Day 2: Zubiri to Mañeru

34 miles, 3,600’ climbing

Yes, I did move on Day 2! I’m using a rest day to finally catch up.

Mind

There was rain in the start, middle, and end today. I’ve never really run in the rain where I have to just keep going versus opening the door to a warm house at the end of a run. I had nothing to fear. While I got just about as wet from sweat under the rain jacket, it was warm enough that I just hung my rain jacket off my pack and it and me dried pretty quickly.

The first third of the day I ran on hobbit trails. That’s what they felt like because they were all overgrown with trees and bushes that I had to duck a lot.

I went through Pamplona today. It was weird coming into the bigger city after being out in the countryside. Busy, slightly jarring, and lots of SQUIRRELS (as many of you know, I get easily distracted, which I joke is like when you point out that you see a squirrel in the middle of a conversation about something else).

After leaving town, I realized that I automatically into tourist mode, not pilgrim mode, in Pamplona. I loved the book The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway, so I wanted to see some of the places the book talks about. I even had a Magnum ice cream! The wheat fields after city were amazing and peaceful. It was such a contrast and snapped me back into pilgrim mode. It was also a good opportunity to learn that I must be more present to my pilgrimage in big cities.

Body

This was a long run today. I didn’t eat enough lunch or food along the way. With about 5k to go, I was really hungry. It was siesta time (~2-4pm), so all the stores were closed. Instead I found a restaurant, ordered a pizza and devoured it. Then I completed the last 5km, with a little of a gut bomb. (After 7 days, my body feels much more accepting of eating and running.)

I’m still not sleeping through the night. It’s probably a combination of jet lag and the late meals.

Common Home

We had a great communal dinner. I’m trying to stay at hostels with shared meals. We had a great conversation, especially about the environment.

One gentleman was from Denmark. It was so great to have an example of a country that is taking a lead on addressing climate change at a national level. I’m sure some of my numbers are not exactly accurate, but the direction is clear. Right now Denmark gets ~40% of its energy from renewables. By ~2050, they will be at 100% renewables. In urban areas, they generate hot water centrally that travels through incredibly insulated pipes to houses for heating, one of the most efficient ways to heat houses. They all use radiant floor heating of course. Companies like Google and Apple are locating data centers in Denmark because of their renewable energy. But the data centers are also using all the heat generated by the computers to heat up the water for everyone’s houses. Yes, Denmark is smaller than the US, but this is an example of what states and countries can do.

Mary from Ohio told me her story. As a Catholic, she had heard the Gospel’s and Pope Francis’ call to protect our common home. She had taken action at her home to use less energy and cut down on the amount of plastic bottles her family uses. (Pope Francis’ letter Laudato Si specifically talks about our ’throw away’ culture and the need to stop using and throwing away so much, such as water bottles.) I did have to challenge her a little bit because she’s taken action at home, but not at her Parish. Hopefully Mary and I will fix that in the future!