The all new all new training diary

[Bierzo Baggie]

Excellent work out in the Tebaida Berciana.

Slower than last year:o
Tireder than last year
Hotter than last year
More people than last year

Took the tortuous winding road up to the miniscule medieval village of Peñalba with Oscar and Tommy Slate. Tommy Slate deserves an introduction.

“Tommy” (Tomás in Spanish) takes a similarly tortuous route to work in the slate quarries at some ungodly hour every morning. A generation ago he’d have been earning his crust in a coal mine like most young men in Bierzo were, but today slate cutting on the Leon-Galicia border rules. For me (a teacher) and Oscar (a lawyer) Sunday morning in the hills is a bit of jolly respite from our weekly routines. For Tommy Slate the mountain is pants.
He’s running today though and he’ll get to the finish sooner than most.

There was a superb turnout. Everybody who’s anybody in the Bierzo funny running scene showed up and strutted their stuff. Lots of top notch gear on display these days. Only mad dog Jorge let the side down with a scruffy cotton t-shirt. Even El Chepas the hunchback looked like he was making a fashion statement in his narrow cut 70s track-suit.

At 10 o’clock a field of 200 set off through Peñalba’s compact medieval alleys and out we ran past the cemetery to start the first of two climbs where walking was inevitable. We faced a semi-technical 19.5 km circuit, but not quite technical enough to give the mountaineers the upper hand over the roadrunners. I don’t really fall into either category but I fared better on this occasion descending than on the climbs. The last 5 kms followed a narrow path along the lightly wooded northern slopes of the Oza valley. It was hard work in the heat and I struggled. Here I was witness to a tussle for first place in the ladies race. An athlete with the purple hoops of the pancake flat Valladolid province had led all the way but was flagging and making increasingly slow progress. The mighty Susana from Ponferrada, a seasoned mountain biker, patiently wound her rival in and stormed away up a terrible home straight incline back to Peñalba and the finish line. 4 of us crossed the line together not far behind.

The reward at the finish was a smart technical t-shirt, a bottle of red and a bollo preñado (chorizo sausage bun) ..yum yum.

My finishing time was 2 hours 7 minutes. Tommy Slate looked very relaxed at the finish line having arrived 10 minutes earlier. Not bad for somebody who doesn’t like mountains,

I didn’t take a camera this time so the photos come courtesy of a bloke called Kandpalleiro. Don’t know him personally but he runs fast, shoots some wicked pictures and maintains a blog in the Galician language that I can hardly understand a word of.

Next stop, Truchillas.