242019Sep

Day 3.

I’m in. 48.5km in 7:44:36. What a day. It’s hilly here, we know that by now. But we also have loads of sunflower fields. It must be beautiful when they’re all blooming. Unfortunately, in our case they were past their prime.

It was Peter and I again. We have become a pretty good team, not only because we have really good conversations, but have also managed to synchronize quite well. By know we anticipate when the other runner is about to pace up or down, when to wait up and when a selfie is required.

The profile for today was merciful, it had quite a few climbs and rocky downhills with heavy gravel but for the most part really runnable (when I write that, I mean running with joy). Today it was the relentless wind that would follow us for 5-6 hours. No matter where we turned, it seemed to turn with us. Never underestimate the wind-chill, it cools you down and dries you out before you know. Eventually we added a few extra layers of clothes to deal with it.

Along the way and specifically today I lived of blackberries, freshly picked from the bushes. There’s plenty here and they taste wonderful. I just couldn’t eat any of the artificial gels – yak!

But no food means no energy for running or heading, so eventually we had to find a solution. It so happens that we found a Tapas bar after checkpoint 3, only 12 km from the finish line. We decided, given good pace and hungry, to go for some real food and a coke. Problem solved in 15 minutes.

I have developed three massive blisters. This time I’ll have to test them out. Tomorrow will be even more pain. Other than that I feel really well.

Sue mentioned in a post that I feel much better this time. Well, it’s long days and being able to take a hot shower, enjoy real food, sleep in a real bed and in dry conditions and receive family treatment makes all the difference.

I said it before and will say it many more times, this team is just awesome. Manu assembled a fantastic group of simply joyful people. Also, I’ll admit, I like hugs and I’m getting a lot of it here.

Dinner and the briefing for tomorrow starts in 20 minutes. I’ll see that I crash early to regain as much energy as possible. I’ll need it.

Wish me luck, send me whatever you don’t need tomorrow…

I’ll keep you posted.

Relive ‘3rd stage’

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