My oh my....we're in July.

[Bierzo Baggie]

July. Weh-hey...I'm on holiday.

[Bierzo Baggie]

And the mad dogs stay in the shade swatting flies with their tails. Clever buggers these mad dogs.
Went for a Sunday morning run along the track to Toral de Merayo (not to be confused with Toral de los Vados of the marathon). Intended to go out earlier but with baby Lara playing up, it was well past 12 o’clock before I set off and it was already ridiculously hot. Met a few mountain bikers on the way and succumbing to the heat I ended up walking the last 2kms through the allotments between the Toral road and home. Time at least to observe. A couple of storks pecking away in a field full of flowers. Incipient apples emerging from some of the fruit trees and unpicked cherries rotting on others. Rows and rows of cabbages, tomatoes, peppers and potato plants Chickens strutting their stuff behind wire meshing. Some people keep pigs as well but they are hidden away. Irrigation channels dry as a bone and the land is starting to look pretty parched again.
Running time 36 minutes.

[Bierzo Baggie]

There are only two ways to avoid the heat these days. You either run very early or you run very late. Miguel the mushroom picker prefers the latter option. Miguel MP is an occasional runner and earns his nickname from his ability to identify and cook up to a dozen different species of edible mushrooms (a potentially dangerous hobby, mark my words). He knows all their names in Latin as well. He’s more of a walker than a runner, but a couple of years ago I was able to persuade him to run a marathon with me. If anybody fancies doing a marathon in Spain one day then I heartily recommend the Valtiendas nocturnal marathon as probably the most enjoyable. It’s the only one you’ll find run in August and forms part of the fiestas of Valtiendas, a little village between Segovia and Valladolid. Due to the heat they decided to stage it at night. It’s also run in pairs. You must run the entire 26 miles with a partner and if one drops out, you both fail to finish. In the 2003 edition we ran mainly along stony tracks amongst the vineyards (this is Ribera del Duero country) accompanied by the light of the moon, the immensity of the starry sky and the repetitive music of thousands of crickets. The overall effect was strange, eerie and even hypnotic. It’s also the only race I’ve ever run in which starts and finishes with a firework display and the prize for the winning pair is their own bodyweight in wine! All true and you can check it out here, http://www.valtiendasmaraton.org/
Me and Miguel crossed the finishing line at 3:30 in the morning, 5 hours and 27 minutes after setting off and to date this remains Miguel MP’s only marathon. He hasn’t lost the habit of running at night though.
The other evening he rang to suggest an 11:30 run to the light of the biggest moon in 18 years. I saw it through the window, a huge, looming, pock-marked orb peeping out from behind Monte Pajariel. I eventually cried off but yesterday we met up at the slightly earlier time of 9:30. I’d already been for a run early in the morning but it was a fine, cool evening and the rare opportunity of an accompanied run appealed to me. Improvised a route that criss-crossed the allotments and followed sections of canal, now nourished with water again (released from the half-empty local reservoir). Passed a couple of old fellows leading a shaggy-haired donkey to a field with a home-made plough rattling along behind them. We chatted about Vatiendas and that warm August night running in silence through the vineyards and how it seemed almost dream-like.
2 runs, I must be on holiday! Morning, 31 minutes. Evening, 34 minutes.

[Bierzo Baggie]

Early morning run. Toral de Merayo and back along Monte Pajariel trail. Usual route. Few spring flowers have survived the first days of July. Enjoyed the peace and quiet.
Running time 45 minutes.

[Bierzo Baggie]

Little Lara woke us up just before 6 and whilst Rosana was feeding her I switched on the TV and watched the latest on the London bombing. Terrible. Horrendous. Déjà vu.
Headed off for an early morning run on Monte Pajariel where I suddenly remembered a similar morning in March last year running along this same trail with the horror of the Madrid massacre still lodged painfully on my retina. And here I am again and here we are again. 50+ innocent victims in London. 190+ innocent victims in Madrid. Many thousands of innocent victims in Iraq and Afghanistan (who’s counting?). The evil that men do.
Here it’s all quiet. I take the zig-zag trail upwards behind the slaughterhouse (grotesquely appropriate this morning) and soon Ponferrada is distant below me, waking up and humming softly like some faraway beehive. The track takes me half way up Pajariel and that’s quite enough for today. Dip down into a gully on the other side, scanning the pine plantations for deer, and then steeply downwards, braking slightly to the village of Otero where the village dogs greet me with a chorus of manic barking. Ran on to the next village, San Lorenzo, where the dogs are still asleep. Then back to Ponferrada via the road.
Running time 59 minutes.

[Bierzo Baggie]

Went to stay with the in-laws for a few days in Galicia. Different landscape and different climate (different language even) although it’s only 2 and a half hours away. Bierzo is in a transitional zone where Castilian plains meet the tail end of the Cordillera Cantabria mountain range and a sort of microclimate exists. You’ll find typically Mediterranean vegetation (almond trees, holm oaks and even cork) alongside a vegetation more associated with an Atlantic climate (oak, birch and more rarely, beech). Galicia on the other hand is greener, cooler and mistier. All the better for running.

Sunday 10th. Went for a run along two beaches, Sada and Gandario. 36 minutes. Very pleasant.
Tuesday 12th. Decided to run along the coast in the opposite direction, but this side is a lot less developed and I ended up getting lost in a dense forest of eucalyptus trees. Eventually came out in the middle of some very nicely landscaped gardens and a rather large house. Got the impression that it belonged to somebody extremely rich and my imagination started to get the better of me. A mafia big-shot perhaps? (the Galician coast is notorious for drug smuggling). A dog started barking nearby. I immediately visualized a drooling pit-bull, eyes popping, muscles taut and straining at the leash with a Galician Harry the bastard whispering softly in its ear, “go and bite the gringo, my precious….”. Much relieved to see a scrawny little mongrel scampering behind me. Kept running anyway and shot through the main entrance of the residence without looking back. 34 minutes running.

