Nobody could keep up with Nathan and he soon left us in the dust. He is, after all, an Ironman. I pretty much ate Lori's dust as well. Today I was the Slowest Man on the Camino. Fat man walking. I calculate that I gained about 760,000 joules of gravitational energy getting here, considering the 620m of elevation gain and the mass of me and my pack. Since it took me about 4 hours and 15 minutes to get here, that means my power output was about 50 watts. Sadly, all of that would be wiped out by a McDonald's cheese burger.
This first day of walking has been amazing. We've seen beautiful sights and met so many people from all over the world. I wish I spoke some French, but fortunately many people speak English. I had a very interesting experience yesterday trying to buy a postage stamp from a woman who spoke only French. Fortunately a bilingual customer interceded and I got my stamp. Culturally this is starting out as a great experience.
Tomorrow is another shorter day (I'm not going to say easier because today wasn't), we will walk about 19km to an albergue in an old monastery at Roncesvalles. First, a big climb at least equal to today's followed by an equally big descent.
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