The cold season.

[Bierzo Baggie]

Not another 10k...
I suspect that the credit crunch has finally reached this little neck of the woods as the epic Morredero race was cancelled last month and the Ponferrada half marathon was downgraded to a 10K. The Town Hall, which subsidises both events, is no longer splashing the cash and the glory days of free races and generously bulging goody bags may well be over.

Ran the mentioned 10K this morning and it followed an unattractive out of town circuit which was almost identical to September’s “Ponferrada without my car” 10K. The temperature was 4ºC when we started and the whole of Bierzo was enveloped in that cold, clingy mist which always sets in here at this time of year. This had obviously been designed by the great Chus Alonso as a PB-busting circuit as it included some of the interminably long and straight sections which are the man’s trademark but which also really do my head in.

A 10K run and done, but not much to write home about.

There’s a slightly more interesting race on the agenda for the 30th of this month which is organized by the mighty Basurko, the ultra running butcher of Villafranca. It’s short and steep. Very steep indeed. And there are 20 legs of ham a-waiting.