It was time to re-start beating the nights. Good that M&M our good old LEO friends had the same feeling and invited us for a nice group rund with the nice name “Resurrection Of The Insane”. The story behind that will only be shared with those who show up.
Track had been posted in a closed FB group a week before the event. So we packed our backpacks and drove to a parking lot near Maasmechelen, Belgium. 5 Dutch runners plus us made the glorious 7 which decided to conquer whatever would be waiting out there. A group full of that experienced runners has a nice dynamic. Although there are obvious differences in the running speeds and styles all of us had everything under control. If you have a slow day you go slow, if you fell like running extra stupid off trail section you do that, if you have the feeling speed hiking is the way to go. Everyone knows exactly what to do when to survive the task ahead. And the rest of the group adapts to whatever changes needed.
It turned out to be a quite wet (ground), sometimes traily 52 k run/speedwalk event. Lots of jokes, laughter and chats should accompany us through the night. We had a beautiful beer stop and a surprise CP from Ingo with hot soup and coke/coffee. The second half of the run was really cold – winter is finally here. We finished the 52 k in 7:36 h. All in all an exhausting but nice weekend start. Good to finally spend some hours out there with M&M and the others out there. Time to talk and get to know each other better. Thanks for the invite – count on us when the next stupid idea needs to be realised!
ROTI – 29.11.2019 – Photos by M&M
Whats next? Pfadsucher will run the Bello Gallico 100 Mile as last event in 2019 in two weeks. This will be the second run in the Grand Slam series. No time to rest after Bello Gallico. An intensive January will be needed to do the final preparation for what is waiting February 2020. Stay tuned!
ENDSPURT bei der Break the Routine und der No Rest For The Wicked (NRW) Challenge. Die monatsbasierte NRW-Challenge haben drei Leute vollendet und momentan gibt es keine weiteren Läufer, die sich an der NRW-Challenge versuchen.
Anders sieht es bei der Break the Routine Challenge aus: ein paar Aktive gibt es aber noch bei der das ganze Jahr laufenden BtR-Challenge: Euch weiter viel Erfolg und fleißig melden, wenn es neue Zeiten/Tage abzuhaken gibt! Es sind noch ca. 6 Wochen Zeit um fertig zu werden!
Das anfängliche Interesse an unseren kleinen Herausforderungen hatte uns doch etwas überrascht, aber auch hoch erfreut. Uns erreichten auch immer wieder Fragen und Überlegungen, wie man das denn so schaffen kann und am Besten in das eigentliche Leben einfügen kann (damit das Umfeld nicht zu viel von der Verrücktheit mitbekommt).
Wir möchten Euch sagen: wir fühlen Euch! Sowas von. Die Meisten von Euch haben eine 6-7 Tage Woche auf der Arbeit, allen Urlaub schon verbraucht, ne Menge kleine Kinder, Wochenendbeziehungen und wenig verständnisvolle Verwandschaft.
Daher komme hier ein paar Tipps, wie Ihr Euch und die Challenges austricksen könnt:
Genaue Regelkunde:
BtR: 5 km, 90 min Pause
NRW: 45 min, 5 km, 90 min Pause
Morgens- und Abendstunden rund um Arbeitsbeginn und Arbeitsende unter der Woche abhaken (merkt man dann garnicht).
Sandwich-Prinzip (viel Mist in einem großen Haufen erledigen) nutzen wenn Zeit da ist oder die Zeit knapp wird:
einfach: z.B. 08:00-0845, 10:15-11:00
doppelt: z.B. 08:00-0845, 10:15-11:00, 12:30-13:15, 14:45-15:30
04:59 ist auch 04:00 (das ist doch voll human dann)
die Nachtstunden:
erscheinen schwer, sind aber im Prinzip mit die leichtesten Aufgaben. Niemanden interessiert es wenn man zu diesen Zeiten Laufen geht, weil alle anderen schlafen
Lasst es uns wissen, wenn es noch weitere Zeit einzutragen gibt. Auf das alle von Euch noch fertig werden mit der Challenge!!!
Es weht ein lauer Wind hier oben auf dem Kamm. Die Nacht ist fast bezwungen. Es ist zugig und doch nicht zu unangenehm. Die Luft, die über die Kuppe streicht trägt eine Ahnung von Wärme, einen ersten Hauch von der sich nähernden Sonne mit sich. Wie ein Traum vom längst vergangenen Sommer, von längst vergangenen Momenten.
Doch dann beginnt der Abstieg. Erst zögerlich, doch dann immer steiler geht es hinab ins Tal. Mit jedem Schritt wird es windstiller und zeitgleich Kälter. Wie ein Abstieg in eine riesige Tiefkühltruhe. Ganz unten am Fluss angekommen knirscht es unter den Schuhen. Die Luft steht. Sie ist irgendwie kompakt und eiskalt – fast wie ein Block aus festem Eis. Nichts rührt sich oder macht einen Laut. Alles ist in Eis erstarrt. In dieser Kältekammer, die unten durch den Fluss und oben durch eine wabernde Schicht Nebel begrenzt wird.
Langsam dämmert es auch hier unten am Fluss. Aus der eiskalten Schwärze schält sich eine glitzernde Welt. Die ersten Strahlen der Sonne zerfließen diffus im Nebel und haben überhaupt keine Kraft und vor allem keine Relevanz hier unten.
Und doch: auch dieses Tal wird in der kräftiger werdenden Sonne über Tag kurz auftauen und sich einmal mehr für einen Moment aus dem eisernen Griff befreien. Nur um in der nächsten Nacht erneut einzufrieren.
