Tag Archive: Spain

Sea to summit

December 4, 2019, by
Feet above the clouds on the summit of Pico del Cielo

They were definitely naked. Sin ropa. Starkers. I couldn’t say for certain whether they were doing yoga or tai-chi but it involved stretching. A surprising start to the morning, but apparently La Caleta is a hippy commune as well as a beach. I’d arrived at just the wrong moment. I was staying in the village of Maro, lured by the towering Pico del Cielo rising 1,508 metre above the white washed Andalusian houses. I could well have started at my apartment, but there’s a special attraction to going from sea to summit. Plus, where better to calibrate an altimeter than with your feet in the waves? So I headed the kilometre down to the beach in the morning sun. It was obvious I was out of place. I wasn’t the only one in clothes, but I suspect I was the only one who didn’t live there and the residents looked... View Article

Bilbao Night Marathon 2017

October 21, 2017, by
The author in a crowd of runners at Bilbao Night Marathon

I think it was at about the twenty mile mark when the steward on the motorcycle pulled alongside me. I’m not great at Spanish, but it didn’t take a lot to figure out that he was asking if I was okay to carry on. I lifted my head up, tried to force a smile, picked up my pace a little and gave him the thumbs up. It seemed to satisfy him and he offered some words of encouragement before continuing on. How had I gotten myself into this mess? I’ve ran twenty miles or more plenty of times this year. Why is it that this time it had turned so horribly, horribly wrong? Why do my marathon efforts seem to always end up in me dragging my legs around the last miles at roughly the same pace as a glacier? Rewind two months and I am feeling confident. Since joining... View Article