The cafeteria opened pretty early and we loaded up with toast, coffee and cake before getting the bus back to the seafront to start where we had left off the previous day.  It was pretty busy, even early on, as people were getting ready for the day ahead. There were lots of dogs outside the accommodation in the morning, as people stopped off for a coffee, letting their dogs run around and play a little.  Today would have been Dad’s birthday.  He died back in May and this was the first milestone date since we lost him.  I managed to call Mum before we left and we had a nice chat and a few tears.  He was often on my mind this day.  In the end I think that he did understand our need to run, walk and explore.  I hope he knew how happy this makes us.

The walk along the promenade really is beautiful and it is a good way of getting the legs going before the inevitable climb out of the city.  We did consider getting the funicular to the top of the first hill, but that felt like a bit of a cop out, so up we went, one step at a time.

You do spend most of the first 9 miles climbing. After the initial shock and the really steep start to get out of San Sebastian, it does level and it does get easier. Some of the paths are trail and some are road, but good road. It is single lane country roads with next to no traffic. There are still fantastic views of the see and farm animals to chat to if you get bored of the human company.