Der Zauber hat begonnen – der Winter ist da. Das Flirren, die Hektik, die Explosivität und die Lebhaftigkeit sind verflogen und es bleibt die weite, einsame Kälte. Alles ist reduziert auf das pure Sein. Raus und los!
Everything started back in November 2016 not with running but with watching the live tracking website of LEOs first edition. I am not sure why and how I came across this link but it was a lucky coincidence. Back in 2016 I was amazed and afraid while watching two lonely dots moving like forever through what seemed to be endless sections of nothing. This should have been a warning..
12 of us ready to Start. 36 h and 210 km ahead.
3 years later we are sitting on a table somewhere in Goirle near Tilburg, Noord-Brant, the Netherlands. Martino (2nd place finisher) just left and Maarten, Marek, Björn and me are enjoying a moment of peace and silence. It is 1800 on the first Sunday in November which means the LEO is over. It was again one of the rather busy weekends for all four of us. Although we only see us at the LEO weekends once every year we share a similar idea on how running should be organised and celebrated. This is a good feeling and we use the rare time to discuss a bit. Everything went well with LEO this year so the organisational pressure on M&M is (almost) gone: they dragged out those who could not finish, they celebrated those who were able to survive and the last runner out there should also make it to the finish 2 hours later. The last burger patties are ready to eat. Everything is as it should be. Time to widen the view from this weekend into the future. We discuss the next LEO editions. The good news is: the challenge will continue for those who dare and are fast but there may also be a soft option for those who are slow and winy. Although LEO is held in great irony and fun with a lot of joking and laughing the whole LEO family (runners, orga, supporter) knows deep inside that it is a real challenge for most humans. In our discussion we end up with the question why so few survived this year and what the reason(s) for that might have been. One of the good things with LEO is that there is no final answer to that. LEO may be one of the events where it is better if you are 101% into it – 100% may not be enough. But who knows what battle everyone fought out there. It is your problem if you go out there. You may get random help but basically you have to make sure that your plan is good enough to bring you back.
For Björn and me as participants the task was much easier compared to M&Ms orga stress. Our discussion a few days before the LEO was short. From our point of view there were two reasonable options on how to run the loops in terms of direction and order – we discussed it shortly and made a decision. All we then had to do was what we always do before any of our longer runs: prepare the Garmins, pack the backpacks with an awful lot of self-made food (I also brought some gels which turned out to be a wise decision) and enjoy the surroundings while running. The first two loops formed an 8 of 100 km total distance and we aimed for 7 km/h. We reached the CP close to 2000 – perfect in plan.
We gave ourself one hour to relax. Restart for the last 110 km loop at 2100 with 21 hours time to finish it. The first 40 km of this loop (km 100-140 for us) slowed us down. I could not maintain the 7-8 km/h speed from the first 100 km. From slowing down we got more tired and really cold. The nice ultra run night problem – the interesting part was about to begin. Some tougher hours followed on what is probably the easiest and fastest part of the track – such a waste when walking on asphalt. So we tried to sleep. A few times. With different levels of comfort, durations and cleverness. The last time we did that between 0530 and 0600 helped at the end and we learned a bit more on what makes sense and what does not regarding outside sleeping. But: what happens out there stays out there. Our last hope was the sunrise. We started with giving us rules not to be broken. Not to quit while it is dark was the first one (this one is a really essential one). When it was bright again we had to deal with a section full of sand and small ups and downs. Awful after 150 km with hurting feet and the need to maintain a steady pace. So next rule: do not quit in the Dunes (Björn is probably one of the worlds leading experts in terms of that). We managed it somehow.
And from that on timing was the absolute highest priority. I never did this mental game of running against the clock with this precision. Björn started a “game”. 10 h until cutoff, 57 km to go = 5.7 km/h. The two rules of our game were: run each hour 6 km and then walk the rest of the hour as a break. If you don’t manage this 6 km in 55 min: pause/walk the remaining 5 mins anyway. I had heard from people doing these kind plans but never did it myself. I really hated it in the beginning but realized slowly that if I focus on it and accept it provides a frame for that meaningless and endless moving – something to believe in. So game one. It really worked out in the end. Minimum was 5.5 km in one hour (there were some rather uneven parts of nature to pass) but there were a lot of 6 km hours in and a few of them even above that. We played for 8 hours.
The 6 km/h game – started around 150/160 km. If one takes the average to look at it looks pretty precise.
Slowly but surely I realized that it may work to stay in time. Would it be really possible to finish this complicated beast? At 1600 with 2 hours time and around 8 km to go the relief finally came. Nothing but serious injuries would stop us know. What an amazing moment. With 53 minutes left we finished the 210 km LEO180 2019 edition. The bear (DNF) was closer in comparison to last year and it at least felt like that this was not only the extra 10 km. The fight against the time in this dimension and determination was new to me. Thanks to Björn for the idea and the strict rules.
It is time to say goodbye again and to leave the warm table in our cosy race HQ (thanks for opening the door for us this weekend) – “the Germans” are leaving. Everyone is tired – rest and recovery is urgently needed. It was again an intensive but beautiful weekend in Noord-Brabant. The challenge is completed for now. This years LEO results to be found here and here. Racereports will be posted here.
There will be a new challenge one day that is for sure. Maybe with us, maybe without. We somehow closed our LEO chapter this year:
… and we came back this year to finally do it together. Really grateful for this achievement!
LEO180 2019 – 210 km
Our longest distance together under these conditions (which are our most favourite ones: half self-support, alone, not marked, remote, beautiful and brutal) – isn’t this a nice ending for a story?
It was a pleasure, LEO180! Wat een mooie stuk haardlopen – bedankt en tot ziens!
