Sarah and the Volcano

So, it's Thursday evening, the hottest day of the year so far (apparently) and I'm off to run up a volcano. Guy takes a picture outside our hotel room of me pointing happily at my destination - presumably so that he has a nice photo of me in case I don't make it back... I have water, I have a funky hat (another free gift from the hotel) and a bit of paper with my name and Guy's phone number in case I pass out from heat exhaustion and get carted off to the nearest hospital...

No excuses, and no reasons not to go then. Eek.

We've already had a look at my route - we've seen people walking up to the top (although we've not seen anyone running yet) so I know where I'm going - down the road, across a wooden footbridge (well, sort of - it's not something that Caerphilly Council would be particularly proud of, but it's sturdy and it sort of works)

and up into the foothills. Are they called foothills when it's a volcano? Or just 'lower ash stuff'? Anyway, it's really slippy, so when I put my foot down it immediately slides back 3 or 4 inches. I'm going to be running further than I thought...

I make progress up the hill. Sort of slow progress - it's incredibly steep, very slippy and I keep stopping to text Guy where I am so he can wave.

I make it to the wooden cross remarkably quickly - it's not for fallen tourists, it's for something else, and there is writing on it, but I immediately forget what it says, despite wanting to remember.

The top ridge of the volcano is like a knife edge - incredibly rocky, very slippy and scarily steep on both sides. It's the first time I've ever been up close and personal with a volcano, and it's remarkable. There are three Germans ahead of me, pausing to look at the crater. As I run past the bloke says 'schnell, schnell!' which means 'quick, quick!'. Oh hah, very funny. Still, I'm having more fun than him - one of his companions is quite the meanest looking woman I've ever seen. And they've still got to go all the way back down...

I teeter along the top ridge to the very topmost point. And wave to Guy. Who I can't really see, so I wave at a small white blob in front of the hotel and hope that it's him. He only knows I'm at the top because I've texted, but he thinks he can see a black blob, so he waves back. Binoculars would be handy.

There's a concrete pillar to mark the top, and also a handy passer by. Theo is from Germany, he's about 20, wearing scruffy shorts and filthy trainers, and he's just climbed up the straight face of the volcano rather than taking the path. I ask him to take my photo and he duly obliges...

I also take a piccy of the view, just because it's so damned HIGH up there...

Theo asks which way I came up, and I point back along the jagged knife edge. He says he's running back down, so we could run together. I tell him I'm slow, and he seems ok with that. He then points out a much better route around the other side of the crater which is flatter, so we head off that way. About half way round he sees where he is staying and says he'll take a short cut, so he goes straight back down the volcano. He's clearly mad - it's incredibly slippery and entirely covered in loose volcanic lava.

I carry on round the crater and get back to the original path up... where I can't run any more. Not, for once, because I'm out of puff, but because it's simply too dangerous. Going down takes way longer than going up, and it's really hard on the legs. I pass the hilarious German man and his lemon faced companion, then I'm back to flatter ground - I take a slight detour to get on better roads and avoid the slippery stuff, and then I'm back on the long straight road to the hotel.

Going up was exactly 3k and took 36 minutes - not bad for such a steep climb. My clever watch has analysed the climb like this:

Yep, that's what a volcano looks like in profile. Funny, I thought it would be steeper... Weird how the graph shows 100m below sea level. What's that all about? Diving?

My total run including my detour on the way back was only 7k (Fit Mark, notice that - ONLY 7k!!) and it was absolutely brilliant.

So now I'm tempted to see if I can do it again. Only faster...