November novelties.

[Bierzo Baggie]

Thusday morning run along the canal/ irrigation ditch. Grey and cloudy but pleasantly warm. Struggled around in 33 minutes.

Friday morning run. A bit chillier than yesterday but the sun peeked out briefly. A smattering of snow on the Montes Aquilianos heralds the arrival of colder weather. The railway route. This is a short, fast circuit up and down a couple of lanes that run alongside either side of the León-Galicia line. The single railway track is slightly raised on an embankment and after a couple of kms there’s an unfenced level crossing where you can cross over and run back along the other side. There are no safety measures. You stop, you edge forward and look up and down the track and then you cross. Obviously it’s not a good place to get stuck as the Galician Express can appear alarmingly quickly. That’s precisely what happened to one old fellow on his way to the allotments in his tractor. Ever since I´ve run along here there are always some fresh flowers on the level crossing although the accident was several years ago. This invariably provides for a short moment of reflection before turning back for home on the fragility of our existence, of our inexplicable destiny and of the futility of picking a fight with an express train.
No trains to contend with today. Didn’t even see a car. 26 minutes. Struggled again.

Saturday morning. Don’t be silly, 2 in a row’s quite enough for me!