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...