Zegama-Aizkorri 2011

[Bierzo Baggie]

For the first time I caught sight of the Basque shepherd. Anybody who saw the 2010 race video (posted at the beginning of this thread) may have seen this gentleman descending the Aizkorri range with the help of a couple of sharpened, hand-whittled poles as slender as bamboo but a good deal stronger.

The shepherd is a healthy-looking guy, looks to be in his 50s, but is probably over 60. He is wearing loose blue trousers held up by a buckled, black leather belt into which his non-plastic, plastic raincoat is neatly tucked. His only concession to modernity is a sleeveless t-shirt with his race number pinned on. Number 333.

And here’s what really amazes me. His trousers are tucked into a pair of thick woollen socks and on his feet he proudly models a pair of “abarkas,” authentic shepherd’s calfskin sandles from days of yore.

I looked around at the other runners. There are 500 or so assembled, from all over Euskadi, Spain and the rest of Europe. They are jigging, jogging and jumping nervously, impatiently awaiting the 9 o’clock call. On 500 pairs of feet are top of the range, state of the art, specialized running shoes. The majority are from the Salomon brand. They have names like;

speedcross 2
XT Wings2 GTX
S-lab 3XT Wings
XA Pro 3D Ultra GTX

I mean, are these really trainers or components from some sort of space rocket?
And the shepherd is just standing there with a few strips of cured veal between him and the floor.

Wow!

Just had to take a photo of those shoes.



The church clock strikes 9 o’clock and we’re off.

I would have liked to have written about a pleasant Sunday morning sampling the race, soaking in the atmosphere, dotted with quirky social anthropological asides, in a land where the very essence of mountain running seeps through every porous limestone crag.

I would have liked to have told how I breezed around the course waving at the people and taking photos.

But the reality was one micro-tale of survival within the great Zegama-Aizkorri challenge in which I unsuccessfully tried to keep up with a Basque shepherd. Forgot about the camera very quickly as all my energies were channelled into getting up the next eye popping ascent or over the next rocky obstacle, without dislocating an ankle or worse.

So, at long last, to the race report....my only pretention was survival and if I could... to follow the shepherd.