TransEspana Day 3: Ayerbe to Castejon de Valdejsa (51km)

Today was good. Slept really well last night (in a sports hall in Ayerbe) — there was a little bit of snoring, but I was just so darn tired I reckon I had 4 x 1.5h blocks of decent sleep.

We were up at 5.30am, for a 6.15am breakfast and 7.30am departure. Breakfast was simple enough – coffee (served in bowls, I like these French ideas!), cereal, bread with butter & jam, and some fruit.

We kicked off at 7.30, heading out of town and it was pretty much downhill 14.6km all the way to the first aid station. The road was a minor one (sealed), but not much traffic, and very straight. We were heading through farming country, with fields on both sides, and passed a couple of very small villages and farms along the way. Everyone seemed to be moving well, and I ran the majority of this first leg.

The aid station was the usual fare, and I threw on my arm & neck sleeves, and applied some sunscreen (“borrowed” from one of the other participants). This leg was had some small, sharp, bumps but was generally downhill. We remained on the same road with fields left and right, and could see a wind farm coming up ahead. Through aid 2 at the 28km mark.

After a right turn onto a smaller road, we made our way to aid 3. Generally uphill, but very runnable for the most part. As we approached aid 3, I passed a couple of guys, and there were maybe 3 or 4 people or just leaving the aid station. For reasons unknown, I’d had enough of looking at people in front of me, so went through this station very quickly (just grabbing bananas and muffins and chips), and went out rapidly. The course profile showed this leg as a steep uphill for about 7km, then downhill for 6. But it was quite runnable for the first 2.5k or so, and then I engaged “uphill walk mode” and powered up the hill. I was really enjoying this climb and didn’t want it to end — the views of the farmland and wind farm(s) were incredible as we got higher up, but all to soon it switched to downhill. I’d not seen any of those behind me for a while, but decided no-one was catching me and ran down the final 6.5km. Urgh.

Into the finish line in 6:22, well ahead of the planned 7:07. Whoops. Might end up paying for that later. Note to self: take tomorrow super easy — we have 61km tomorrow, that looks like an easy descent to commence, and ascent at the end, nothing too steep. My plans have me really slowing down, which I will because following that it’s two days of 76km.

We are starting tomorrow at 6.30am, not sure why but it’s likely a combination of “smart people will take longer” (per above), and maybe to give us more time to rest tomorrow night. Accomodation is again at a sports hall, this town looks really small – didn’t see any sign of shops on the way in. On arrival it was a cold communal shower (there was a fair bit of shrieking, it was so cold), then I washed the last three days of running gear and hung that out. Today’s post-run “salad” was a pasta salad, couscous and chicken drumsticks. Naturally, I ate a lot of the pasta. We have Apéritif’s at 6pm, dinner at 7pm, and then an early to-bed. Breakfast tomorrow is at 5.15, eeek!