(15-05-2011, 02:27 PM)anlu247 Wrote: I´d rather run/jog ten minutes and walk another 10 minutes or walk when going up steep hills or going down dangerous hills.
Saludos desde Almería.
Thanks Antonio, that's more or less what I did. Don't think I ran for any longer than 20 minutes at any one time. Walked uphill, ran-walked the flat sections and ran downhill....half and half overall.
By the way, sorry about Almeria going down. They've had a good 3(?) seasons in the first division.
Gracias, BB. I´m also sorry about Ponferradina going down. UD Almería has been 4 consecutive seasons in the first division.
Congrats BB, sounds like a great day out, despite the cold and the gingerbread man. A typically ultra-modest race report as well (in keeping with the event itself I suppose).
With the run/walk method, do you suffer from major fatigue (the wall / bonking) or are you able to keep it at bay with the reduced pace and steady carb intake?
Well done mate. We're all looking forward to the big one!
(18-05-2011, 12:15 PM)marathondan Wrote: With the run/walk method, do you suffer from major fatigue (the wall / bonking) or are you able to keep it at bay with the reduced pace and steady carb intake?
Thanks Dan, definitely the second. Nothing more horrible than “bonking” in the middle of nowhwere.
And thanks for the gingerbread link. Fascinating. Eating and running gives me problems but I’d rather squat than “bonk”...so to speak.
And a Wolves shirt? My old dad’ll be turning in his grave!
A tale from Truchillas (May 15th)
As mentioned, conventional rules do not apply. Imagine preparing for a road marathon by racing the full distance 3 weeks beforehand followed by a half marathon 7 days later. Madness I hear you say. Offroad, in the hills and mountains, where the footfall varies with every stride, this is possible, even recommendable. Eventually you’ll forget about “running” and learn to carress the mountain with your feet.
Truchillas. Love this race. So much so I’ve signed up for it 9 times before (and finished 8!). It’s a proper mountain race over 23km (although it used to be shorter).
This year the weather conditions were optimal, which meant cool and sunny but also fast and occasionally dangerous. The middle section of the race contains a lot of boulder, loose rock and stone. If you fall on turf you can roll over and carry on. If you fall over on this stuff you can cut your arm off. Ok, I’m exaggerating, but not much..
Made the familiar journey across the lonely Morredero pass (a place to die) with wild Oscar, tackling his first mountain race... since the last one.
2 years ago Truchillas had put him out of action for 5 months.
At the start we met Bill (without Ben... sore foot) and German, the old fox.
The old fox is a battle scarred veteran of a thousand skirmishes who clocked in at 58 on his last birthday. He usually sits on my shoulder for the first part of the race and then leaves me gasping over the final third. He’s a master of pacing himself and so he should be, he’s been racing for nearly half a century. No GPS for the old fox, the very thought of it is ridiculous.
Anyway, I’m not particularly competitive when it comes to running. Footie yes, running no.. but the old fox was starting to piss me off. This race would be the one where I’d finally shake him off and I told him so at the start line. Grrr.
The Race
As aperitif, 2km of trail followed by a stony path up to the lake. The old fox is already breathing down my neck. Then on to uncomfortable terrain through waist high broom and across boulder fields. There is no discernible path. Reach the summit in 1:20. I used to do it in 1:15 but I feel ok. Next a jittery hop down more boulders on the other side until the tentative thread of a new path appears dotted with rocks. Here I begin to stretch my legs, the running punctuated by a succession of jumps (at school my best event was triple jump). Still don’t risk looking over my shoulder, I know the old fox will be there somewhere.
My enthusiasm was curbed when I passed some poor sod being lowered down the mountain strapped to a stretcher. Suspect that the strapping was there so that he couldn’t jump off and start running again. Another guy knocked out his front teeth and still managed to finish the race sucking on a swab of cotton wool. As I say, a fall on this terrain can be quite painful. I slowed up instinctively.
Cross the pass (alto del peñon, 1850m). Here begins the final third, all easily runnable high trails but with a vicious sting in the tail, a near vertical firebreak that points downwards like a witch’s finger. The trailrunners won ground over the preceding 5k but the mountain runners will munch this up in 500m of technical descent. Risk a glance over my shoulder for the first time. The old fox is nowhere to be seen. He normally overtakes me on the trail.
Feel a wave of exhilaration and suddenly I don’t even feel tired. Bound down the firebreak. It’s soft underfoot. Overtake several better runners. And then..
“Hola inglés..”
The old fox was there grinning like a grotesque goblin. I started to run faster than a frightened rabbit over terrain where in these last 8 editions I’d never run before. Will I never get this gremlin off my back?
Again I thought I’d shaken him off. Only the river stood between me and the finish. The water was icy with the last of the snowmelt and a little more voluminous than normal. Here you must wade carefully. And as I’m striding through I feel a cold hand grasp my arm. It’s like a vice.
“You’re not going anywhere,” growled the old fox.
I’m running out of time and I haven’t even mentioned the cheese.
This race is special. In terms of atmosphere, local support and the quality of the runners it’s probably the best mountain race in the world today.
As far as I know no English speaker has written at any length about Zegama... so you heard it here first!
Anyway, back to Basque and the Zegama-Aizkorri soundtrack.
If I set off from Zegama to the hypnotic sound of tree trunk music then I must attack the limestone crags above with something more energic.
Kortatu, the original Basque ska-combo, formed in homage to Joe Strummer and a sensitive little number which brings back memories of slam dancing in sweaty cellars at fiesta time.
