Before going to this interview, he went to the physical therapist. Do you have a habit?
I'm not going to follow routines, especially on physiotherapy issues, but I try to go from time to time. Today I needed it. I have a friend at Ozaeta, it's a fission, but apart from that, he inserts needles, and that's why I've gone appropos, because I've had a very tight waistline. But I'm not very routine. In the trainings I also try to have a routine, but my day-to-day does not help. In the afternoon I make the need, I am involved in many other embassies and in my life there is a high degree of improvisation.

You mentioned us in Urkiola. It's a special place for you, right?
It's a special place because I grew up here, our father was from here, from Txabola. Taking a road to the place where we've parked, there's now an observatory, an interpretation center, and there's another house that the Biscay Council has to do things for children, but before it was Txabola, an old farmhouse, and our father was born there. Today the father is buried there, there we put the beech.

I've lived here since I was a kid, in quotation marks. In summer, you could put a caravan, and there we would come the nine paternal cousins, with the parents, to summer, and we would come on weekends. Then the father went down to live in the neighborhood of Mendiola, where he came on foot. This place is special in every way.

So, since I was young I had a relationship and a hobby for the mountain, but when did I start running in the world of mountain racing?Until I was 18 years old I was in athletics, then I went to study in Zaragoza because I am
a veterinarian and I left it. I also ended up a little tired of athletics. It was a big discipline and at 18 you want something else. Then I went to Zaragoza and left the race, but the mountain… I have always said that I am a mountaineer, and from Zaragoza I came home biweekly to go to the mountain, to go with the dogs. When I finished my studies, around 2005-2006, mountain racing was still a novelty and a career was taking place in Izarraitz. My brother-in-law is from here, from Azpeitia, and he proposed to do it together. And it was my first career. I ended up in an ambulance.

What happened to him?
Today we know what mountain racing is, but then it starts running and going up: not eating or anything. It was 21 kilometers. He gave it to me. I arrived, but directly to the ambulance. However, I liked the matter and they called me from the Basque Team, Rosa [Lasagabaster] and Asier [Lasa] were selecting and would encourage me to see that there were no girls. I started to join the team in 2007, through his friend Arkaitz Zamakona of Otxandio. And so far.

To be a mountaineer, I was hooked on the lightening in the mountain, that healthy environment; in athletics there was no
such thing, athletics is very competitive, today it is much more, but also in our time: always looking at the clock, brands, competition, weekend… I ended up with that level of competition a little tired. On the mountain, instead, it was a race, but it was at ease.

Mountain racing has opened a lot since you started. What has development been like?
Stratospheric. When I started, the sneakers, for example, were only Solomon's, and the only model. Or the food: before there were no rooms and there was nothing, some treats you ate in the food stall, some peanuts and so on.

How has all this changed?
I noticed it especially after the birth of the first child. My first child was born in 2013, so I stopped during pregnancy and after birth, and when I came back, year and peak, there were lots of different sneakers, bottles -- soft bottles -- backpacks -- in one year it changed a lot. And if you follow a race today, we've reached a point where you don't know if you're on the mountain, on a track of athletics, on a track of athletics that has become the mountain itself… We've reached a point where we don't know what we're for, without valuing what the mountain is.

The logic of competition has been imposed.
Too much. I always go to the mountain with dogs, never with headphones, nor lean. What do you go to the mountain if not? Listening to mountain sounds, listening to birds, a stone noise -- be aware. I see people looking down, with headphones, watching the clock… They don’t know where they are. It doesn't matter to them to be here, to be on a track of athletics or to run on the asphalt. In that sense, evolution has not liked me, that people do whatever they want, but it is oriented towards professionalization, and I do not identify with that at all, I do exactly the opposite, because I saw that I carry the watch [a black vulgar Casio], nor do I think what level I have done. I've gone up and down. “But how much have you done?” they ask me. Well, I don't know. For me, the mountain is not for that, and you can do the same training: I don't have training, but I can do it, for example, by pushing the pace on a hill. You do, but you are close to harmony. And that's been lost and it's losing.

Have you found a way to continue in mountain racing in your understanding?
Yes. I maintain this philosophy, and yet I am. And I see that there are also people who get into training and follow the pulse meter, and then you see that they've done it like me or behind, so what's it for? It's often not a training, but a mind, a pressure that you put on yourself. I walk without any pressure; I go to Mt 3-4 hours, being in my air with the dog, it serves as training and I do it in a race to this point. Can I do more with specific training? Yes, but I don't want it, it doesn't compensate me to make or not enjoy that sacrifice in my everyday life. I have more to us than has been achieved and to live happily.

