Not another 10k...
I suspect that the credit crunch has finally reached this little neck of the woods as the epic Morredero race was cancelled last month and the Ponferrada half marathon was downgraded to a 10K. The Town Hall, which subsidises both events, is no longer splashing the cash and the glory days of free races and generously bulging goody bags may well be over.
Ran the mentioned 10K this morning and it followed an unattractive out of town circuit which was almost identical to September’s “Ponferrada without my car” 10K. The temperature was 4ºC when we started and the whole of Bierzo was enveloped in that cold, clingy mist which always sets in here at this time of year. This had obviously been designed by the great Chus Alonso as a PB-busting circuit as it included some of the interminably long and straight sections which are the man’s trademark but which also really do my head in.
A 10K run and done, but not much to write home about.
There’s a slightly more interesting race on the agenda for the 30th of this month which is organized by the mighty Basurko, the ultra running butcher of Villafranca. It’s short and steep. Very steep indeed. And there are 20 legs of ham a-waiting.
Looks like there could be a big turnout for the Dragoman tomorrow morning.
This road race from Villafranca Del Bierzo to the village of Dragonte is barely 6 kms long but involves a hefty 400m plus height gain. The first km is flat. The next two are very steep, 1 in 5 in places and then there’s a more gradual climb to Dragonte. I’ve never done this one before as I’ve always found out about it too late but this time race organizer, the mighty Basurko, did his homework and sent the message out far and wide. The end result is potentially one of the biggest fields for a road race in Bierzo for years, 300 if everyone shows and the list of inscriptions reads like a who’s who of local running personalities.
Everybody is there, except for a few killjoys who’ve decided that the marathon of San Sebastian was more appealing. Boo, hiss…
Browsing through the list of entrants I see number 13 is Pinilla the miner, Pedro the lumberjack is number 263, Isaac the engine (92) and Bierzo Baggie (100, nice number that!).
The elite runners include Spanish marathon record holder Ana Isabel Alonso (171) Paulo Cape Verde (65) Ignacio string bean (164) and Julian the fireman (165, this guy climbs in the Himalayas and has scaled a few of the 8000m peaks and may well be the only man in the world who can run a mountain marathon faster than he can run a flat one). And talking of mountain nuts I also noticed the names of Susana (227) one of the Picos survivors and Domingo mountain goat (88).
And from Galicia (if the Piedrafita pass is snow free and lets them through) 89-year old Julian Bernal (273) will be coming to run with his young lad Jesus (a 60-something pensioner himself). And accompanying them will be the reputed Argentinian jazzman Mr Dixieland (255) who may or may not be running with his trumpet.
Also registered for the race are number 116 Jose Luis Zapatero (president of the Spanish government), 5-times winner of the Tour de France, Miguel Indurain (255) and notorious ETA terrorist Iñaki de Juana Chaos, presently holed up in Belfast (number 153). I suspect someone is taking the piss…
On Dragomans-Eve I sensed that this would be something special and it was.
There are good races and bad races this was short, sweetly and simply a great one. Basurko the ultra running butcher has reinvented local mythology by creating ye olde dragon of Dragonte, a symbolic fire-breathing beast to accompany us on our 6.5km pilgrimage from Villafranca to the village in the clouds. An army of steam-breathing templar knights chased the dragon but strangely 20 legs of ham were liberated instead of 20 damsels in distress. There were also Galician bagpipes and cups of steaming hot garlic soup and there was snow, lots of it and at the tail end of this merry procession was an 89-year old Don Quijote who astounded us all.
El Gordo Wrote:Great stuff, BB, thanks. I've never seen a race in those conditions.
Did the President turn up?
I don't think any of us had ever seen so much snow during a race either.
And nope, President Zapatero didn't show. He's from nearby León though and I wouldn't have put it beyond Basurko to have talked him into coming along.
By the way, I struck lucky in the post race draw (again) and I won a month's free use of our neighbourhood gym. I'd have preferred one of those legs of ham....beggar's can't be choosers Will this mean another one on the sweaty gym bandwagon?
In the last few years this enjoyable almost-10K has become the ideal way to end the running year. It takes place invariably on the last Sunday before Christmas and is a singular event for several reasons.
1. Its always bollock-freezing cold.
This year the thermometer read -3ºC as we entered Lugo but this rose to a near tropical +3º once the mist lifted.
2. The visit to ye olde Café Del Centro in the Plaza Mayor.
This has become the obligatory pre-race ritual once the race numbers have been collected. Here faint hearted runners, myself included, excuse themselves from the long-winded limbering and stretching routines taking place outside. Much more attractive are the coffee and churros in the elegant surroundings of Lugos oldest café with its dainty little tables, its neo-classical decoration and its friendly old school waiters with their dickie bows. The inevitable dash outside is thus delayed until the last possible moment and a place at the back of the field is small price to pay for avoiding hyperthermia. If I were to make a top ten favourite cafes compilation, this one would head the list.
3. The Lugo almost-10K is an attractive and unique circuit.
The last 2kms run along the UNESCO world heritage site roman walls which encircle the old part of town. This makes for a memorable finish as you come down from the walls and dash across the Plaza Mayor.
