Man, what a wild journey. I've been thinking about doing this ever since I first hiked the camino in 2022, but never had the fitness to do it until now. This was super meaningful for me.
First day went quite smoothly, feeling good going up the hill, not too hot yet, and apparently the very first one into Roncesvalles in just over 4 hours. The heat picked up through the day but was never too bad. All my planning paid off as I knew exactly where I was stopping for food (Zubiri and Pamplona, carrying snacks for the rest of the way). Got through Pamplona smoothly and made it over Alto del Perdon before the end of the day.
In general for every day, I picked up some food from cafes/bars/restaurants and made sure to have enough snacks to get from larger city to city. I also camped every night except the sixth, carrying a bivvy bag, inflatable sleeping pad and a sleeping bag in my backpack. I decided not to bring a water filter since I knew there were many fountains and cafes along the way where I could refill my bottles. There were only a couple sections where I needed more than a litre between refill points, so I carried a 0.5l bottle in addition to the two 0.5l soft flasks that sit in the shoulder straps of my Outdoor Vitals Skyline 30 Fastpack. The weather was sunny every day, getting quite hot (into the high 20s / low 30s) for the last three days. I soaked my arm sleeves and hat with water every time I could to help deal with that.
Day two mostly went well besides a wrong turn at the end of the day, which took me way too long to realize so I had to backtrack and do about 3.5km extra. Made it through Logroño which was exciting and camped a few km past there. Day three was a little confusing getting into/through Burgos, and it started getting quite hot. I also started getting proper blisters and very sore feet near the end of the day, but besides that it all went well. Same story for day 4, and trying to avoid sunburn. On the fifth day I had some pretty major foot and leg pain all day. This was definitely the hardest day to get through as I still had so far to go and it hurt so bad already. But I just told myself to get to the campsite I wanted on my schedule that night, and tomorrow things might change.
And oh they definitely changed. After the first hour of warming up, I felt amazing for the next 10h. I was efficient, string, and focused. Even at the 65-70km mark when things started hurting again I was able to push all the way to Astorga, where I got my first and only hotel of the trip. I ate a nice big dinner (chicken doner wrap and fries), had a shower, charged up my batteries, and got a great sleep. Not surprisingly I felt a lot better at the start of day 7 because of all this, and I thought that the end was in sight. I decided that I wanted to push to 100km for the day, since that would mean I only had 100 miles to go which I'd done in a race before. Seemed more mentally achievable. From what I can remember, the day went mostly pretty good until the 92km mark where my legs and feet especially just started hurting so bad again. Made slower progress but got my 100km and then had to camp in the middle of the trail because there were no other flat spots at all. I set up camp and set my alarm for 4 hours later, so 3.5 hours of sleep after the cramps in my legs finally went away.
Day 8/9 was pretty wild. Started quite slow on the steep climb up to O Cebreiro. Made it through there moving decently and then picked up the pace a bit on the downhill. I ended up meeting and walking for a couple hours with a former Ironman world champion and his wife. They asked me what I was doing as I ran by them and decided to speed up to be able to talk with me a bit. Really nice to have a chat to distract myself as my feet were already a bit sore from the day before and I knew I wanted to do the rest of the trail in one big push. After a quick meal and leaving that couple behind, I hiked the absoloutely beautiful section between Triacastela and Sarria, one of my favorites of the whole trail. Kept on going to Portomarin, picking up some snacks to get me through the night and a huge ham and cheese sandwich for dinner. More beautiful trail leaving there and started taking some caffeine pills to help me get through the night.
The night was a bit slower than I hoped and I did have to stop a couple times to rest my feet and legs. I wasn't able to sleep, but I did close my eyes for a bit and that helped with the sleepy feeling. Sat at a picnic table with my head on my arms the first time, and just laid down in the dirt the second time. By dawn I had about 50km to go and got a bit emotional thinking about finishing this. Stopped for breakfast and snacks to get me to the end with about 42km to go. Leaving there I met another guy living right around where I do in Canada. We talked for a few minutes and then I left him behind since I was feeling good and wanted to push to the end. That good feeling lasted until about 18km to go, at the last bigger town before Santiago. After that it was just so so hot with hardly any water available, and I was a bit worried about getting heatstroke. The tiredness was catching up with me again and i had to slow down a little. Just felt like I was unable to push the pace no matter how hard I tried mentally. Luckily I found a fountain with nice cold water about 5km from the end where I soaked my hat and arms, and drank a bunch. From there I still tried to push the pace but it was so hard to run even downhill. I had the thought that I really did push my body to the limits.
With 200m to go, I saw one of my best friends that I met on the camino last time I hiked it. He was filming and ran with me for the last minute. Running through those arches and seeing the cathedral was absoloutely amazing and gave me enough adrenaline or whatever that I didn't instantly collapse. Another great friend was filming from the main square. Pretty amazing moment that I was so happy to share with them. Got the strava activity uploaded, texted the family, got my compostela and then sat down for a good hour before I could think about walking again. Got some pretty nice blisters. In the end the last push was a bit over 33.5 hours straight with no sleep to do 162.5km. I feel really good about what I did and hope the time stands for at least a little while.