Have you had any reference in this direction?
Today I am asked what reference I have, because I don’t have it… It wasn’t in our time. Before us, look, Rosa Lasagabaster was a coach, won Zegama in her day, won the initial Zegama, because it may be the same, but in our time there was no reference or boy. Today, yes, with social media, I believe that this is how people become a referent, and today I see a lot of people as a sports referent, but they are not the most suitable for me. They're athletes, but they don't have much to do with the mountain. I believe that respect for the mountains has now been lost. Respect or value. The other day I saw one in Aitz Txiki -- this is a nearby mountain, a stone, an empty stone -- where I made series. I don't know, do series elsewhere, right? Value where you are and go up at full speed if you want a mountain, but find out where you are, value…

Have you had problems being a woman?
In this sport, I do not believe that there has been such a point of discrimination. To tell the truth, I have not been given this situation. You have ever said that someone has happened this and this in a race, but fortunately to me. In a race, a lot ago, it was a athletics race, but we were entering the mountain, so I do remember that the economic prize was less for girls. I sent them an email but they didn't answer. You don't see it in the mountain race. I believe that sport was because it came later.

He has given up participating in the Spanish team.
Clearly. I'm not a professional at this, and there's always the possibility of giving up. People often say that if you give up, some doors are closed. But what door? Or what do you want to get? Or what are your values? I have been called twice. I was once called to go to a European championship. The coach is also a friend, a runner, from Palencia, and he told me that I knew no, but that by results I had to call. “Thank you,” I replied, “but you know I’m not going to go.” OK. And nothing happens.

And another was because I won the Spanish championship vertically, and to win that was the chance to go to the world championship. When I told them I wasn't going to go, they said, "Are you not going to go? Are you going to miss a global one?” Well, yeah. I am not compensated if I have to carry the flag of Spain on my chest. In this respect, I am clear. And I'm clear, I think others should also be clear, and they don't, that's been lost. They say: “I don’t think so, but I can’t give up because then, or I want you to go here…” In this life, you have to decide, if you're here, and you can't have everything. If you decide, it's completely lawful, and it's your decision, but then to drive it, then it's not worth getting angry. He has decided to go with the Spanish team, if then someone tells him that he is Spanish, because he accepts.

He's a veterinarian by profession. What exactly does it do?
When I finished my career I started in the beef campaign, but this campaign is very short, from February to September, you don't have the whole year of work. And then I started in a clinic in Durango, and now I'm in another one. Daroat since 2007, sixteen years now.

You also have to do with shepherd dog championships.
EHATE, Association of Organizers of the Dogs Championships of Euskal Herria, was born more than 30 years ago in Durango at the hand of Gerediaga. Our father has always been part of Gerediaga and was one of the founders of EHATE. I've always loved the animal world a lot, and I haven't lived in the farmhouse, but we were a lot in the farmhouse when the mother lived. So I entered this championship account through our father, and as a jury. I'm still there today. I started nonsense, and when my father died, I wanted to get a little bit more involved, and how this year's board change has been, I decided to put myself there, because I like that world. I have three shepherd dogs, I really like the livestock world, and if I had a chance I would live in a farmhouse. Today, I think we're losing some of our worms, and I feel better at doing things like this. We live on one floor, we have the internet, but it's not just that, we live united to the earth.

Looking forward, what are your dreams, challenges, desires…?
I try not to have any dream or challenge, because then the frustrations come from there. However, in the short term, for example, I intend, like this year, to continue with long races. Today, most races are faster, shorter, require younger, more sparks, and we are veterans. In the case of the ultracarreras cup of Euskal Herria [long races, over 42 kilometers], they are the same tests as last year, I know them, and then I feel like doing so, because when it repeats there is room for improvement. And then there are races I'd like to do. One is Kima, it's done in Italy. It's brutal. It's 55 kilometers, but over seven hours, a very technical past.

What does it mean to be very technical?
Well, we go like kids. Lots of stones, chains… It's made in arineka, but some parts are very technical. It can be a ferrata pathway, or a big sudden descent, and you have to guess where to go. I like to have fun in racing, and that's fun. Then, at the level of Euskal Herria, I want to do many, the usual careers, but these are a pleasure, the whole family we go, we go the career, we eat… As for the great careers, I want to do lengths, suitable for my age.

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Green label

In our interview, Azkorbebeitia showed several times his concern for the current direction of the mountain races and the following day he sent me a whatsapp to inform me of a project arising in this regard. In fact, several people have created the “Green Label” manifesto in the field of mountain racing seeking “an attitude that respects the environment and the other” and “careers based on coexistence, equality and sustainability”. More information: etiketaberdea.com