4. The race is free. You get a personalized race number, a technical t-shirt, chip timing and a text message to your mobile with your finishing time. Only thing lacking were the mince pies
Not surprisingly every year an increasing number of Ponferrada runners make the journey over the snowy Piedrafita pass to take part in this most excellent race. I went this year with Baltazar, the wise man from the cement factory and we bumped into Isaac the engine and the big man from Ozuela amongst others.
The race itself went well and my chip time was 41 and a half minutes, exactly the same time as I ran in my first ever 10K many, many years ago.
Baltazar, who is a veteran marathon runner and ex-organizer of the Toral de los Vados marathon confessed to me that this was actually his first ever 10K in 25 years of running!
So its goodbye to 2008. I reckon Ive clocked up about 1000kms this year and Ive averaged a race a month, most of them trail-type events. Ive tried to record all these races here as some of them have been pretty interesting.
Merry Christmas to yall!! Hope 2009 brings a bumper crop of runners tales.
Well done, B.B. Beautiful report. I feel like going there to have some chocolate and churros although when I was in the "camino de Santiago", I had "tarta de Santiago" and other delicious Galician products such as "empanada", "pulpo a feira", beef steak, etc.
This was an unexpected addition to the race agenda while I was in the UK recently.
Somehow or other me and me dad, the Ludlow loper, ended up in the Shropshire village of Church Stretton at 11 am on a frosty new year’s morning. The Mercia fell runners were organizing the event in question and we joined 200 or so early starters in sub-zero temperatures for a 5 mile dash that proved well worth shivering for.
The route took us along paths and trails around surrounding hills and moor-land. I can only assume the countryside was glorious as the mist spoilt the views although the frosty whitescape was spectacular enough.
A couple of the climbs were very steep indeed and I had to walk on 4 occasions which is rather a lot for such a short race. Much of the time I was struggling behind a tiny young lad who was breezing up those steep bits with a near-effortless ease. At one point I called out “how old are you?” and the little fellow answered “nine!” Now I have become used to being overtaken by grisly 60-somethings but spluttering and wheezing in the wake of a primary school kid, most of whose training may well consist of games of playground tag, was a humbling experience. Must say that I was mightily impressed by the way he skipped up those hills,.. one to watch for the future maybe.
Finished in about 42 minutes and returned to the village hall for steaming hot soup and rolls. This was my first race in the UK since 2002 and a few things caught my eye.
1. An event held at 11 am on the first day of the year in a small Shropshire village attracted well over 200 people. You wouldn’t get many people from Ponferrada running on New Year’s morning…
2. There were plenty of very good lady runners, a much higher proportion than at any of the Spanish races I’ve done.
3. I don’t know if “Feet in the Clouds” has anything to do with it but there seemed to be a lot of new pairs of Walshes out there. This is clearly a sport which is growing in popularity in places not previously associated with fell running (the Midlands and Sussex for example!)
Apart from that, I'm more convinced than ever that Spanish mountain running is the bastard half-brother of English fell running.
I’m back in El Bierzo now and I’m toying with the idea of doing some proper training. Oh how I’m toying…
Congratulations, BB. It must be great to start the year with a mountain race although it must have been really cold.
I feel more confident in the UK races since there are many people who take part just for the pleasure of it while here in Spain most people run in order to finish under a certain time. I also noticed many more women taking part in races there than here although more and more women are taking up running in Spain.
I guess the cold season 2008-2009 affected most of Europe. England woke up to its biggest snowfalls for 18 years. I watched from afar remembering one unreal weekday morning in 1991 when Brum came to a standstill. Memories of abandoned cars on the Bristol Road, hot toddies in the pub, trains parked up for the day and some scumbag who nicked my mountain bike and left the severed chain-lock in the snow as a poignant reminder.
Those were my memories of the last big snowfall in the UK and oh my god, was it really 18 years ago!
Missed out on the UK cold season 2008-9 but here in Ponferrada there were fierce flurries of snow making fleeting appearances from November through to February. The temperatures rose and fell erratically and only the highest mountains have retained enough raw material to make a decent snowman.
Huge quantities of water were greedily retained by the local reservoir and as happens most years when an optimum level is reached, the sluice gates were opened and the excess water sent gushing down the River Sil.
This affected me in one way. The makeshift bridge which provides my short-cut to Monte Pajariel, 7 and a half minutes from home, was washed downstream in the direction of northern Portugal.
So, in this very long-winded way I’m saying;
Thawing snow,
Water (trillions of litres of it),
Quick route to Monte Pajariel washed away.
The end result is that January and February have been restricted to twice a week, 30-40 minute jaunts alongside the river or my local canal/irrigation ditch. Not the best preparation for the first race of the season which by coincidence takes place a few dozen kilometres upstream.
Bierzo Baggie Wrote:This affected me in one way. The makeshift bridge which provides my short-cut to Monte Pajariel, 7 and a half minutes from home, was washed downstream in the direction of northern Portugal.
Say it aint so, Joe! I'd come to love that bridge, even if only for the prospect that some day we might get to hear about it crumbling into the Sil after one BB had just raced across it. A sad loss
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph
nice number that!). 
Will this mean another one on the sweaty gym bandwagon?
