planning trip

[Mulligan, Pat]

robert:  i'm so impressed.  I hope you are feeling great now.

I am wondering since you did several of these walks, what in fact IS the
cost?  no one has mentioned that recently, and I would like to know that.
Can you help me here?  and, what did your training consist of prior to the
walks?  I have a year to train and read and get to know the route Ill be
taking, (french way), etc.  thanks for your help.  happy spring.  pat

-----Original Message-----
From: Road to Santiago Pilgrimage [mailto:GOCAMINOaPETE.URI.EDU]On
Behalf Of Robert Spenger
Sent: Thursday, April 15, 2004 11:44 PM
To: GOCAMINOaPETE.URI.EDU
Subject: Re: planning trip


Judith,

Age, in itself, really doesn't matter, as long as you don't have some
specific physical problem that interferes with walking and carrying a
pack. I was 75 when I did my first trip in 2000, 1600 km from Arles to
Fisterra, averaging about 25 km per day. At the time I had a slowly
progressing stenosis of my aortic valve, but it didn't seem to give any
problem. I did get leg problems on a couple of occasions, but I had
obviously been pushing too hard (three 30 plus km on the way into León
and a 50 km day from Negreira to Cée, which I didn't complete). The
following year, when I planned the Portuguese route, my cardiologist
was very skeptical, since the stenosis was definitely worse, but my
only real physical problem on the road was my knees. I ended up doing
only 440 km of a projected 660. In 2002, I was afraid that the
cardiologist was going to have a fit when I told him that I was going
on another one, this time on the (almost) regular route  from SJPP, but
starting from a couple of stages further north, i.e. from Saint Palais.
He expressed the concern that I might die on the road in Europe. My
only answer to that was that I am going to die somewhere, sometime,
what does it matter when and where? His words did have an effect,
however. I took it really easy on that one, sticking to only 20 km a
day and a couple of much shorter ones in the first four days. As a
result, I was running late and took a bus from Burgos to Sahagún to
catch up. Later, in Astorga, I was laid low by a respiratory ailment
and lost another day, so I took a bus again - from Astorga to
Ponferrada. I haven't added up the distances, but my rough guess is
that I did about 600 of the projected 800 km.

That was in October of 2002. By April of 2003, just as we were
preparing to move to a new home, I was informed that I had badly
clogged arteries in addition to bad valve. A second opinion was that
the arteries weren't really all that bad, but that the valve was really
shot. The upshot of all this was that, last July, the valve was
replaced and the arteries were bypassed, so now I feel that I am ready
for one more - like LePuy to Moissac - if our ailing U.S. dollar
recovers sufficiently for me to be able to afford the trip.

regards,

Bob Spenger


On Apr 15, 2004, at 12:48 PM, Judith Rosenthal wrote:

> I am a teacher (ESL) in a junior college in New York and an planning
> to make the pilgrimage along as much of the Camino as I can in the
> last week of May and the first few weeks of June.  I am 75 years old
> but have hiked most of my life and even though I am much slower now, I
> hope I will be able to do at least do the last 100 miles.  I am not
> sure where I should start - I would particularly like to see Burgos
> but that may be too great a distance.  I intend to hike only about 8
> to 10 miles a day and enjoy what I am passing through. I will be going
> alone, though hope to meet people along the way.  Any advice about
> what would be a good place to start, places  I should not miss along
> the way, nitty-gritty of what is really important to take would be
> appreciated.  I have been reading your wonderful and helpful answers
> to e-mail sent in.