to Google Translate.

After translating Druids a wine producer was easy

After the wine came food (and wine) and then the bit we were all waiting for, the presentations. Firstly Manu thanked all the volunteers and reminded us what they had been doing for us all week which allowed us to acknowledge their efforts and show our appreciation with much applause.

Then it was our turn, everyone was called up individually to collect medals and t-shirts. Sam also collected quite a lot of wine as he and Lori had three course records between them. The medal presented to all the finishers wasn't so much a medal as a piece of art crafted by Oscar Martin, the artist previously mentioned performing the cleansing ceremony at the end of Day Four. not only had Oscar made all the medals and provided certificates of authenticity, he presented them all too.

Sharon getting her medal

Then it was my turn. As I'd finished on the podium I got a shield and two bottles on reserva wine in addition to the important medal and t-shirt. I was going to include a picture of my presentation but I look way too smug so here's a picture of the shield and medal instead:

The most unique medal and trophy I've ever been presented with

I was actually quite pleased I'd only come second as Rodrigo had to make a speech, I got a very cool trophy without having to say anything - and two bottles of wine, and a t-shirt.

After the presentations and meal were over we went to a club in Burgos to continue the celebrations. We left early at 3 am and returned to the hotel. The next day we said our goodbyes and all went our separate ways.

So what are my thoughts on the Way of Legends? Well the race isn't so much a legend as a masterpiece. Manu put together the strongest team of people you could want to help him stage the race and it went flawlessly (apart from when he nearly ran us over). It is a very tough race, four days of full-on ultras including one over a mountain and a fifth day still just over a marathon is a big challenge. Even the last day was timed and had to be completed to get the all important medal. However the food, the massages and the accommodation meant that this didn't feel like a race that was out to break people. Manu wants everyone to finish, this is not billed as 'the toughest race in the galaxy' or anything stupid like that, it's more billed as a gastronomic tour through Spain, which I like because it meant I got to spend my time running with incredibly nice people and not people just trying to prove they were tougher than the race. It will test you, it's not at all easy and it's not meant to be but I would recommend it to anyone absolutely without reservation, the scenery is breathtaking and the hospitality is even better.

I had a good run, I saw some great stuff and ate some amazing food but far more importantly to me I got to spend a week with some amazing people. I don't want to name them all but each and everyone of them made my race better in some way. I will just comment on the two people that joined me on the podium. Rodrigo, I met you in Bhutan, I thought you were a great guy with a fantastic beard. I now know that is also quite possibly the fastest beard in Spain. It was fun to try and keep up with you, you are a very deserving winner of the race, congratulations. Jean, you made me work so hard for my place, I suspect you could have pushed me even harder if you had wanted but you made me work sufficiently hard that I feel I earned my shield, thank you.

I will leave you with two pictures. The first one has me in it but apart from that it's pretty good. You will notice it is not necessary for me to run through the water, there is a perfectly good bridge. Even worse I was half way over the bridge when I saw the photographer and turned round to run through the water instead. Manu did ask what I thought I was doing, I'm not sure my answer of 'There's a photographer' did anything to make him view me as less of an idiot...

Stop posing and use the bridge like everyone else...

The last picture though has to be the people I was with, the race was great but this is what made it special - Legends, every one of you.

The Legends 2018

The Way of Legends - Day Five

Day Five looked to be the second easiest of the race. The easiest would undeniably be Day Six - although I thought the last day of the Last Secret in Bhutan would be the easiest and it mostly scared me to death. Day Five was 'only' around marathon distance and overall downhill. As always there was a legend, this one most of us had heard of, mainly due to the Charlton Heston film, El Cid.  Manu was expecting some fast times, the course record was three hours thirty minutes and he was hoping to give away a couple of bottles of wine for a new record. Sharon was feeling OK after the trials of Day Four and was determined to finish and get her medal. I was feeling OK but wasn't expecting to set any records, just hoping to do enough to go into the last day still in second place.

