Day 16: Carrión – Terradillos de Templarios 26.6km.

Today, there’s a 19km stretch without any town. We’ve been told there’s stop trucks along the way, but still, it’s a long way. I had thought to do this stretch in addition to the previous day, making a gloriously batshit crazy 38 km hike. My foot grudgingly thanks me for not doing that. I decide to see sense and abandon that plan, and accompanying reservation.

I see our little crowd queuing for breakfast, refuel and we go. I pull ahead without feeling bad about abandoning my comrades. They have their pace, I have mine. The great thing about doing the stages by the book, is that you basically end up in the same places every night. A staggered stagger.

The quote “No plan survives contact with the enemy” was originally made by a Prussian field marshall. I prefer Mike Tyson’s modern update: “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth”. There are things that only experience can tell you. You sit at a desk, with your nice cup of flat white, in your comfy Herman Miller desk chair, looking at a table of distances, you say “yes, I can do that”, and just like that, you’ve done it. Except you haven’t. Consequently, my plans have changed, several times since arriving here.

Boots back on the ground, we’re just coming up to the halfway point of a more than 700km hike. Almost every person I’ve met, when I’ve asked them whether they’re headed to Santiago responded with “That’s the plan”. They’re humbled by the effects countless hours on the road have on their bodies, and those of their fellow pilgrims.

I’m humbled. My third time doing this, and I’m still learning. Don’t overestimate your daily pace. Your body is resilient, but you need to give it a chance to heal. Push too hard and it’ll just fight back. Keep to the standard pace, don’t rush.

My plans change, yet again. I’m going to skip forward a few days to Leon. Yes, that’s right. The completist in me is relinquishing to the reality of timing. I can cut the trip short and come back, or I can skip forward. If I’d been walking since the beginning this year, I’d have found that hard.