A Long Walk on the Most Beautiful Coast in the World

The YogaBody e-mail dropped in my Inbox in very early January: “This May, join us for a walk along the stunning coastline of Spain.”

You had me at “May”. And at “coastline”. And, of course, “Spain”.

It’s cold, it’s getting dark early, and we don’t know it yet, but the Washington DC area is going to get hit in two weeks with, first, snow, and then a layer of freezing ice rain that will seal and harden the snow — the year of “Snow-crete.” We had to use garden spades to break the snow apart before we could shovel it.

Meanwhile, here are the photos YogaBody sent in their e-mail:

Are you kidding me? Whatever the opposite of “cold, dark, and get ready for ice-snow” is, these photos are it.

YogaBody, an online daily stretching program I had been using for a few years, was inviting me and up to 54 other motivated people to do a Mindful Marathon (“MM”) along the Costa Brava in northeastern Spain. Twenty-six miles (or a 13-mile half marathon option) in one day, stopping every hour or so to ponder and write in a journal reflections on such topics as “Seasons of Experience” and “Call to Adventure”.

The physical marathon part (in Spain!) attracted me, and I was hoping the mindful part would attract my meditation-loving wife, Ms. Anysecondnow.

“Hey there, sweetie,” I approached her the next day, “what would you think about going to Spain this May and doing a walk along the coast.” I quickly added, “There’s going to be lots of meditation opportunities!” And, “We both speak Spanish!”¹

Ms. A. was dubious (her word) about the 13 mile length, but she agreed with a few caveats. We would have to get there a few days early to acclimate to the time change and she could drop out if she wanted. Done and done.

Training

As regular readers (all 11 of you) know, I ride my bike a lot. I’m in pretty good cardio shape for a dude in his early 50s. My legs are strong. But I knew from prior backpacking trips that hiking hits different leg muscles with different forces than pedaling a bike, particularly in the hip area. I could not hop off my bicycle saddle and nail a 26 mile one-day hike, 4000 feet of up and down, without some rigorous training hikes.

In the meantime, I had marked out a 6 mile out and back walking route from our house for Ms. Anysecondnow. Why 6 miles and not 13? Because under the “Fitness Requirements” heading, YogaBody said “If you can easily walk for 6 miles (10 km) on any given day, you can likely finish the half marathon distance.” Six miles became her goal and I joined her on a few of her walks as she worked up her distance.

As Ms. A. trained, I continued riding my bike as usual, enjoying the warming spring weather and resisting tying on my hiking boots.

But remember those cold early January days when late May seemed so far off? Gone. Suddenly it was less than 30 days until the May 23 MM hike. I could delay no longer.

My first training hike was a flat out and back 11 miles along the Virginia side of the Potomac River. I was pretty worn out by the end and sore for the next 24 hours. Especially the hips and feet. Whew.

A week later, I found myself at Blackwater Falls State Park in West Virginia on a drizzly, cool April day. I did not see a single hiker during my damp trek. Besides some nice waterfalls, this hike added 1400 feet of elevation, which was good, but the drizzle chilled me as I tromped through wet rhododendron bushes. Even with rain gear and gloves, my hands were growing numb and I had to end after 10.3 miles. Thank goodness for seat heaters.

With 10 days to go before the MM, I knocked out another 14.5 miles on mostly flat suburban trails along streams and neighborhood streets. I was improving. My legs and feet weren’t as sore as before.

Finally, six days before “MM Day”, I finished off a 16 mile hike tracing the old C&O Canal towpath and Billy Goat Trail in Maryland.

Ready or not, Spain, here we come.

España

Ms. Anysecondnow and I had visited Spain 25 years ago during a spring break from my legal classes at Queen Mary College, University of London. If we could have chosen any Spanish city to return to, it probably would have been the Moorish-style cities of Sevilla or Grenada. But the YogaBody call to Barcelona was fine with us and, what do you know, just in time to see Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia finally completed.

And the weather, oh my, 72 degrees and blue skies every day. We happily strolled around the Gothic Quarter near our hotel, eating tapas and gelato, chatting with locals, and relaxing on our rooftop pool deck. Always on the lookout for biking opportunities, I borrowed the hotel bike 3 times in 2 days to ride among the buildings and beaches, admiring the beautiful city and beautiful people.