As before there were two starts, this was to assume a particular significance today but the leaders in the general classification all started together and ran in a fairly tight group to begin with. Today's route had another section of disused railway line early on but unlike the section on Day Three this ran through some woods and was quite scenic. The race started a little like the Tour De France. We had a 'pelaton' from which various breakaways (mostly me if I'm honest) tried to get away only to fall back into the bunch. Eventually Warny managed to break away and I set off after him. Although he was quite a few minutes behind me in the overall race I knew today could be very good for him and felt compelled to to and stick with him for as long as I could. We completed 5 kilometres in under an hour and kept the same pace up for the next five. I decided to try and stick with him to the first checkpoint. By now I had a reasonably good idea of everyone's strengths and weaknesses. Basically I wasn't the best runner in the race on any of the terrain we encountered but I was OK at most of it. Warny was very good on the flat fast bits and so I knew he was likely to beat me today.

Straight down the line

Sure enough by Checkpoint One my attempt to 'hang on' was tenuous to say the least, shortly after it was over as Warny disappeared up the track and away. The only good news from my point of view was that I couldn't see anyone behind me either. As I hadn't really stopped at the checkpoint I took a short walking break to have a drink and regroup after my exertions. We had been told in the race briefing that the approach to the second checkpoint would be slightly strange. Manu was very keen that each of the first 5 stages should be at least marathon distance and so the course passed within 200 metres of the checkpoint and then dived off to the village of Arlanzon before returning to the CP to add a couple of kilometres to the stage distance. It was in Arlanzon that I passed Dietmar. Fortunately I passed him slowly enough that I wasn't too far away when he called me back as I was about to miss the turn which would take me back to the checkpoint...

A bit battered but enjoying the race!

Checkpoint Two was manned by Ed, the reason I had gone to Bhutan and hence the reason I was in this race. He cheerfully told me that Sam had gone through an hour before me! This caused me some panic as I had no idea how far behind me in the overall classification Sam was. I spent the next few kilometres mulling this news over and trying to work out what was going on. Sam had always started on the earlier start and today couldn't have been any exception. I'm not the most observant person in the world - my navigational errors proved that - but I would have noticed if he'd raced off from the 8 'o' clock start. This meant he was 'only' half an hour ahead of me in race time. I also remembered overtaking him on previous days (twice on Day Two due to the 'mud incident') so I was fairly sure he was over an hour behind me in the overall scheme of things. I've no real idea why I think so much about time and position on races. I don't run tactically, generally I'm doing the best I can and so I can't 'respond' if someone passes me or is just outrunning me. However it gives me something to think about and the ensuing mental arithmetic passes the time. By now was running on a big wide track and the day was starting to warm up so maybe something else to think about was a good thing.

More great scenery - very important to look up occasionally!

Shortly after (or possibly before, I don't remember exactly) Checkpoint Three the inevitable happened and Jean caught me up. Today we didn't agree to run together but kept swapping position as the terrain favoured one or the other of us. Close to the end of the stage we hit a wide flat farm road and I sped up, mainly because I wanted to get to the finish and out of the sun. The end wasn't entirely straightforward as the very last section became quite narrow and steep before ending in some steps down to the car park of the monastery we were staying in, so despite my 'sprint' along the track Jean still finished less than a minute behind me. I was third overall behind Warny and of course Sam.

At the finish! (Photo Credit: Sam Guo)

Most importantly Manu had a new course record! Sam had smashed it in 3 hours, 20 minutes and 5 seconds! Sam hadn't been quite at the peak of fitness at the start of the race and so had held back quite a bit. However he is a very fast marathon runner and had chosen Day Five to show exactly what he was capable of. I had managed a fairly sedate 4 hours 33 minutes but overall the day had gone well for me and I was still second overall.

San Pedro de  Cardeña (Photo Credit: Sam Guo)

The medal for the Way of Legends is very different to any other medal I have ever been given for a race. It is actually a piece of silver jewellery designed and made by a local artist, Oscar Martin. Oscar is a deeply spiritual person and was in the woods near the monastery where he was offering to perform a cleansing ceremony for any of the runners that wanted it. Usually he did it on an individual basis but he allowed Sharon and me to go together. I'm not going to describe what happened as it would probably just sound strange and anyway it was something personal between us and Oscar. All I will say is that it was very touching and I'm very glad we had the opportunity to participate in it.

It was quite a spiritual time in the monastery too as later we went to evensong with the monks. There are only twelve of them and some looked quite old so I was pleased to see that there were a couple of younger chaps (one of whom appeared to have been locked up in the back of the church) at evensong that appeared to be training to join the order.

