{"id":1137,"date":"2015-05-31T01:32:50","date_gmt":"2015-05-31T01:32:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/robscamino.com\/?p=1137"},"modified":"2018-04-17T10:16:25","modified_gmt":"2018-04-17T00:16:25","slug":"31st-of-may-the-start-of-the-final-hundred","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2015\/31st-of-may-the-start-of-the-final-hundred\/","title":{"rendered":"31st of May – The Start of the Final Hundred"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Final Hundred Kms to Santiago<\/h1>\n

Finally I’m within a hundred kilometers of Santiago.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Final<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I set out from the albergue<\/em> at about 8 a.m., again, it’s a beautiful day, slightly overcast, which is good, because it won’t be too hot.<\/p>\n

The first part is through a little valley with a beautiful old church. I paused to reflect a moment. The only sound, the dogs barking across the little valley and a couple of horses in a nearby field. I set out on this final one hundred kilometers with a little bit of trepidation. It’s almost like the first day leaving Saint Jean Pied de Port.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Triacastela<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It’s like Santiago<\/em> is so near but so far. I’ve given myself the best chance of getting there by planning to walk in short stages of 15-19 kilometers. But I know there are a couple of steep ascents and descents. So I’m taking every precaution with my feet and concentrating a lot harder on things like hydration and stretching prior to starting out. As someone remarked last night on the Camino de Santiago<\/em> forum, “Don’t count your chickens Rob,”<\/em><\/strong> and I’m not!<\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n

I’m glad to be going slow<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I’m walking with a great deal of care this morning, trying to remember what the physio told me in Ponferrada.<\/a> Don’t limp, because that will put strain on other muscles that are trying to compensate. So I’m walking very carefully and very correctly. Or at least as much as I can.<\/p>\n

I’m intentionally going extremely slow, not just to minimise the risk of further injury<\/a>, but I actually don’t want this final 100 kilometers to pass too quickly. There is a tendency for many people to rush this last 100.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Walking<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Once again, I’m almost glad that these injuries are slowing me down. I want to savor these final days, and the beauty of the countryside.<\/p>\n

It’s also an opportunity to reflect on the\u00a0journey so far and to go back over some of the things I pondered a couple of weeks ago.<\/p>\n

I think it’s time to\u00a0start drawing all those thoughts together, so this journey won’t\u00a0have been wasted. I need to be sure of what this journey has meant to me, so that I can take its lessons forward.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Afterthought..<\/strong><\/p>\n

It’s funny isn’t it?\u00a0 For me, this Final 100 kilometres is the home stretch.\u00a0 I’m almost finished.\u00a0 There is a real sense of being ‘almost there’.<\/p>\n

Some of he Pilgrims I have met over the last 7 weeks are even putting on a burst of speed, just to get the journey finished.\u00a0 Some are completing this section in 3 days<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In some ways I wish I could too.\u00a0 I feel in a sense that I want this journey to be completed.\u00a0 But deep down I know that to rush these final days might not be a good thing.\u00a0 Certainly\u00a0physically.\u00a0 I simply can’t.\u00a0 But emotionally and spiritually too.\u00a0 I want to wring out every last meter of this journey……\u00a0\u00a0 I don’t want the inner journey to stop….<\/p>\n

And yet for others.\u00a0 They are just starting<\/strong>.\u00a0 This IS their\u00a0Camino!\u00a0\u00a0 This final 100 kms is their whole journey.\u00a0 A very different journey to the one that is fast closing for me.\u00a0 But no less valid, no less rewarding…..just different.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Finally I’m within a hundred kilometers of Santiago. I set out from the albergue at about 8 a.m., again, it’s a beautiful day, slightly overcast, which is good, because it won’t be too hot. The first part is through a little valley with a beautiful old church. I paused to reflect a moment. The only sound, the dogs barking across the little valley and a couple of horses in a nearby field. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1160,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7,12],"tags":[22,54],"class_list":["post-1137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-gallery","category-physical","tag-camino-de-santiago","tag-santiago-de-compostela"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1137"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2593,"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1137\/revisions\/2593"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}