Es ist das Ende. Ein Anruf bei Hansi und raus. Noch den Berg runter zum VP und dann endlich aufgeben. Es war ein heißer erster STUNT100 2019 Tag – den nächsten davon sollte und wollte ich nicht mehr erleben. Von der Nacht ganz zu schweigen. Da ist sie wieder: die Schwäche. Die Ausreden haben das Rennen gemacht – da gibt es nichts zu Beschönigen. Der Tiefpunkt 2019 ist erreicht.
Q1 2019 hatte normal begonnen. 100 km zu und mit dem Vilvo beim NEU im Januar und die 5. Ausgabe der mAMa im Februar sowie als Krönung dieser Vorbereitung das Finish bei der ersten Mittelstrecke 2019 – dem Helipad von Willem.
Helipad 2019
Dann der Bruch. Ein extrem mühsames Finish bei den schweren 50 km des Ohm Trail 2019 und das DNF beim STUNT100 2019. Wie abgerissen. Das Laufen wollte nicht so richtig in Gang kommen. Ganz langsam hieß es wieder Fuß zu fassen. Wieder raus gehen und Abenteuer bestehen. Die schöne Tour von Spa nach Aachen durchs Hohe Venn hat sicher dazu beigetragen. Zwar war es schwer und langsam, aber die Sonne ist doch wieder aufgegangen und die Nacht musste weichen. Was ein Wunder uns dort oben erwartete in der Sonne. Die Schönheit war umwerfend an diesem sonnigen Morgen draussen.
For the beauty of it.
Das gab Hoffnung für die zweite Jahreshälfte. Das Restprogramm für 2019 war der absolute Hammer. 3 lange Läufe in 4 Monaten. Und was für welche. Den Auftakt machte der erste Teil der Legends Trail Serie – The Great Escape. 100 Meilen in den Ardennen. Hat die Erwartungen in jedem Fall übertroffen. Matthias und ich haben die wohl längsten Meilen unserer bisherigen Laufhistorien miteinander geteilt. Eine Lektion in Demut – ein guter Test für das Durchhaltevermögen. Wir wollten ums Verrecken nicht aufgeben. Auch bzw. gerade als es sich zog wie Kaugummi und eine Stunde 4.5 km bedeutete – es sollte uns gelingen. Kurz vor knapp in über 35 Stunden. Aber drin. Finish. Punkt.
No Escape.
Next stop: LEO180. Die nächste besondere Herausfoderung. Endlich wieder mit dem VPsucher in den einsamen Weiten Brabants auf Tour. Auch dieses Mal: Ausreden verboten. Den LEO hatten wir noch nie zusammen zu Ende gebracht – jetzt im dritten Jahr sollte es doch endlich klappen. Wir hatten eine gute Zeit dort draußen. Zugige Bushäuschen, eiskalte Restaurantterassen, Regenschirm und Rettungsdecken – alles was das Herz begehrt. Die gefühlt längsten 57 km (9 Stunden und 7 Minuten). Die ganze Welt zusammengestürzt auf 6 Kilometer pro Stunde. Und dann: Finish.
We had a good first day @ LEO180 2019
Statt Rest for the wicked nach dem LEO180: Resurrection of the Insane. Gruppenlauf Ende November in Belgien mit M&M. 54 unterhaltsame Kilometer in einer dunklen Winternacht.
German concrete? The Two and a half Germans.
Und danach nur noch zwei Wochen bis zum letzten Wettkampf 2019: Bello Gallico. 100 Legend Trail miles again. Zusammen mit Matthias 100 Meilen durch den Schlamm. Komplizierter als gedacht – wir sind knapp 28 Stunden durch den Unfug gestapft. Aber auch hier: wir sind ins Ziel gekommen.
Bello Gallico 2019
Insgesamt waren es dann knapp 800 DUV-Kilometer dieses Jahr, 200 Kilometer weniger als in 2018. Doch mit den 4 langen gefinishten Läufen ist es eine durchaus nette Bilanz. Es fehlen auch nur noch 120 Kilometer zu dem Jahr mit den meisten Laufkilometern, aber dafür müsste zunächst der Husten zurückgehen. Zur kompletten Statistik gibt es noch einen Beitrag sobald das Jahr komplett rum ist.
Die schönsten Laufmomente waren sicherlich die in Begleitung. Jean ist beim Helipad an die Strecke gekommen – ich hab es auch für ihn durchgezogen. Matthias hat einen extrem starken Kopf – die Möglichkeit vor dem Finish aufzuhören kennt er nicht. Das ist manchmal schon fast nervig aber irgendwie auch ansteckend. Ein Typ mit dem man gut Unfug durchbringen kann. Und natürlich der VPsucher. Weniger gemeinsame Zeit auf den Trails dieses Jahr, aber wir können es noch. Wir sitzen einfach gern zusammen auf Bordsteinkanten, legen uns gern mal in die Büsche, wir haben schon viele Sonnen auf und untergehen sehen, ach, ab und an gehen wir auch gern ne Runde zusammen Joggen.
Habt eine besinnliche Weihnachtszeit und bleibt sportlich – 2020 kommt schnell genug und dann wird gerannt!
As the Bello Gallico can be easily divided in parts of 20k between the CPs or in two 80k parts – lets have a more detailed look on the running performance:
The 4 sections during the first half reflect quite nicely our feeling during the run: part no. 3 is the most difficult part in terms of technical parts as well as elevation gain. The second 4 sections – the second half – is the usual mess up of an ultra race. Longer pauses, weak periods, more walking: all that changes the performance.