The atmosphere that evening wasn't quite one of celebration but there was a noticeably more relaxed feeling among the group. Tomorrow was a short 13 kilometre trot down to the river and then along the river to the cathedral and the finish. We were even getting a lie-in as the stage wouldn't start until 10 'o' clock, one start with many of the volunteers also running with us. Tomorrow we would become Legends!

The Way of Legends - Day Four

The first three stages of the Way of Legends were hard, all significantly longer than a marathon with plenty of climb. however I had always thought that Day four would be the real test, 52.5 kilometres with almost 2000 metres of upness. We would go over the summit of the highest mountain in the area, San Millan, 2130.7 metres high according to the map. San Millan is the highest peak in the range and named after a legendary hermit, Saint Millan, the subject of the legend of this stage.

I do a lot of ultras that undulate and of course I did the Last Secret Ultra in Bhutan in 2017 but generally I'm not terribly good at mountains. The first 27.5 kilometres to the second checkpoint climbed very gradually before the mountain ascent started shortly after the checkpoint. I decided my best chance was to try and gain some time on that section and hope it would be enough to keep me in contention as the race went over the mountain. After yesterday's close finish Rodrigo would be starting at 8 'o' clock with the other runners in the top half of the classification. This was good for me as it would mean I would have someone to try and chase in my quest to build a lead.

Part of our route would be along the Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage route leading to the shrine of the apostle Saint James the Great in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northwestern Spain, where tradition has it that the remains of the saint are buried. We were warned we would be running in the opposite direction to the pilgrims and to expect a large number of people on the route. We set off at 8 'o' clock, Rodrigo went of in the lead and I quickly tucked in behind him. We stayed together onto the pilgrimage route where I was quite surprised to find that Manu wasn't exaggerating, there were a lot of pilgrims!

The trail turned onto a road and we started to pass some of the earlier starters including the ever smiling Joey Sharma. Joey was someone I knew from XNRG events in the UK and she was at Bhutan. Unfortunately she was quite ill in Bhutan and didn't have the best of races so I was delighted that she was fit and appeared to be really enjoying the Way of Legends. She was always cheerful whenever I saw her and never failed to lift my spirits when I passed her.

Further along the road we hit a slight upward incline and Rodrigo decided to walk. I thought about running ahead but decided he was probably right and so I slowed to a walk too. This did not impress Manu when he caught us up in his car. 'This is supposed to be a running race!' was the message we were given - loudly. The road levelled out anyway so we did as suggested and resumed running.

In order to make the race as safe as possible, every major road crossing was either at a checkpoint or a control. The marshals ensured that we always crossed safely. Checkpoint One was one such point, after a brief pause for water I was whisked across the road and continued along the trail. Rodrigo was starting to pull ahead of me but as far as I could tell I was well ahead of whoever was third.

I arrived at Checkpoint Two expecting Rodrigo to be well ahead of me. However he had stopped for a sandwich, a drink of water and possibly to read a good a book. He still left the checkpoint ahead of me. I could still see him as we crossed over to the start of the climb. Not far into the climb the path became quite wide and I could see a fair distance ahead of me. What was concerning me though was more what I couldn't see. I couldn't see Rodrigo, he is quick but I was fairly sure he couldn't have gotten further ahead of me than I could see. This brought me to the second thing I couldn't see - course markings. Fortunately I had only gone wrong by a couple of hundred metres and soon found the turn of the trail I had missed. I was marked but I missed it, apparently I wasn't the only one but it further illustrated that, particularly on wide trails, it was very important to keep looking for the markings.

My detour meant I had lost sight of Rodrigo, in fact I had lost sight of everyone. I could still see course markers so I was confident I was on the right route, I had some sort of lead over third place but how much? No point worrying about that, all I could do was keep pushing on. After some very pretty forested sections the path came to a clearing and crossed a small road. It went back into the forest for a while before turning onto a wide trail which I assumed was a firebreak road.

No one that way...

...no one that way...

...just me then

At around 35 kilometres in the route turned onto a road. this was kind of OK for me as whilst it was up it wasn't at all technical. I had my walking poles and was managing to keep up a pace of around 3 miles an hour. I was using a combination of metric and imperial measurements on this race, I had my watch set to measure distance in kilometres as that was the units used in the road book and so it avoided too much mental arithmetic, however I have always measured my pace in minutes per mile so I continued with imperial units for pace. This seems as good a time as any to mention the road book. We had been given a small booklet with the profile and location of the checkpoints for each day but a far more genius idea was the fact that the entire route profile and every control and checkpoint location was printed on the bottom edge of our race numbers. An even more genius idea was the fact it was upside down so when you looked down at it, it was the right way up!

