24.9 miles, 3,200’ gain, 4,700’ loss, 7:44
Mind/Body
Today I went up and over the last mountain of the trip. The rain started before I woke up and stayed through noon when I had descended ~4,000 feet. This was real, consistent rain, not the light sprinkles like most of the earlier days. And it was cold and windy.
This was the coldest and wettest of the trip. My rain jacket (from Ultimate Direction) is designed as a running rain jacket that is very breathable. The reality is that when you are walking in heavy rain, you’ll get wet. After about 8 miles, I was freezing and stopped for tea, food, and time to warm up. (I stopped long enough to have my watch automatically save, hence two sections in Strava.) It took me 2-3 minutes to put my puffy jacket on because my hands weren’t working and wet, so they stuck to the jacket. It felt like pushing a rubber ballon through a rubber tube. Up to this point, I hadn’t put on my puffy coat because I wanted to keep it dry and have a reserve. If the puffy coat got soaked and lost its warmth, I would be in trouble. While warming up, I talked to a nice Irish and American girl. Refueled, I kept moving through the cold and rain, which gradually dissipated when I got lower.
I met an American and Scot that had lived in the US, New Zealand, and Australia over the last 10 years and didn’t have a home right now as they were about to move to the Sweden. I meet a lot of people that are in transition or retired on the Camino. It was nice down lower no rain and rolling hills.
Today way my shortest day so far. I ended with only ~120km left. Amazingly, I was ahead of schedule. I could have pushed hard and finished in 16 days, but then I would arrive in Santiago before my family, which I don’t want to do. So I decided to do a 40km after a rough day today, two 50k days, then a short 20km day when I meet my family!
At one point, the road was roped off. A woman was moving her cows from one pasture to another via the road. So I followed behind the cow parade.
Early in the day I crossed into the last province of the Camino: Galicia.
Spirit
Wow, it was hard to pray when I was really cold. My mind just wanted to go to the cold and rain. My thoughts were on what I can do to stay warm or when this was going to be over or why it was raining so much today or whether I should have bought a different rain jacket. I tried to stay focused on praying, but was unsuccessful.
When the rain let up down lower and I was warmer, I tried to not judge myself that I didn’t pray as much as I wanted to. Instead, I tried to think of it as a reminder for the future that it’s hard to pray and focus on the good when life is difficult or hard. So frequently I get stuck in some challenge or setback when it’s happening and it’s hard to think of anything else. Hopefully the Camino can help teach me to turn to God during these times.