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I left Aliette sleeping in the comfort of our king sized bed this morning to try and accomplish a highly ambitious 47km.
It's inevitable that without my wife by my side I will attract other women. It is therefore no surprise that within 500m of the parador a senioreta waves me to her. She is the size of a family hatchback.
I have to use my Spanish which is exposed for what it truely is - appalling. I smile and probably look quite retarded before uttering a "si" to whatever she has said. She laughs and blurts out another rapide sentence of espanyol. "erm..... Si..." I respond. She chuckles again. Wonder what she's saying ?
" hey, clean shaven pilgrim. I would like to dust you in flour and turn you into a 6 ft churro " I chuck in a "que?" for good measure and then we part ways. She yells at me. It is obvious that i have not understood a word. She stands with an outstretched arm pointing me in the opposite direction to the way I was walking.
"La virgin del Camino "
"erm... si ?"
" la virgin del Camino" she says slightly louder.
" Am I a virgin ? What ??. " Do I show her pictures of my kids as proof. Is she asking that this is my first walk ?? She shakes her head and walks off.
I feel rather stupid when out of Leon is la virgen del Camino. Oops.
Aliette has clearly done her research as the first 23km of today is truely mind numbing. Essentially I am walking down the hard shoulder of the N120.
Anyone that knows me knows I am not a runner. For that reason, completing marathon has never been on my to do list. However, today aged 36, I can claim that I completed my first marathon, wearing a 10kg backpack in searing heat. Not going to brag about the time though - 10 hours 23 minutes (including an hour for lunch !!)
The day in numbers :
47 - kilometres walked
0.5 - number of bananas consumed
8 - number of spainards I mis-communicated with
34 - degrees at 3pm
2 - Betty Swollocks
- comments
Yanik Excellent job Nick! And you still got it! Now you can take a marathon off your bucket list...oh wait, it wasn't on your bucket list, oh well - add it and check it off! You guys are doing a great job- believe it or not, I am envious and look forward to doing this in the future - and your blog makes me want to do it even more! Keep on trekking!