Following the Gleam

June 6, 2024

Endurance

Of all the days I had been anxious about today’s was definitely the worst. 32km is a long way and add in a busted foot and it seemed ludicrous that I might even entertain the idea. Add in 500m of elevation gain, a new persistent cough and general apathy towards Vilalba and… taking a taxi to Santiago seemed a much better option.

Instead, I set my alarm ludicrously early, pushed Bilby to do the same and by 0630h we were packed and ready to go.

I can confidently say that my favourite part of Vilalba was leaving it. It helped that it was cool and foggy and that the path out of town rapidly entered tree tunnels and bucolic splendour. I gave myself a goal of trying to get to the 10 km point before 10 am then if I still felt wretched then I would limp into Baamonde and stop. But surprisingly at 10 I was feeling quite well and had to remind myself to stop and eat.

After crossing a Roman Bridge with sides the perfect height to sit I opened my bag and made a Vegemite sandwich and for the first time in many years tried counting calories to check I was actually ingesting enough.

By this time I knew I would make Baamonde easily enough and we could have lunch and a break before tackling the last 10 km.

The path out of Baamonde was quite pretty but somewhat frustrating as it seemed to unnecessarily loop over a hill and then follow a wide arc to finally get to our end point of the day. Had this been endlessly scenic I could maybe understand it but I didn’t find much joy in it. At the 30km mark I knew I was in some trouble as it was hot, I barely had any water left and there were still 4 km to go.

I finally finished, proving that despite injury I *could* manage 50000 steps in a day. But as I wobbled up and down the stairs in our accommodation while my foot throbbed I wondered more if it was a case of *should*.