Brian’s Shop.
Wednesday. Drove into La Coruña (20 minutes away) and paid a visit to Raizor Blue’s shop. It’s full of the finest running gear and is possibly the only place in northern Spain where I can buy a pair of the excellent Ron Hill trackie bottoms. Brian filled me in with loads of practical advice. It turns out that I’ve been buying my shoes a size too small for the last 15 years and I’ve never learnt to tie my laces properly, at least not for running. Ended up buying a smart pair of New Balance off-roaders. Despite all Brian’s sound technical advice it was the colour of ‘m which swayed it! It’ll be a shame to get them muddy.

Thursday. Back to Ponferrada. As we approached I realized that Monte Pajariel looked rather dark and gloomy for the time of day. Soon, dismayed to see that half of it was now coated in a grim, sooty charcoal which had replaced last week’s merry green cloak of vegetation. While we’d been away Monte Pajariel had burnt, or rather somebody had burnt it. The zig-zag I’d taken on the 8th was a mess and the age old chestnut trees below I suppose are lost for ever. All very sad. The track to Toral de Merayo has been spared but a monumental bite has been taken from the hillside and it’ll take years to regenerate again.

[Bierzo Baggie]

Sunday.
Went to inspect the fire damage. Apparently “somebody” started the blaze near the river and it shot up the steep gradients to the antenna at the top of Monte Pajariel. That’s 300 vertical metres, or over 1000 feet. According to the local paper it took 4 helicopters, 2 planes, 3 bulldozers and 120 people to bring it all under control.
Hopped over the rickety bridge and took the zig-zag which had acted as a firebreak. Everything up to my right was a desolute black with charred stumps where bushes had once been and the occassional tree trunk standing out defiantly. Otherwise there wasn’t a lot left. Below me to my left the chestnut trees and some pines had miraculously survived. And then there was the lingering smell of charcoal. Stopped to walk the final gradiant of the zig-zag and found a suspiciously located petrol can amongst the sooty remains, too high up to be significant, but suspicious none the less. People normally start these fires for a reason. And there have been a lot of fires this year.
Jogged down to Otero and completed a full circle by running along the river and crossing at the same place as before. Then I walked home.
Total running time 34 minutes.

[Sweder]

Good on yer, BB - you seem to be one of the few keeping the souls of the running shoes warm this summer. Galicia . . . I have fond memories of Vigo in 1991. I spent three weeks there. When I arrived I was a typical Brit abroad, egg n chips or chicken n chips. Seafood? No way!

By the time I left Vigo I'd tried just about every ocean-dwelling critter known to man, and a few besides. Pulpo al Ahilio (sorry 'bout the spelling) - freshly beaten octapus tentacles snipped off the still-beating carcass onto a wooden board, drizzled in garlic oil and coated in paprika . . . heaven!

Hopefully the RC gang will head off that way next spring (if we don't return to Almeria). Lovely part of the world, that.

[El Gordo]

Hopefully the RC gang will head off that way next spring (if we don't return to Almeria). Lovely part of the world, that.

Good question, Sweder.

I know it's early days, but does anyone have the appetite for another 'field trip' next year? Antonio asked recently whether we planned to go to Almeria again. I deliberately left the quesiton hanging, though no one has responded yet.

Any thoughts/ideas/suggestions/definitely-nots?

After thought - I'll create new thread about this on the Genral forum.

[Bierzo Baggie]

Count me in for any get-together in the north-west of Spain. Any running further afield will be met with stern stares from wife and baby (I fear my globe-trotting days are over...). I'll put down a few ideas on the general forum next week.

Back to the running. Woke up to a wonderfully grey and cloudy day and for the first time for a week I felt like going for a run. Decided on the flat, "round the river" circuit and without the vicious heat of the last few days, in which half the country seems to have gone up in flames, I felt much stronger. Promised myself never again to complain about cold winter mornings.
Total running time; 37 minutes.

[Nigel]

I have fond memories of Vigo ....I spent three weeks there. When I arrived I was a typical Brit abroad, egg n chips or chicken n chips. Seafood? No way!

By the time I left Vigo I'd tried just about every ocean-dwelling critter known to man, and a few besides.

Hey - Sweder and his great writing have always seemed strangely familiar. Only now do I realise he IS actually the reincarnation of Laurie Lee - these words seemingly taken straight out of 'As I walked out one midsummer morning'....

[Bierzo Baggie]

Monday. Took the main Monte Pajariel trail for the first time since the fire. Thankfully only the first section has been burnt. Didn’t see a soul until Toral de Merayo.
Running time; 44 minutes.

No running again until Saturday morning. Pleasantly cool. Wisps of mist stroke the Montes Aquilianos summits. Did a fastish circuit around the canal. 29 minutes.

[Bierzo Baggie]

Tried out the flash, new trail running shoes I’d bought from Brian’s shop but ran so slow I might as well have worn my bulky walking boots. Jumped some rocks and crossed the wobbly bridge, then turned left, climbing up to the village of Otero along a track that sported a symbolic layer of tarmac, so pot-holed that it was undrivable for any normal car. Passed about a dozen old folk walking up to mass at the primitive, Romanesque church halfway up the hill. Then followed the Aquilianos route intending to continue climbing over Monte Pajariel but it was the same old story. Too hot. Too tired. So instead , dropped down to San Lorenzo and ran back along the road. Crossed the river again and walked the last bit.
Running time 44 minutes.