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!