Going out for a run.

[Bierzo Baggie]

Aquilianos 2012.

This race report is overdue. And it ain’t gonna be pretty.

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills
When all at once I saw a crowd
And then I nearly shat myself

Err, that was at the Montes 20k food and drink checkpoint. Had to find a quiet spot away from all the thirsty people and the only quiet spot was round the side of the monastery which seemed a bit sacreligious at the time but when you’ve gotta go you’ve gotta go..

And I wasn’t in the Lake District and I wasn’t even that lonely.

6am. About 500 people had gathered for the usual rendez-vous. I’d had a big breakfast. Perhaps too big.

The Aquilianos long route is a 60k+ mountain ultra with over 3000m of vertical ascent. But it’s also a gastronomical extravaganza, famous for its generously stocked food and drink stations which provide one of the few plausible reasons for putting yourself through the whole ordeal in the first place. That and the company.

Early kms in darkness. Swapped impressions with some of “los historicos”.. Domingo the mountain goat, the mighty Susana, Aurelio (3 times sub-8 hours, despite never running particularly fast, the guy just never stops!) Noted the stomach problems early on but still ate a bit of water melon and half a cereal bar at the first 10k checkpoint. For this sort of physical effort what you eat is at least as important as what you drink. But what do you do if you can’t eat anything?

Got to Montes with a churning, swirling whirlpool in my stomach and paid homage to the Visigoth monks in the only way I could.

The next stop was behind a bush between Montes and Peñalba and the definitive dump was at 1800m above sea-level behind a pile of rocks.

Got to the summit of the Mare’s Saddle with a bit of a dilemma. This was the 17th edition of the Aquilianos. I’d finished the previous 16 only missing out on the first one (didn’t live in Ponferrada at the time). It had crossed my mind to pack it in. Was it possible to get round on water and a couple of jelly babies?

This was not a day to enjoy the scenery either. It had been a good call to take the photos the previous Sunday. Today the breathtaking panoramic vistas were obscured by swirling mist. To carry on was madness. Madness prevailed.

Ran-trotted-walked the slatey spine of the Aquilianos range and its 4 principle peaks, all the while encased in gloom and uncertainty. Thankfully it was not excessively cold. Slowly my apetite returned. I needed food.

There was another checkpoint at the top of La Guiana, the prominent hermitage-capped pyramid which provides one final challenge before the long long descent. 4 years ago I had squatted behind the hermitage in a similar state of digestive discomfort. This time I tucked into large cream cake in a last desperate act of reckless defiance, a cheeky V-sign in the face of the demons in my stomach.

The cream cake settled in nicely and my confidence returned.

Six and a half hours into the race I started talking to people again. In Campo de las Danzas I caught up with Aurelio who was hobbling with a knee injury, suffering in silence, determined to finish.

Chorizo sandwich in Ferradillo. Lovely.

A bowl of cherries in Rimor. Ran sections I don’t normally run.

At the finish, a slice of tuna pie and a can of San Miguel.

Final time 10 hours 22 minutes. Probably spent between 2 and 3 hours actually running.

Did I enjoy it? Yes, no, ...sometimes.

Here’s a photo of the first section of the Mare’s Saddle, scrounged off somebody else’s picasa page. A truly terrible climb.