Date: 20 October 2019
Distance: 25 km
Elev. gain: 340 m
Goal: rock it
Finish: 1:41:57
Rank: 1
Shoes: Altra Lone Peak 4.0
Donnerlüttchen, it seems like those many kilometres of training through 2019 have worked! To be honest, I train (quite a bit) too little to usually play at the front; on the other hand, I train enough to easily get into the top 10 in smaller races.
In my last edition of the Trail de Bruxelles in 2016 it was just enough for fifth place (after my heel crumbled on the last few meters – old heel spur suffering – before that I was on a stable 3rd place).
This time, it was clear from the start that there was room for more. One knows the local competition after several years and races, and the pace was quite easy after the gun went off. I didn’t want to lead the field right from the start, but decided after 500m to go ahead and throttled up a bit – let’s see who plays along. Two boys stayed on, one of which soon had to subside.
So, only the two of us went through the woods, hills up, hills down. We blabbed a little and discussed the route; MISSION: don’t let number three catch up. My colleague also knew our pursuer from a previous trail run (“this guy is good!” – well 😉). Therefore, every straight piece quickly spurted and then nimbly around the corner with the goal that the attacker loses the desire to attack. This worked, halfway through, the two of us were practically alone in the woods and it became clear that one of us will climb the podium. Because of the tight trails and other pedestrians crossing, I had to do some evasive manoeuvres, through one of which I almost fell – had to do some huge steps and kicked myself in my right calf. I was worried for a moment that this could turn into a cramp or something else that would make me slow down, but everything held well until the end.
We picked up the pace a little on the last few kilometres (by now overtaking many runners of the longest distance of 33 km) and took turns in the lead – checking out each other a little bit. On a last little climb 1k before the finish line I powered up one more time and sprinted towards the end, finishing 15s ahead.
Nice, once in a while (note the huge bottle of Chouffe 😋)…
Fun.Run.Dad 