I CARRERA DE MONTAÑA "TEBAIDA BERCIANA"
A new event for the race calendar and a clear sign that trail/mountain running events are becoming increasingly popular in these parts. Maybe this is also the case in the UK.
“Tebaida Berciana” is a name sometimes given to describe the zone immediately below the Aquilianos range. Here, between the 7th and 9th century monastic communities and hermitages were set up by solitude seeking monks such as Saint Fructuoso, Saint Genadio and Saint Valerio. “Tebaida” refers to Thebes in Egypt where
Saint Paul the Anchorite lived in a cave for almost 100 years. He consumed only fruit, water and half a loaf of bread each day which was flown in by a charitable raven. The lost valleys of Bierzo provided the perfect location for a new wave of cave dwelling Christian hermits to follow Saint Paul’s example. Hence the name of the race.
And more than 100 of an entirely new breed of eccentrics assembled in the “Tebaida Berciana” last Sunday to tackle a 19.5 km circuit with two stiff climbs and one particularly tricky descent. I tried out my new found descending skills with mixed results. At the first slippery corner I made a right tit of myself, literally sliding sideways off a slate littered path (rather like the race cyclists sometimes do just before an end of stage sprint). Shot over a low lying dry-stone wall and ended up rolling halfway down a field. It must have looked a bit like that cheese rolling race they hold somewhere in the north of England. I rejoined the race miraculously unscathed and for one mad moment I felt like lucky Lance Armstrong in the 2003 Tour de France when he took that short cut across a field. That moment soon passed when the grim reality of the first big climb set in.
Slipped into my run-walk groove and managed to maintain a constant rhythm. I lost a few places as the run-runners overtook me but kept enough in reserve for a quick descent. The problem was that it was quite wet and slippy and I found it difficult to keep my feet. Maybe I should buy some new shoes. On the firmer, stony tracks I was fine and I was flying but then I turned an ankle (the right one this time!) and had to ease off.
The final section was along a narrow, muddy path through some woods. In fact I now realized that I’d done most of this circuit
3 weeks ago in the opposite direction and here I picked off a few runners with the advantage of knowing that we were near the end. My finishing time was just over 2 hours which was ahead of several runners who always thrash me on the road so I was quite pleased with myself. The ankle was swollen on Monday morning and I might have to miss the Truchillas race as a result.
In conclusion, an excellent new race with a smart t-shirt in the goodie bag along with a pair of socks and an apple. My only misgiving, and this might be considered nit-picking, was that it was all a bit flash and noisy for a mountain race in such a secluded and isolated spot. The organizers were from a local gym and there were a lot of people who don’t normally stray onto these paths and it showed. Electro-pop boomed from loud speakers at the finish line which was at the entrance of the picturesque village of Peñalba. The ghost of Saint Genadio in his cave-hermitage across the Valley of Silence must have wondered what was going on.
The all new training diary.
