Travesía Integral de los Montes Aquiianos

[Bierzo Baggie]

I’m going to bore everyone with an extended account which will make Sweder’s Parisian monologues seem, err… très brève. This will be my London marathon. It involves (optional) running. There the similarity ends.
London attracts a field of 35,000 and many more don’t get in. The Aquilianos closes at 350 although with a spot of back-scratching you’ll probably get in anyway.
London is run on roads to the tune of huge cheering crowds. The Aquilianos is 95% off road and you’ll only be cheered at the end and that’ll be by fellow participants and their families.
London is 26 miles and 385 yards. And you can bet your bottom euro that the 385 yards is exactly that. 385 yards. The Aquilianos is billed as 66km but it may well be 65, or 70. It was probably measured with a piece of string on the outdated Spanish military maps which are poor substitutes for Ordinance Survey. Saw a bloke with a GPS thingy a couple of years ago but don’t know if anybody took him seriously.
The London race has got Paul Tergat, Stefano Baldini and Haile Gebrselassie. The Aquilianos has Pedro the lumberjack, Luciano the dentist and Carlos the copper and friends. And it’s not even strictly speaking a race.
In fact it may well be the case that the Aquilianos is as far removed from the London marathon as say, greco roman wrestling or ballroom dancing. But both in their own different ways are truly monumental dates on the calendar which grown men and women yearn for every year with all the impatience and anticipation of small children on Christmas Eve. And I’m one of them.

Here’s my account from last year when I did the shorter 44km route.
http://www.runningcommentary.co.uk/forum....php?t=663
This year I’m going for the long one. I mentioned this to my wife.

“I thought you were going to do the short one.”
“Well, no. I always alternate. Last year I did the short one. This year I’ve got to do the long one”.
“Got to?”
“Err, well, yes”.
“Oh…”
“Hey, I’ll be back in time for lunch”.

Now, I like to think of myself as a man of my word and I’m not one to treat rash promises lightly. This promise was very rash. 5 minutes later I was calculating the implications of my offhand comment whilst casting from my mind any thoughts of backtracking with all the stubbornness of a long distance runner. Finally decided that we were talking about “lunch” in a Spanish Saturday afternoon context which could give me as late as 3:30 to stumble back to Ponferrada. However, with the traditional 6am start this would mean a sub-10 hour Aquilianos and that’s considerably quicker than I’ve ever done before. This will inevitably involve a lot of running and some serious training. As you can see I’m not taking it lightly.

I’ve always enjoyed off-road events because I find them less obsessed with time. Unless you are actually racing at the front of the field the emphasis is more on getting round, enjoying the scenery and finishing in a state that doesn’t upset your loved ones. Although many off road events are across quite tough terrain I find them more relaxing and laid back. In a road race I’m a slave to the clock, as I suspect most of us are. I look at my watch each time I pass a km marker. I make complex mental calculations relating to space and time which no doubt excite my neurons enormously and protect me from senility. But off road I am an unshackled, free spirit spreading love all around with flowers in my hair. So why go and spoil it all by trying to run a fast Aquilianos?

As anybody who has spent time in this country knows…. when a man promises to be back for lunch…