Up there somewhere is where I'm going I guess

The road gave way to a wide track and I could see the checkpoint. As I was half way up what looked like the penultimate switchback I could see something else behind me - Jean. I thought I had made fairly reasonable progress on the uphill but as I expected Jean was stronger. He caught me up and we entered the third and final checkpoint at Trigaza, the peak at the end of a ridge to San Millan, together. I stopped to fill my bottles and so I left for the tricky ridge section around 75 metres behind Jean. On the technical downhill sections the gap increased but on the smoother sections I managed to close in. We raced along the ridge with little between us. I wanted to take a picture at the peak but I knew Jean didn't take pictures. Did I forego my selfie or did I lose valuable time? The question was answered for me when a random stranger asked Jean to take his picture. Jean, ever the gentleman (and also because he initially thought the stranger was a course marshal) obliged. Rather than take advantage I took the opportunity to get my picture too.

At the highest point - you'd think I'd look more happy about it...

We resumed racing, I was chasing  Jean down the mountainside until I was right behind him. At this point I decided my best course of action would be to stay there and just try and finish alongside him. As a result I was delighted when he suggested we should stop trying to kill each other and finish together. It wasn't a suggestion I felt I could have made as I obviously had the most to gain in the overall classification but given we had run around 50 kilometres and nothing separated us, this was a good call. The final section to the village of Pineda de la Sierra where we would be staying was steep and at some points quite treacherous. By agreeing to run together we could enjoy the views and ensure that we both got down safely to resume racing the following day. One section of the path was particularly difficult as it consisted entirely of loose rocks between fist and head size, racing over that could easily have been game over for one or both of us.

We still ran fairly quickly as we wanted to ensure we did actually finish joint second and ran into the town and along the road, crossing the finish line hand in hand to make sure the timekeeper had to give us the same time.

The news on Sharon wasn't so good. She had been complaining of feeling sick the day before and apparently had spent most of the trek from CP2 to CP3 throwing up. At CP3 the amazing Doctor Laura gave her a miracle anti-emetic drug and after being held for around 30 minutes to make sure she was OK she had continued, apparently in good spirits.

I found out what time she had left the checkpoint and walked back up the road to see if I could see her coming off the mountain. There are many great things about being a Little Baddow Ridge Runner, one of them is our bright orange t-shirts, which are almost visible from space, so I thought I should be able to spot her. Sure enough saw her coming down the mountainside and walked a little further along the path to meet her. She was with Annie, another XRNG regular and all round nice person. It was fortunate she had been with someone as she didn't look quite as good as she might have. She had a split lip, cuts to her face and nose and a damaged finger. Apparently while walking with Annie Sharon had decided they should run a bit over some of the easier sections and tripped over. I took her poles and ran down the road to the finish to warn the equally amazing Doctor Helen she would have some work to do shortly.

None of the cuts were too bad but her little finger was probably broken. Fortunately it wasn't misaligned and so could simply be strapped to the ring finger. She had the lens from her broken glasses and, being an engineer and liking to fix things, while she got herself cleaned up, I managed to bend the frames back into shape and refit the lens. 

Battered, bruised but ready for the next day - and look how well those glasses have been mended

She wasn't the only faller that day, Haruki needed stitches in a particularly deep cut in his knee, as Sharon said, at least she didn't damage any running parts.

The night was spent in small dormitories, as I had arrived early I had chosen a good bunk and put all my stuff out to air on the balcony. After dinner I went to bed and totally failed to get to sleep for several hours. Four days down, two to go, the hardest stage done and I was still second overall. The next day was 'only' just over a marathon and overall downhill with no big climbs. I was starting to feel that second was mine to lose now. However it was still all very close and there was more than enough distance left to cover for me to do just that...

The Way of Legends - Day Three

After the ups and downs of the first two days, Day Three seemed to promise a little respite before the mountain challenge of Day Four. Admittedly it was the first stage with an overall elevation gain but I was hoping the slightly shorter distance (47.5km) and fewer steep climbs would suit my style of running more than the first two days had. As always there is a legend to go with the stage.

