My First Camino - How fast can you do it and still enjoy the walk ?

[Jesper Buch]

Hi Guys,
I have just booked a plane to Pamplona 20. april and starting from st. jean pied de port 21. april.

How fast can you do it and still enjoy it - I mean... I want to go more than 20-30 km a day - I would prefer like 40 km per day and a total of 25 days or so... does this screw up the route in terms of staying at Hostels or ?

[HuskyNerd]

Hi Jesper ~
You can do it even faster if you want and it doesn't screw up anything -- except the quality of your experience. The Camino is partly a social experience and, unless you're a true loner, you'll miss the friendships and camaraderie that come from meeting new people from all across the world and enjoying their friendship. Pilgrim waves travel at 20-30 kms/day. If you do 40 you'll be in a class by yourself, which perhaps is what you want but it doesn't really make for a truly good time.

There are some who've run the Camino ultra-marathon style and have succeeded in their goal of doing it super-fast. My advice: slow down and smell the roses. You'll be glad you did.

[BHinSanDiego]

Hey Jesper, Congrats on doing your Camino, like HuskyNerd said, it won't screw anything up, well one thing, the experience. This is a unique opportunity to leave all your troubles, distractions, worries behind and live a simple life of just walking, eating, interacting and sleeping. There is a common saying, "it's their Camino, they can do it as they please", but outside of a limited time, there is no reason to try to do it as fast as you can. One thing you'll also find out, your body will tell you how fast or slow to go, pain and injuries are part of the experience. In closing, this isn't a race, enjoy this unique opportunity to live life like you can't anywhere else. If you are on a time frame try to find some areas where you might want to take a bus, no one will fault you for that, as I said "it's your Camino".

[grayland]

I talked with several guys in both 2009 and 2010 that were going to do "40km per day". Some quit after a week or so and I caught up with several after a couple of weeks. Much easier said than done......walking fast for 5 to 7 hours every day in differing weather with a pack can put a lot of strain on knees, feet and hips. You may be very surprised at the effort involved.

[dbird10]

When we walked in 2009 we saw numerous people walking fast. We saw them over and over as they often had to stop for a couple of days to rest and recover. Slow down and enjoy the journey.