TransEspana

Tomorrow at 9am local (GMT+2), I set off with 23 other runners on a 1080km, 18 day journey, across Spain. Each day we’ll be covering between 45-76km, predominantly on the road, and lodging overnight in hostels and sports halls. There’s 10 more runners joining us for the first seven days, and a small army of volunteers and organisers taking care of us.

I’ve been following this event since 2022, and in December ’23 expressed an interest to participate in the 2024 event only to learn that it wasn’t being held that year. As soon as entries opened for 2025 though, my application was in.

Anxious. Scared. Terrified. Imposter. These are some of the many feelings I’ve had over the last days, weeks and months. I’m going into an event that has some of Europe’s best multi-day runners, and my experience is limited to a couple of back to back ultras. I know everyone has to start somewhere, but choosing an 18 day event, as the only native-English speaker, in a totally unfamiliar situation and knowing nobody, has seen me filled with doubt and worry. But, yeh, it’s just a run. Another ultra. I’ve trained for this, and all I have to do is get to the start line each morning, and to the next aid station, and then the next, all under cutoff (which is all based on a most generous 5.6kph minimum pace).

I’ll try to do a daily post after each leg. With lots of photos (otherwise I’ll forget all of the details). There’ll also be updates on the event’s website & facebook page.

Here goes nothing!