December; festive running.

[Bierzo Baggie]

Bierzo is a pretty well defined region, a “one road in one road out” sort of scenario and I’ve been here long enough for any journey farther afield to feel like an adventure. Even Lugo. My only running event “abroad” this year will be tomorrow. Lugo isn’t quite as exotic as Bombay or Table Mountain and it’s only 100kms down the N6 but it’ll do for me. It’s the next decent sized town after Ponferrada on the way to La Coruña but once you cross the Piedrafita pass there’s a different climate, different colours, a different language even. Had to decipher an entry form that was only in Galician and although very similar to Castilian Spanish, Rosana had to help me with a couple of things (address, or “dirección” becomes “enderezo” for example). So, full of excitement and expectation, tomorrow morning I’ll be Lugo-bound looking forward to an excellent 10k race...or not?
In the last 3 years I’ve taken part in several 10k events and none of them has actually been 10kms. I thought I’d finally hit the mark in last year’s Lugo 10k but a post by Sampedro questioning the accuracy of the distance shattered my illusions. With even the illustrious Lugo 10k falling short, my running portfolio swells into a merry succession of 9.2s and 11.1s. No problem with that, just that it’d be nice to have a nice round number as a reference point somewhere along the line. I did try and run a 10k on a track once but got bored after about a few laps and headed for Monte Pajariel instead. Will tomorrow be the elusive 10k I’ve been searching for….?