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Here's a post I wrote after my last Camino for the intranet at work, for sort of an employee newsletter. I thought I'd share it here in case the lessons resonated with anyone here.
The Long Walk: Five Lessons from the Camino
This summer I spent about six weeks walking over 800 kilometres across the north of Spain with my teenage son Toby, from Roncesvalles high in the Pyrenees, to Finisterre (the “end of the Earth,” the westernmost point in Europe) on a thousand-year-old pilgrimage route, the Camino de Santiago. What did I learn on this marathon walk? Here’s what I came up with:
1. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other.
Eight hundred km is a long way to walk, across mountains and plains in the height of the Spanish summer. But you don’t have to be a super fit athlete to do it. We started the walk with no training, just packs on our backs (as light as we could get them) and a destination in front of us. And we weren’t the only ones. All sorts of people were walking the same route, from elderly seniors to kids as young as five. You just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep walking each day until you get there.
2. Take care of your feet.
Walking long distances every day encourages one to respect the feet that are carrying you. It’s not easy on them. A few pilgrims lead a charmed life but most end up with blisters (and/or tendonitis, knee issues, etc.). You can’t let that stop you – just keep going! For most, caring for their feet and the resulting blisters was a daily activity. If it gets really bad, take a rest day and then keep walking. We took two rest days at different points. The second rest day made all the difference for my son.
3. It’s not a race.
Walking the Camino is not a competitive sport to see who can get to Santiago the fastest. Everyone walks at their own pace. We were not the fastest walkers. We averaged 20-25 km a day while most people seemed to average closer to 30. But we found that when we upped our distance to get closer to 30 km for several days in a row, the bad blisters really started appearing and causing issues. We had to walk at the pace that was right for us. Fortunately, in planning the trip, I had prepared for that and left a substantial cushion of time at the end to use for other sightseeing in Spain, so we were able to walk the whole way at our best pace.
4. You don’t need as much as you think you do.
The Camino is a good exercise in stripping life down to its essentials. Every day followed pretty much the same pattern: Wake. Walk. Wash. Eat. Sleep. Repeat. Everyone carries the absolute minimum amount of stuff. It is really common to see people, three or four days in at the first town, shipping half the contents of their backpacks to Santiago. No one wants to carry more than they have to.
5. Support each other as we head to the same goal.
I saved the best for last. If I had an epiphany on my Camino, this was it. One of the questions I have often been asked upon my return is “What moment had the biggest emotional impact?” Certainly arriving at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela was great. It was a tremendous feeling of accomplishment for me and pride in my son.
But the moment that hit me hardest was later in a little side street near the cathedral where I spotted a fellow pilgrim I had met two days before, when he hobbled into a pilgrim hostel in terrible shape, taken out by knee and ankle. He was barely able to move. And here he was two days later in Santiago looking much stronger. I felt so happy for him!
It is said, as I repeated above, that the Camino is not a race. In part it is to tell you not to rush. But more so, it is to remind you that we are not competing with each other. We are all pulling for each other, rooting for each other and helping each other. I think that is a big part of what draws back the many repeat pilgrims we met – the fellowship of the Camino.
The Long Walk: Five Lessons from the Camino
This summer I spent about six weeks walking over 800 kilometres across the north of Spain with my teenage son Toby, from Roncesvalles high in the Pyrenees, to Finisterre (the “end of the Earth,” the westernmost point in Europe) on a thousand-year-old pilgrimage route, the Camino de Santiago. What did I learn on this marathon walk? Here’s what I came up with:
1. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other.
Eight hundred km is a long way to walk, across mountains and plains in the height of the Spanish summer. But you don’t have to be a super fit athlete to do it. We started the walk with no training, just packs on our backs (as light as we could get them) and a destination in front of us. And we weren’t the only ones. All sorts of people were walking the same route, from elderly seniors to kids as young as five. You just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep walking each day until you get there.
2. Take care of your feet.
Walking long distances every day encourages one to respect the feet that are carrying you. It’s not easy on them. A few pilgrims lead a charmed life but most end up with blisters (and/or tendonitis, knee issues, etc.). You can’t let that stop you – just keep going! For most, caring for their feet and the resulting blisters was a daily activity. If it gets really bad, take a rest day and then keep walking. We took two rest days at different points. The second rest day made all the difference for my son.
3. It’s not a race.
Walking the Camino is not a competitive sport to see who can get to Santiago the fastest. Everyone walks at their own pace. We were not the fastest walkers. We averaged 20-25 km a day while most people seemed to average closer to 30. But we found that when we upped our distance to get closer to 30 km for several days in a row, the bad blisters really started appearing and causing issues. We had to walk at the pace that was right for us. Fortunately, in planning the trip, I had prepared for that and left a substantial cushion of time at the end to use for other sightseeing in Spain, so we were able to walk the whole way at our best pace.
4. You don’t need as much as you think you do.
The Camino is a good exercise in stripping life down to its essentials. Every day followed pretty much the same pattern: Wake. Walk. Wash. Eat. Sleep. Repeat. Everyone carries the absolute minimum amount of stuff. It is really common to see people, three or four days in at the first town, shipping half the contents of their backpacks to Santiago. No one wants to carry more than they have to.
5. Support each other as we head to the same goal.
I saved the best for last. If I had an epiphany on my Camino, this was it. One of the questions I have often been asked upon my return is “What moment had the biggest emotional impact?” Certainly arriving at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela was great. It was a tremendous feeling of accomplishment for me and pride in my son.
But the moment that hit me hardest was later in a little side street near the cathedral where I spotted a fellow pilgrim I had met two days before, when he hobbled into a pilgrim hostel in terrible shape, taken out by knee and ankle. He was barely able to move. And here he was two days later in Santiago looking much stronger. I felt so happy for him!
It is said, as I repeated above, that the Camino is not a race. In part it is to tell you not to rush. But more so, it is to remind you that we are not competing with each other. We are all pulling for each other, rooting for each other and helping each other. I think that is a big part of what draws back the many repeat pilgrims we met – the fellowship of the Camino.