“Despierta.
Dispara.
Un gringo,
En tu casa.
Nicaragua Sandinista
Nicaragua Sandinista”...and so on.
The irony was not completely lost on us as we danced on anyway.
A while ago I mentioned a young music tutor called Kepa.
He grew up to be a top class musician who played his trikitixa all over the world rubbing shoulders with mucicians from Ireland to Madagascar.
Love his stuff. One of my favourite albums of all time is Bilbao 00.00h. Traditional music doesn’t have to be insular.
This sound will accompany me through the beech and oak woods in the final descent back down to Zegama.
Ladies and gentlemen... Kepa Junkera.
Here’s just one more, this time from a bertsolari, a Basque language poet, like Iñaki the stone lifter. Love the sound of this mysterious language. Can’t understand much though! It’s a love story. Kepa Junkera is on the accordian. A good one for when the sun sets on the long journey home...
I'm hoping there'll be a few write-ups of the race and the odd picture in the running press. Although it will never come close to the insider's view from BB.
I suspect that one of the great mountain running records has gone unnoticed by the fell running community.
Rob Jebb; Zegama 2005: 3 hours 54 minutes 18 seconds.
Zegama-Aizkorri is an extremely competitive race. It’s part of the skyrunning world series and the very best specialists in the world meet up here in both male and female catagories. UK fell runners, accustomed to steep, technical terrain and bad weather, seem to adapt particularly well to the circuit. The local runners are training all year around and could probably run it blindfold so bear this in mind when you consider that for the 2005 race Jebb turned up, did a spot of recce on the Saturday and on Sunday morning tore around the course like nobody had done before or since. I guess he was at the peak of his running prowess and he was the overall winner of the skyrunner world series that same year.
Simon Booth was second. Jebb and Booth remain 2 of only 4 runners who have dipped below 4 hours. Kilian Jornet is another.
This year the record will surely fall. Kilian Jornet, undisputed king of the mountains and 3 times winner at Zegama (sub 4 hours each time) is a skyrunner who usually achieves what he proposes:
Skyrunner world series winner 2007, 2008, 2009.
Ultra trail Mont Blanc winner and record holder 2008, 2009.
Ski mountaineering european champion 2009 world champion 2010.
World speed record Kilimanjaro (ascent and descent).
He’s still only 23 year old.
All this just goes to show how good Rob Jebb’s 2005 run was.
Last year and despite appalling weather conditions Kilian was only 2 minutes away. If the weather is good on Sunday, as it may well be, he is unlikely to let the record slip his grasp for a fourth time.
Rob Jebb returned to Zegama in 2006. Everybody expected him to retain his title but a small wiry guy from Mexico City proved to be a worthy challenger.
It’s hard to look at Ricardo Mejia without thinking of the Tamahumara indians. He’s not, he’s from Oaxaca, wherever that is. It’s tantalisingly difficult to find informnation about him on the net. All I know is that he runs a tool shop in Mexico City and that in 2006 he began to appear on the European circuit with spectacular results.
If Jebb’s 2005 record was the best individual performance to date, 2006 was a race that has not been matched since for drama. Mejia caught Jebb on the final descent and only 4 seconds separated them when the Mexican crossed the village square and reached the finishing line. Mejia also took Jebb’s world skyrunning crown. The following year Kilian appeared on the scene and it’s difficult to imagine anybody beating him on his own terrain.
Jebb, the BT engineer from Bradford hasn’t returned since but he has an heir, the appropriately named Ricky Lightfoot. Lightfoot, from the Lake District, was a surprise winner in 2009 but is probably not quite in Kilian’s class. We’ll see on Sunday.
Idiazábal is a fine local cheese made from unpasteurized sheep milk,a generous lump of which was awarded to all race finishers when I ran at Zegama in 2003 and 2004. Hope they maintain this excellent tradition. It’s the perfect cheese to eat with quince jelly and a beaker of cider, and that takes me back to the Sagardotegi cider house...... where this thread started.
(27-05-2011, 10:22 PM)Bierzo Baggie Wrote: Idiazábal is a fine local cheese made from unpasteurized sheep milk....
[rant]
I'll not often criticise my own country in these forums, but Australia is such a nanny state these days that unpasteurized cheese is illegal. Can you believe that? We make some of the finest cheese on the planet - or could do - but for ridiculously stringent regulations designed for "our protection" which insist all cheese be made from pasteurised milk.
So this is just a warning to you all - don't let that happen to you. Support your local unpasteurised cheese makers or watch the regulators move in and ruin it for everyone.
Still haven’t got round to describing my experience in (probably) the world’s greatest mountain running event, a race which I can now only visualize in 4 distinct sections.
1. Mrs Wu’s 50p rain poncho.
2. The Basque shepherd.
3. The grim reaper.
4. A lump of cheese converted into the Holy Grail.
Maybe too low-key for some.
![[Image: IMG_1094.JPG]](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_qToMcShHGO0/TdDzlKfLlYI/AAAAAAAAAgo/I4LfYMD6vog/s720/IMG_1094.JPG)
![[Image: DSC_0751.JPG]](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_55nXOsaJFkk/TdDFwY42wqI/AAAAAAAACMw/8vvmhwevlK4/s720/DSC_0751.JPG)
![[Image: queso-idiazabal-.jpg]](http://www.comejamon.com/102-189-large/queso-idiazabal-.jpg)
