|
June.To run or not to run?
Basurko I think I've mentioned before. You could fill a book with anecdotes about mighty Miguel. Here are a few.
He started out as a mountain biker and a rock climber. Miguel lives in the village of Villafranca del Bierzo which like Ponferrada has a castle. What is unusual about the castle of Villafranca is that it's still inhabited. It belongs to the renowned Spanish classical music composer Cristobel Halffter and Miguel as a kid used to use it as a climbing tower. More than once, the white-haired old composer on glancing through one of the castle windows looking for musical inspiration came face to face with a young scally with climbing gear scaling one of his castle walls. You can imagine the conversation.
"Get off my castle you scoundral!"
Miguel also climbed in the nearby "Picos de Europa". Once he was trapped alone on a rocky ledge for 2 days and was rescued by a couple of English climbers.
He got into running in one of the early editions of the marathon of Toral de los Vados. He ran it underage, in 3 and a half hours and crossed the finishing line in tears. But the experience changed his life and he soon came back for more.
One curious thing about Miguel is that if he didn't run he'd probably be quite fat. He's the antithesis of your typical skinny distance runner with his bulky frame and legs like tree trunks. He soon realized that he'd always lack the speed to compete at the marathon distance and opted to specialize in the gruelling ultra competitions where mental toughness comes more into play. He also found he was good at it.
Over the last 10 years he's represented Spain over 100kms on a handful of occasions and has competed in 24 hour endurance events. However, Miguel remains a romantic at heart. He's never had a coach and always trains by himself combining mammoth distance sessions with shop hours in the butcher's and regular visits to the local abbatoir. No shortage of meat then to stock up on calories. The local dish is called the "botillo" and resembles a haggis with pork instead of sheep. The first time I tasted this was at Miguel's mum's place where I bore witness to the huge quantities of food that this man can put away.
Miguel's race selection criteria often has more to do with the curiosity factor than the cash prizes on offer. In recent years he's finished second in the Sahara marathon (a race staged in solidarity with the Saharawis, victims of a forgotten war with Morocco). The entire 42kms were run in a vicious sandstorm. Then there were top ten finishes in an ultra race along the Danube and the Spartathlon in Greece, which follows Pheidippides original marathon course (all 246kms of it!). He also ran the entire St James' Way across northern Spain, thats over 800kms in just 9 days (the same time it took me to do it on a racing bike).
The Forrest Gump analogy is probably a bit too obvious. I prefer to see Miguel as a Don Quijote figure, a runner-adventurer battling with windmills, exhibiting the purity and true grit of a fell runner whilst seeing the world and rather enjoying himself in the process. In this cynical and corrupt day and age of drug fuelled Olympic athletes and millionaire sponsorship deals the essence of sport can still be found in a haggis eating ultra-distance running Bierzo butcher. Maybe I'm idealizing a bit but I suppose I'm an unabashed romantic too.
Last year Miguel heard about the London to Brighton race, probably the oldest ultra-race in the world. He just had to go and try it and ended up finishing third. I suppose nobody had a clue who he was, some bearded Spanish guy who didn't speak a word of English. But sure enough he was back at the meat counter on Monday morning. As I said, you could write a book....
|
June.To run or not to run?