As yesterday there was a 7:30 start, an 8 'o' clock start and Rodrigo, 30 minutes later. The first part of the stage consisted of simply running back the way we had come the day before into the village of Poza de la Sal. No one seemed to really want to take it on so I found myself running at the front of the pack, until the inevitable happened...

OK, so I should have turned left at the junction, I didn't go far wrong due to the fact there were about twenty people fifty metres behind me to call me back. Well, it gave Pit the chance to get a good photo anyway...

Yours truly running back to the course... (Photo Credit: Peter Minicka)

After my unscheduled exploration of Poza de la Sol I settled into a good running rhythm and started to enjoy myself. After the initial climb from the village the track started to undulate and I was particularly enjoying the downhill sections, not too technical but enough to be interesting.

Every person running and supporting the event was interesting with great stories and none more so than Ricardo. At 76 years and 11 months he was the oldest runner in the race. I had spent some time chatting to Ricardo and found him a thoroughly entertaining and friendly sort of chap. On Day Two when I had passed him he had a few friendly words for me and Day Three was the same. After I passed him I skipped down a particularly fun (I thought) piece of downhill and arrived at the bottom to hear Ricardo calling me 'Colin, Colin'. Last time I 'skipped' downhill I completely missed a turn, had I done it again? I turned round and looked up the slope to Ricardo, who raised his hand and shouted 'Well done!' I told you he was a nice guy.

Stunning Scenery

Further on the trail I passed Caroline and Sam. Just after that I saw a large puddle. I remembered Manu mentioning in the very first race briefing that Stage Three had the only possibility of getting wet feet. Fortunately the puddle didn't cover the entire path so I ran round it... into the thick mud at the side. My foot sank a good 20 centimetres and came back up without a shoe on it. Sam and Caroline arrived to find me on my knees trying to pull my shoe out before the mud oozed over it and buried it forever. Fortunately I retrieved the shoe and used the puddle to wash the mud out of it. I'm not competitive at all but I must admit I walked up the trail, one shoe on, one shoe off, untying the laces to try and avoid losing any more time than was strictly necessary. Eventually I got the shoe back on and re-passed Caroline and Sam.

More amazing views

Today was a day of contrasts in terms of terrain. As well as the rocky trails, farm tracks and occasional swamp, there was a significant section along a disused railway route which had been surfaced with a kind of white gravel. It was easy to run on but not the most exciting section, although if you lifted your eyes from the white ribbon there were still some stunning views.

Back on the farm tracks I resisted the urge to hitch a lift on a passing tractor and continued until the tracks gave way to fields, which I found not entirely dissimilar to some of the terrain used on some of the navigational trail races I do in the UK. Back on the farm roads I passed the photographers - this will be important later.

We had been warned at the briefing that there was a major road crossing a couple of kilometres from the finish. Fortunately there was a road underneath the Autopista del Norte but I still had to cross the 'old' road, the Carretera de Madrid a Irun. Fortunately Manu had deployed his crack road crossing team there (which included his mother) and I was whisked safely across a fairly busy road quickly and safely.

As I came to the finish at Olmos de Atapuerca I knew Rodrigo had gained less than half an hour on me as he hadn't passed me and give or take 100 metres near the start I hadn't strayed from the route today.

We were staying in a group of houses and once again Sharon and me had a very nice en-suite room - this was the only one to also have a double bed, which made no difference whatsoever this far into the race.

Warny finished less than 10 minutes after me followed by Tristan and Jean just over 5 minutes later. Pit was suffering with his ITB but was still less than 10 minutes behind Jean. Rodrigo finished and we compared times, he had beaten me by less than three minutes, I was quite pleased with that.

Later Manu came to talk to me and told me I had won the stage in a time of 5 hours and 9 minutes. I questioned this as I had 5 hours and 19 minutes on my watch. Manu checked with several other competitors who all agreed with his timing within a minute. Perhaps I'd forgotten to stop my watch? I'd downloaded my pace data to my phone. If I forget to stop my watch there is usually a section of no or very slow movement at the end. There wasn't, also I was fairly sure I remembered stopping my watch as I finished. I know some would say I should have just taken the result but I can't do that, if I gained a place by less than 10 minutes knowing I'd gained 10 minutes erroneously I would never be comfortable with that and the contest between me and Jean was that tight. Sorry, I'm just like that.