Soon enough, it was Friday afternoon and we made our way to the YogaBody meet up and yoga class. I won’t lie, I was excited to see YogaBody founder, Lucas. His voice on the Science of Streching recording had been a regular evening accompaniment in our house for over two years.

We walked down into the hotel basement where a few dozen of our future best friends were settling onto yoga mats and then I heard a familiar voice up front — it was Lucas, in the flesh!

After calming myself down, I found a mat next to Ms. Anysecondnow and we all went through some yoga moves, got a briefing on the schedule and hike, etc., and then boarded the bus waiting at the hotel — wait, no, we did not board a bus outside the hotel. Instead, we walked a half mile through Barcelona streets pulling our luggage to another hotel to get on the bus. I do not know why we did this and why the bus didn’t come to the first hotel. But I’m sure there was a reason — In Lucas We Trust.

After a bus ride through weekend traffic, we arrived in the oh-so-charming coastal town of Sant Feliu de Guixols and checked in to the Elke Spa Hotel. We devoured an excellent Euro-style buffet dinner, where Ms. Anysecondnow and I chatted with a couple from Quebec, and then it was off to bed for the 4:30am wake up.

The Hike

Having now done this, I can affirm that walking 26 miles along the Costa Brava with thousands of feet of accumulated elevation is a no-joke, you-better-be-in-shape sort of hike. It is not just a sunny stroll.

But if you’re going to do a hard hike like this, why not do it on the most beautiful coastline in the world? Perhaps I’m exaggerating, but maybe not. I’ve visited and walked along some lovely coastlines: Italy, Maine, California, Turkey, to name a few, and I’d happily put our route, the Cami de Ronda along the Costa Brava, up there with the most beautiful in the world.

Good job, YogaBody!

After a very hearty and very early breakfast at the Elke, we boarded the bus at 6am and drove north up the coast. First stop was for the half marathon group, around 30 folks — good-bye, Ms. Anysecondnow! — and then a few minutes later our full marathon group of just under 20 exited the bus.

The man himself, Lucas was leading the full marathon and I am here to say that the man is in superb condition. Lucas started us out at a fast pace that never really let up the entire day. Within minutes, our group was strung out along the (gorgeous) coastal trail.

After the first mile, we’d already lost our first hiker due to fatigue and sickness, and by the end of the day, we’d lost a few more. Stop to drop some pebbles out of your shoe (and taking a moment to gaze at the lovely coast behind you)? You’re at the back of the line.

Despite the pace, we stopped every hour or so for a rest and food break and also to write in our mindful marathon journals. I had visions of Lucas leading us in meditation in secluded areas along the trail. In reality, I would say it was more pep talks than meditation, with a few minutes to write something. As the hours passed and the heat increased, we weren’t writing in our journals much. Refilling our food and water and finding bathrooms became the priority.

But the scenery — lighthouses, churches, beaches tiny and big, narrow alleys lined with flower boxes, and always the purple Mediterranean stretching out into forever — was as good as we could have hoped.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Anysecondnow was rocking it in the half marathon. Our full marathon group crossed paths with hers at around our halfway point at a beach café hang-out spot. It was fun to find her and share stories about our day. Her group had already taken several unintended detours — it turns out that “just follow the coast” is not always obvious — so most of them ended up doing 14+ miles by the end.

Nevertheless, I don’t think she could have imagined walking 13 miles or more up and down the Spanish coast back in the winter, but here she was, living the January dream.²

She also told me their group was taking lengthy breaks, but wasn’t doing any meditation or journal writing. This concerned me because I had “sold” this trip to her as a meditation experience. But she was still enjoying herself and we were both having a great time making personal connections along the coast.

The truth was that we didn’t need the meditation so much because we had people — everybody else in our groups. This was where the meaning and mindfulness was coming from.

On this one day, as the miles and hours passed, I had in-depth conversations with at least 10 of the 15 people in my group. About what? Pretty much everything. We freely shared about our youth, marriages, religions, recovery and reinvention, jobs, our concerns, the future, anything and everything.

Lucas knew this (In Lucas We Trust!) would happen. Near the end of the day, I ended up next to him at the front of the group. I told him I would probably write an article and asked for a quote about what he thought was the most important part of the MM. He said “sharing stories with strangersCandidly, I've probably garbled this quote slightly. I thought I wrote it down afterwards but now I can't find it. And it's been 3 months. But I think this is reasonably accurate!.”

