January jaunts.

[Bierzo Baggie]

For various reasons it’s weekend running only at the moment. Dreamt of early morning runs all week but with no real daylight until 8:30 I never got sufficiently motivated.

Melancholy. That seems to be the prevalent mood these days and it’s no different over here. A grey Saturday morning went with the grey midwinter landscape. Chose to run a section of the St. James Way that according to these very training diaries I last did in May but it’s still a tadge too long for my present state of form.

First ran down to the river where the sleek black cormorant in winter residence scoured the water for fish. Saw her again 5 minutes later further upstream. With the foul frothy substances that the local steelworks seem to occasionally dump in the River Sil I’m surprised there are any fish left at all. Then ran for about 4km along “el camino”. The huge nests perched on various posts, pillars and church towers are still empty and for now it’s a goalless draw between storks and pilgrims. A section of previously muddy, pot-holed track has been covered by a smooth layer of tarmac and ugly concrete pillars are popping up all over the place soon to be occupied by ugly concrete flats and houses (and the occasional nice one, don’t want to be too negative…) Alongside, semi-frozen cabbages wait on death row in allotments whose days are numbered. Suddenly realized that the green bits in the urban-rural jigsaw are being filled in faster than I’d thought. Reached the old village of Fuentesnuevas, now practically an extension of Ponferrada and then headed for home.
Running time; 69 minutes.