To his credit Manu continued to search for evidence as to who was right, him or me. This where the photographer was crucial. The picture he took of me near the end was time stamped, the time stamp on the photo and the distance to the finish meant I couldn't have run as quickly as 5:09, it looked like an error had been made in recording my finish time. Actual finish time of day was recorded, I finished at 14:22 but the person recording the times had written 14:12, an easy mistake but one which fortunately was caught and corrected.

So three stages down and it was still incredibly tight from second to fifth. Tomorrow was the longest and hardest stage, we would go up and over the highest mountain in the area. Given Jean's strength on the climbs and technical stuff I wasn't holding out much hope of finishing tomorrow still in second place...

The Way of Legends - Day Two

The legend associated with the second stage is the Legend of Rodrigo's Treasure. After yesterdays performance next year this may be the Legend of Rodrigo's running.

Despite Manu's generous offer of breakfast from 5:30 the previous night we had decided we would 'lie-in' until 6 as we were both on the 8 'o' clock start. I woke up feeling dreadful. It was a kind of 'non-specific dreadful' in that it wasn't an obvious illness, I just didn't feel very good. I had some breakfast, sorted my kit out and went back to bed until about 10 to 8. This did the trick and I felt much better. I'm not sure why I felt so ill on waking but standing outside in the breaking dawn I felt OK. 

In order to ensure we all at least started in the right direction, Manu said he would lead us out in his car until the turn off the road. Manu said 'GO!', Tristan went and I followed him. Manu ran to his car, drove up the car park and all three of us sort of arrived at the exit at the same time... Fortunately there was more or less room for us all so Manu didn't become the first Race Director to run over two of his runners during the race and we ran up the road until we turned off onto a track which followed the river, presumably downstream as we were going downhill.

After 8 km I came to the only point where I am sure there were some course markings missing. I made several navigational errors during the event (there is an absolute doozie coming up...) but this is the only time I couldn't find any markers when I returned to my error. The path split, I took what to me was the more major path but after around 500m without markers I turned back. As I returned, Tristan, Stan, Pit and a few others caught up with me. None of us could find any markers but after checking the more minor path we found a marker about 50m down the path. This was the first (but not the last) time I heard Stan say 'This must be path, there's no other way' whilst he was on the wrong path.

Anyway we all got onto the right path and continued along the river for another 6km  until we reached the first checkpoint after which the course turned away from the river onto a steep climb out of the valley. Tristan and Pit were close behind me as we left the checkpoint. I had decided to try and defend my second place and so I pushed hard to open up a lead - not my best decision as it turned out... 

I was still going the right way at this point...

After a while the trail opened out into a big wide track which continued uphill. Then it went downhill. This was great, I looked at my watch, I was bettering 8 minute mile pace,  I was flying, I was having a great time, I was going the wrong way...

After about a kilometre pretending I was Killian Jornet I realised I hadn't seen any markers for a while. I turned round. I'd come down about 100m. For some  reason a kilometre back with 100m of climb didn't seem anywhere near as much fun...

This was a bit of a disaster in my quest for second place. I'd done 2 bonus kilometres and taken at least 10 minutes to do it, Tristan and Pit must surely be way ahead by now as I hadn't seen them on my excursion. When things like that happen I deliberately let myself be angry with myself and use the adrenaline to fuel my running. I thought if I pushed hard I might catch up by the end and could at least minimise my losses.

I overtook several of the earlier starters for a second time, one of whom was Börkur, the Icelander we had travelled to Burgos with. Every time I passed Börkur he asked if I had time to slow down for a chat. I know he was joking and it did make me smile but I also felt a little guilty as he is such a nice guy that under any other circumstance I would have been very happy to spend some time chatting to him.

To my surprise I started to catch the front runners. first I passed Jean who was in fourth place after Day One, and then caught up with Tristan and Pit. I can't remember if this was before or after the second checkpoint but by the time I reached the plateau with the wind turbines I was running in first place (give or take Rodrigo) with Jean.

We followed the markings faithfully, even when they lead us into an enclosure, round a dolmen and out again. Apparently the purpose of this was so we saw the dolmen. For those that don't know what a dolmen is (it's a tomb basically).