He was right. When you probably won’t ever see somebody again but you are working hard together to accomplish something, you often feel like you can share anything. I can’t now remember everybody’s name. I might have trouble even recognizing some of their faces if they weren’t dressed in hiking clothes with sunglasses, hat, and a backpack.³

But to Liz and Mark, and Renee (these are a few of the names I do remember) and everybody else I spoke to about adopting kids, hiking the world, what’s next in life, and finishing a screenplay, thank you for sharing with me and for listening to me on one beautiful May day along the Spanish coast.

Celebrate!

And then we were done.

Here we were, at the opposite end of an extended Spanish day, the golden light fading on the other horizon, and our marathon group wearily approached the sanctuary of the Elke hotel. My feet were beat, my calf muscles — the right one at about mile 16 and the left around mile 22 — had stiffened up. Yet, as tired and dirty as I felt, I didn’t want to go inside and shower until everybody I had suffered with during the day was there and we could congratulate each other. Yay, us!

Cleaned up, wearing our white shirts, Ms. Anysecondnow and I joined others crossing (I hobbled) the town square to the Italian restaurant. In addition to the food, we were serenaded with Spanish music and some impromptu dancing by the enthusiastic restaurant manager. More shared stories, Lucas visiting each table, passing food around, and then Ms. A. and I slip out with a few others before dessert to return to our rooms and soft beds.

Another morning, another “I know I’m eating too much, but there is so much good food here” buffet breakfast. We join an Italian attorney (fellow attorneys, unite!) from Ms. A’s half-marathon group and we are the only people in the room for a little while. Everybody else is still enjoying a well deserved slumber.

On this last morning, YogaBody was offering a post-breakfast trek up a hill to a church overlooking Sant Feliu and the Mediterranean.

In my life, if there is a physical activity going on, I’m usually in. FOMO and all that. And some of my new friends will be there. Of course I want to do this final morning hike, right?

Perhaps it is the fact that Ms. Anysecondnow is not keen on going. Perhaps I am just getting older. And perhaps I am becoming more mindful. I am thinking harder about what I do or do not.

I do not do the trek up the hill to the church.⁴

After breakfast, we take the elevator to the 5th floor of the Elke Spa hotel.

“Two spa passes with the YogaBody discount, please.” Ah, España.

Aftermath

Valbone, Northern Albania, the “Accursed Mountains”. Ten days after the MM, and after stops in Bulgaria and Macedonia, I’m 7,000 feet up in Albania on one of the highlights of the Peaks of the Balkans trail — the Valvone to Theth section. It’s a stunner, around 8 miles with a steep climb up and over a mountain pass.

Everybody does this hike as a one-way point to point, but I kept thinking how it would be so much easier logistically to do this as a round-trip out and back instead — hike from Valbone to Theth, turn around and then hike back over the pass to my starting point in Valbone.

That would mean doubling an already hard hike over a mountain pass to 16 miles and twice over the pass. Could I do that? Ha! I just did 26+ miles on the Costa Brava 10 days ago with Lucas. Of course I can.

I started in Vallbone just before 7am, got a little lost, found the trail again, summited the pass, hiked down to the outskirts of Theth, ate an awesome Albanian pastry, then turned around, hiked back over the pass, took lots of pictures the whole time, and was back chilling in my mountain cabin by 3pm. No problem.

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1. In truth, Ms. A. truly speaks Spanish, having lived in Chile and then teaching it in the Virginia public schools for many years. I can get along pretty well myself — just ask me about the pluscuamperfecto verb tense! — but not at her level.
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2. Not only did Ms. Anysecondnow polish off this hike just fine (and less sore and stiff than me), but she is putting together her own 13 mile (mostly flat!) trek next month along the Potomac in Virginia and Maryland and invited friends to join her. There will be more story sharing and probably a little bit of actual mindfulness.
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3. Not recognizing somebody’s face already happened. On the same day of the hike!
   
   In the hotel lobby after the hike, we’re all in white, getting ready to walk to dinner, and I sat down on a couch next to a pretty lady. We chatted for a moment and it was obvious she knew who I was and then I realized, “Wait a second, this is [name redacted] from our hike!” Barely an hour ago, we’d been sharing heartfelt experiences with each other. She laughed with me, thank goodness, and exclaimed, “I guess you don’t recognize me when I’m all dolled up!” Love it. I hope you finish your book.
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4. Not to worry, I do the hike the next morning instead! ↩︎