XXI Subida al Veleta

[Bierzo Baggie]

Pardon me for hijacking your thread Antonio…..

Johnb, like you at Veleta I was the only Brit at the Aneto marathon in 1999 (running, walking, climbing and sliding down a glacier on yer arse…great fun) and also at the maraton alpino madrileño 3 years later (in my opinion the toughest of them all, it took me more than 8 hours…). Did the Aizkorri-Zegama twice (2003-4) and it was the best race I’ve ever taken part in with thousands of mad Basques lining the mountain tops to cheer you on. Just like a mountain stage in the “tour de France”. Incredible.

Here are the links to the above marathons. Maybe they’ll inspire you to do an off-road mountain marathon (just a glorified cross country run really!)

http://www.barrabes.com/especiales/marat...netoxm.htm
http://www.zegama-aizkorri.com/
http://www.tierratragame.com/maraton/

The Aneto marathon hasn’t been organized again since but it might reappear one day.
The Zegama race is difficult to get into now as everybody wants to do it and there’s quite a strict limit on participation. Check out the web-page. It’s brilliant and you can follow the whole route on it.

I’d fancy having a crack at Veleta next year or Galareiz (not so far away for me) but I’ll have to con the family first (it’s just a stroll in the hills…honest!) Keep in touch guys, maybe we could organize something…