Dolmen De Las Arnillas (Photo Credit: Sam Guo)

After this I pulled slightly away from Jean and saw a huge plume of dust being thrown up further along the track. It turned out to be being created by a quad bike being driven at speed by someone who wasn't very happy. The unhappy rider stopped by me and said something in Spanish. I shrugged apologetically and he rode off. I later found out he was a very unhappy farmer as someone had left one of his electric fences open and his cows had wandered off. 

After a while I was joined by the only Dane in the Race, Warny. Warny was a very quick runner but claimed Denmark was totally flat and therefore he could run neither up nor down hills. He could however run very fast on the flat and the only way I could keep up was by jogging up the hills when he walked. Others found the section through the wind turbines a bit tedious but as I was now in a very interesting race between myself, Jean and Warny I didn't have time to be bored.

Checkpoint Three took us across a main road. All the main road crossings were marshalled to ensure we got across the roads quickly but most importantly, safely. We had been told in the briefing that the last few kilometres were rocky downhill and sure enough with around 4km to go we hit some downhill. The first section was easy fast running. Despite predictions my leg was still attached and I flew down (going the right way this time) and put some distance between myself and Warny.

Castillo de Poza de la Sal

As I came to the castillo the path got more technical and I slowed down. It was at this point that I found out what Jean's strength was as he sped past me into Poza de la Sal. I tried to follow him through the town but was unable to keep up. We ran through the town and out the other side. At this point I was starting to feel a little demoralised as I had got to the 53km I thought I would be running and was standing in a field unable to see my final destination. I pulled myself together and ran the final 600m to the finish. Jean had gained a minute and a half on me and Warny finished less than a minute and a half behind me. Tristan was not far behind but Pit was starting to suffer with his ITB and lost several minutes. I was still second but Jean was now hot on my heels.

Tonight we were in dormitory accommodation at Albergue Virgen de Pedrajas. The showers weren't the warmest but being one of the first home meant I bagged one of the two single (i.e. non-bunk) beds in the dormitory. The accommodation also had a games room so when Sharon arrived we played table tennis - or at least we chased a ping pong ball around a room and it occasionally hit a table anyway.

Before finishing I should mention I wasn't the only person to take the detour. Rodrigo went even further down the track and also had Manu and the course markers numbers in his phone. Apparently anyone within earshot heard  the kind of Spanish they don't teach you in school as he made his displeasure known. surprisingly he hadn't passed me and I finished less than half an hour behind him - not great but a significant improvement on yesterday, especially as we had both covered a similar distance.

Tomorrow's stage would be the easiest and flattest so far. It was undulating rather than mountainous/hilly and only 47.5km so should be perfect for me - however second third and fourth places were still very close together so I would have to work hard if I was to hold on to second place... 

The Way of Legends - Day One

Finally my ramblings are getting towards the point at which some actual running might occur. However before then there was the small matter of the Druids...

We ate breakfast, filled water bottles, packed up our camp bags and generally got ourselves ready for the start of the race. At sometime just past 7 we boarded buses which took us along progressively narrower and steeper roads until we arrived at the Celtic Hill Fort City of Ulaña. The reason the race is called The Way of Legends is that there is a legend associated with each stage. Rather than plagiarise the excellent accounts on the race website I'll simply include a link to the first legend. However a small explanation is needed to explain why we were about meet some Druids and be given some yew. Basically the hill fort was home to the Turmogi Clan, one of the last groups of Celtic warriors in Spain to resist the Romans. When defeat was inevitable, rather than be captured, they took their possessions and the bones of their ancestors and disappeared into the valleys and canyons where they committed suicide by eating yew berries. Enter one bunch of bewildered Romans who find that their enemy has apparently vanished off the face of the earth.

Back in the present as we get off the bus we can hear a drum and a conch shell being blown - yes, it's dark and someone is blowing a conch shell, have I stumbled into the Barkley Marathon by mistake? 

As we walk into the trees we see a couple of Druids with drums, and a conch shell obviously.

Druids!

The druids apparently only speak an ancient Iberian dialect, which is spoken by no-one else in the 21st century according to Manu anyway. Fortunately he had Google Translate on his mobile phone and so was able to provide a translation of their wise words.

Ancient wisdom being imparted and translated

Basically we are told that the Romans are coming and we should kill ourselves rather than be taken as slaves. We were then helpfully given pieces of yew to eat should capture become inevitable.