Our total runtime was 27h52 but the above charts are only looking on the moving time which was 24h49. The average speed was 9m16/k which is 6.5 k/h.
The best parts lay all within the first part of the race:
The difference between the first and the second half is huge: 7:49 min/k during the first, 10:42 min/k during the second half:
This is clearly something to work on. But the conditions during this years Bello Gallico were probably not ideal to really judge on the second half performance. With more steady conditions this difference would probably not have been that huge, but still: an ultra race starts around km 90/100 and this is the part to focus on.
The times spend at the checkpoints increased during the race. Especially CP 120k and 140k (we even took a nap here) were significantly longer then they should have been for a good second half. Nice to see that it was possible to fasten up between 150k and 160k during the heavy rain and the cold. We slowed down again towards the end once we realized sub 28h was safe.
Hello darkness, my old friend I’ve come to talk with you again Because a vision softly creeping Left its seeds while I was sleeping And the vision that was planted in my brain Still remains Within the sound of silence In restless dreams I walked alone Narrow streets of cobblestone ‘Neath the halo of a street lamp I turned my collar to the cold and damp When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light That split the night And touched the sound of silence
S&G – The Sound of Silence
Once more an intensive weekend. Matthias joined me Friday after work and we took the car to the Start/Finish location in Oud-Heverlee. We planned differently to The Great Escape and spend the night in a Hostel in Leuven. Leuven seems to be a nice city but is a nightmare in terms of parking. After this interesting challenge we finally made it to our room and tried to ignore the noises in our quite active Hostel. Although we didn’t sleep much it gave us a break and some relaxed hours before the start. The alarm was set for 2:30 a.m. and we made it in time to be ready for the start on Saturday 4:00 a.m..
#2 of the Legends Trails – Bello Gallico 100 Miles. 100 miles in a rather flat terrain – at least compared to TGE. The job was this time: lets go there and finish this off. Everyone said this is the most easy run of the series, that it really is flat and runnable and it is furthermore meant as a Christmas Party.
Everyone is aware though, that this is only half of the truth. 2019 edition should bring lots of rain in the days before the event, light rain at the start, light rain from time to time in between and two disastrous rainy hours between 5 and 7 a.m. Sunday morning. But: its just a bit of water. Where is the problem? Well, it turned out that this was the type of track which really benefits from being watered and abused by hundreds of feet. Although there were still a lot runnable parts – the muddy parts were deep, sticky and/or slippery plus more and more covered with water – proper steps sometimes not possible. This slowly but surely drags all power from the body – power which could have been used for running.
Muddy & Traily Bello Gallico 2019
Matthias and me discussed a few possible finish options before the race. One of it was below 24 h, the other maybe below 26 h if it would be more difficult than expected and as a last option: finish before the sun rises the second time! We finished the first half of the BG in 11 hours and with a some minutes of break and Chili con carne we realized that 24 h would not be possible. The dark second night was after all way more challenging than expected. The trail was even more difficult, leaving the warm and wonderful checkpoints felt more and more stupid and the heavy rain/storm between 5 and 7 a.m. was really frightening. Especially those hours in the early Sunday needed a lot of strength: water everywhere – the already damaged feet were not amused and during the rain it was horribly cold. We lost the focus on any time-related goal for a second but what I really like on racing with Matthias: he has the finish always in mind and is extremely focused on that. Giving up is never an option for him. It really helps to be with someone like this when yourself are suffering and in a miserable condition.
In that heavy rain and with approximately 12 k to the finish I suggested to run again a bit faster to feel less cold and finally get this nightmare done. This worked ok for a few k´s. With less then 5 k to go the rain finally stopped, we realised that could make it below 28 h and with this we would finish half an hour before the sun would rise again. Job done. #2 of the Legends Trail series completed. We finished in 27h51m as number 48 and 49 of 93 finishers and around 160 starters.
Few sunny moments!
This is why – who could resist this beauty?
Thanks to the Orga and the countless of dedicated, helpful and friendly Legendary Friends as volunteers all over the course. Great checkpoints, great help, great food and lots of fun.
We had yet another great experience out there in the (this time) rather flat Belgium. It was tougher than expected but we came to finish this one and not to drop out because of whatever. Although the race was almost completely in the dark (at least it felt like this) there were beautiful moments with and without sun. The beauty of ultra running can be found in each and every run of 100 miles or more – just open your eyes at the right times.
Thats it for 2019. No more races left – the end of this years journeys is reached. Fingers crossed for a quick recovery: the next Legend Trail is already waiting. And this time it is the real one. With 250 k in the not-so-flat part of Belgium and three long February nights. Happy for any training advices! I will take it with M&M as a motto for the next two months:
It will be the end of an interesting year 2019: only 4 days and a few hours on this final countdown. What is announced as to be “just the best Christmas party” will be a 100 Mile race in Belgium. And whatever they say: those are never easy.
It will be extremely dark with a dark start at 4 a.m. on Saturday, a few brighter hours and probably/hopefully a finish before the sun comes up the second time. Plus, if the weather forecast is not lying: it will be pretty wet too.
Good to know that I will be with M. again. We spend a nice time together during The Great Escape and learned how to survive while time is ticking.
One last effort to finish Ultra number 4 in 2019 and to finish run number 2 in the Legends Trails Grand Slam. Bring it on – stay tuned for the live-tracking link!
