The cold season.

[Bierzo Baggie]

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…