Photobombing Druids

Fortunately we have the option of running away with all due haste as, after this almost certainly unique ceremony, the race started and we were off!

I didn't make any attempt to be at the front of the pack as we had been told the first 400m were a steep technical descent down the side of the hill fort. My ability at steep technical descents is such that the quickest way down for me is usually to wait for the next Ice Age and ride down on a glacier and so I let those that shared some genetic material with mountain goats go first (or so I thought...)

Apparently I got down from up there - I have no idea how

Having gotten to the bottom of the technical section by using the technique of trying to only fall on bits of me that aren't easily damaged I got onto some runnable terrain and started running - I may even have overtaken some people.

Then the sun rose and the scenery just became stunning.

Breathtaking sunrise

The only downside to the sunrise was that as we were running east it made seeing the course markings more difficult. At least thats my excuse for running into a dead end and having to be shouted back by Stan and Pit who I'd overtaken about 10 minutes earlier.

The first half of the stage was predominantly downhill and passed over grassland and past field after field of sunflowers. The sunflowers were a little past their best but still made a colourful sight and certainly provided a different landscape to anything I had run through before.

Sunflowers in the morning sun

The profile for the second half of the stage resembled a roller coaster as we would be crossing a series of canyons. By now I was swapping positions on a regular basis with Stan and Pit. It wasn't that I didn't want to run with them, we just had different strengths and so as the course changed in gradient and technicality so did the order.

Approaching the final checkpoint - spot the course marker

I arrived at the last checkpoint with Pit. I knew Pit from Bhutan the year before and I knew he would provide strong competition for me. As we left the checkpoint together he told me he thought we were third and fourth - I told him I thought he was talking rubbish. I was sure at least a dozen people went off the hill fort in front of me and I only thought I'd overtaken five or six. Top ten certainly but third and fourth? No. Pit was convinced the only people in front of us were Rodrigo (he was so far in front I think he had finished by the time we got to CP3) and Tristan. At this point I hadn't yet met Tristan so I had no idea who he was but Pit reckoned he was a strong runner and ahead of us.

After we left CP3 Pit and myself continued to trade positions on the climb to the most glorious piece of forest running. I was in my element and pulled away slightly. Any time I may have gained was largely lost when I met Manu in his car at the end and had to tell him how great it was (he already knew, he runs there a lot).

By now it was getting hot and I was walking a fair bit. I had thought that if Pit and I really were third and fourth I would prefer fourth place as I didn't want the pressure of being on the podium after Day One - or ever really. At the race briefing the night before we had been told we would run a couple of kilometres above and around the village of Sedano where we were staying that night. This wasn't (we were told) simply in order to increase the distance but rather to give us some nice views of said settlement.

The church above the village

View from the top - the large building to the right of centre is were we would be staying

Pit was right behind me as I stopped to take a few photos. Any thoughts of finishing fourth went out of my head as I took off downhill ahead of him for the final loop round town to our overnight stop. I crossed the finish line, hot, exhausted and... second??? Pit had been absolutely right but didn't know that Tristan had taken a detour and added a couple of kilometres on to his day. This left me with a few questions as to what I did now. First was out of the question, Rodrigo was already around an hour and a half ahead of me after one day. However second to fifth were covered by only around 12 minutes. My hope had been for top 5, would I still be happy with that or was I going to try and keep second place? The main difference would be how many photos I took. Day One had quite a lot as I didn't feel under pressure and stopped when I liked. If I was going to race with such evenly matched people I might not have that luxury.

One thing I couldn't really train for in the UK was the long downhill stretches. These had really taken their toll on my quads, something which became evident when I went for my massage. The masseur didn't really speak English but seemed to be implying she was expecting my leg to fall off the next day and showed me some tape she could stick it back on with if I wanted. It seemed quite possible that I didn't need to worry about position as worst case I could win the one-legged category.

Sharon arrived not long after me, also with sore legs but at least no one was predicting hers would fall off. We had a very nice double en-suite room with an excellent shower to remove the grime of the day. After the evening meal Manu gave the briefing for the next day. The main point was that there would be three starts all half an hour apart, slower runners, quicker runners and Rodrigo. After dinner we went to bed. After a while the locals went to bed too and we could sleep.

So Day One had gone well, possibly too well, what would Day Two bring?...