Day 45 – EU – Spain [Benidorm to Moraira]


19/01/20

38.5km

  From Benidorm (Spain) to Moraira (Spain)

Europe


A day made incredibly difficult by the mighty gusty winds… the most tiring day of the world run so far?

All weather forecasts had a very rainy day in store for me. I set out of Benidorm just before sunrise, and as I snapped shots of BoB against the sunrise, I grew confident that I would not be having any rain today. And on that part, I was right. Something else was brewing though, and it took about 18km to set in: it was gonna be an almighty windy day!

The first part of the run went very smooth. Then I met with the Tunnel of Mascarat. I had noticed the wind had picked up… I had not really measured how much it had. By the time I crossed the tunnel, the wind was at its mightiest. The tunnel itself turned into a real “wind tunnel”. I was bent over in half behind BoB, pushing with all my might, just to put one foot in front of the other. The tunnel may have been a few dozen meters long. But to me it had no end. The noise of the wind was deafening.

A peloton of cyclists passed me by, it appeared to be in slow-mo. They rode past me ever so slowly, all puffing and hissing. Then a particularly strong gust came our way, and I saw the peloton, which had zero speed, collapse to the side, right in front of me. All the riders on the left collapsed at once on the guys to the right! It was sort of amusing to see it happen at no speed. There was no casualty and they all remounted promptly and left the scene very quickly.

That made the second half of the run today a very slow one! I noticed how it did not matter anymore whether the road was going up or down. All that mattered was, was the wind front or back to me! The landscapes did not disappoint, and the road to Moraira was beautiful. But Lord did it seem like I paid the highest price to get to see all of these marvels!

Today may well have been the most tired I finish a run on this World Run so far. Actually, 700m away from my hotel, I had a call with my sister. I was in tatters as I was trying to explain to her how I was so close to my destination, yet the headwind was so strong I had no clue how I would ever get there! It was a funny moment – and I got there within just a few minutes, I’m absolutely knackered tonight!

A snap of what lunch looks like for me: a computer, a piece of meat, some veggies, fries, salt pepper & oil, and a beer! And then… what starts as a lonely lunch often turns into discussions with table neighbours or waiters/ waitresses!

This afternoon’s and tonight’s gusts average above 100kph…. tomorrow promises to be gusty!



Check my daily run GPS data on or

Here is the map of today’s run: