Eco Trail de Bruxelles 2013

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Since Matagalls Montserrat 84km in 2010, it has been an annual event. I didn't mean to repeat it but, as it turns out, it has opened a whole new can of worm. After repeating Mm in 2011, I changed gear to Eco Trail de Paris last year. This year, I had my eyes on Eco Trail de Bruxelles, sister race to Eco Trail de Paris and it started just last year. Instead of ending up on the Eiffel Tower (which they stopped doing after my year...lucky), this one ends on one of the Atomium balls (80k runners only). Sept should (or more like could) be a nice time to be in Belgium. This year, I solicited Vinh and Bertrand to join the force 😄.

Thanks to Vinh, training couldn't have gone this well. To be honest, I had never trained this much for a 80k. I hadn't gone more than 18 miles for the previous ones. I hadn't even run a full marathon! This time, we did a handful of 20+ mile trail runs followed by 10+ miles the next day. We even ran a trail 50k as part of training. And after all that, I had no kinks or pain on my body.

Weather forecast had been iffy. From 1week out, it was showing sign of rain during the race weekend. As the departure fate became closer, rain, especially on Sat, was looking more and more imminent. Please trail god, let this forecast be wrong!!

Woke up with rain hitting the window on Sat morning 😞. Early breakfast turned out to be a good call because I had sudden stomach rambling, nooo! No idea where it came from cuz breakfast was exact copy of the dinner - sandwich made from yummy European deli choices at Delhaize grocery store. On the quick pharmacy run for my tummy, it was raining fairly hard at times. We can only hope and pray at this point. At 11am, we had everything ready and left the apartment. Anticipation was starting to build up mixed up with anxiety. Let's do this!! Rain had become more spotty at that time. We were all hoping it stays this way. Just not continuous or down pour. I was so ecstatic when I saw the sun crack on the way. Could the forecast be wrong? I was still not quite getting the Belgian weather.

About half mile walk to the start from the closest station was deserted. Where are the fellow participants?! This wasn't reassuring as yesterday's trip to Atomium for packet pickup was the same. A big white tent setup adjacent to Atomium was empty and quiet. Will we be the only ones running this?? At least the arrows were put up from the station but we got lost fast. And one another participant we manage to find was also lost. We finally made it to the start area. It was surprisingly more hustling than I had imagined. After all that wondering around, 12:30 start was fast approaching. Bag checked, snacked for reinforcement. It was chilly and drizzly. I opted to stick with short sleeve and see how I warm up after a few miles. Let's get this going!!!

First 10 miles went smooth. Bertrand, Vinh and I stuck together at 9-something pace. It was misty but nothing severe. The trail took us through the wood full of greens. Then came the mud fest. It became increasingly puddly and muddy. They had been cooking up in rain all night. Especially on a single track, having bikers pass wasn't the best. 80km has another option of doing with a group of 3 with 2 bikes. When we came up to a muddy sharp turn, a biker fell into a barbed wire, ouch! We helped him get out of it...slooooowly and gently. That got me nervous running next to barbed wires. At times wired fence was on both side on a narrow muddy single track path. One fall, you're skewered!! On the opposite extreme of slippery mud was cobblestones. Running on that uneven hard surface was no fun. We should be coming up to the first aid station. Just make it there and regroup, restart. Still feeling good, after a brief stop, we were off!

Next milestone; 2nd aid station at around 40km mark. It was a long stretch...it didn't come until mile 27.3. I was already longing for it at mile 23. I felt the energy starting to deplete. We also faced more rain in this stretch. We were soaked and muddy. We took a good eating break. Legs were already tight. One wrong stretching move could have lead to cramping.

To the next aid station, I was already on countdown mode. Bad sign. Still, taking 5 miles at a time wasn't a that bad. Wait until I start counting half mile at a time! 3rd aid station came quicker than I thought at mile 37. A quick bathroom break and quick bites, we took off. Half marathon more, we got this!! Legs were tight but I felt ok. When we left that aid station, I honestly thought I had enough juice to knock down 13 miles strong. "Only" half marathon to go? I just never learn.

At mile 40, stomach rambling came back. No, not now! Luckily, after a bit, it went away, phew. I dodged that bullet but this marked the beginning of the end. I started counting mile at a time and it started to feel longer and longer. At mile 42 (already!), I had to stop and stretch. Still, we made it to mile 45 strong, keeping up with the pace. But 45 was the threshold. My legs started to cease up. I don't remember this feeling. I don't know if I ever had this sensation. It just didn't want to move. Breathing and all that were ok. Just my legs felt frozen. It wasn't even slow jog anymore. I had to walk mile 46 hoping to finish the last 3 strong. Mile 47, my legs moved even slower. 15min/mile at best. Still glad yo be faster than full-on walking mode. When even that became challenging, although not finishing never crossed my mind, I knew that strong finish would be difficult. Shortly after my watch beeping for mile 50, we finally saw atomium afar!! Yaaaay!! I squeezed juice out of me and got to the road leading to it. Yes yes yes! We're done!! Nooo! Seriously?!

A traffic controller derailed us to the right. But but but... No, keep going (away from gloriously lit-up atomium). But but but... And the road continued far enough we couldn't see the balls anymore :'(. I wanted to cry. I think this tore me apart mentally. I walked more than I wanted to. Especially when the road wound around upwards. I was D O N E. Must get stronger at times like this. I didn't want Vinh to sandbag himself for me. But he seemed to be hurting too. He was stronger yet, continued to hop forward. That gave me hope that I too could do the same.

Finally, the path started going the right way. Still skeptical for being traumatized by that derail. This time, it was definitely getting close. We could see the balls getting bigger and bigger. Yes yes yeeeesss!! We started hearing the MC, saw the tent roof, go go go! Finishing stretch! Finallyyyy!!! I wanted to cry again! Vinh and I started running into the finishing shoot. Our names were announced and I felt heroic!! Crowd cheer gave me the extra woomph to raise my arms. Woohoo...but wait! Us 80k-ers get to continue running. After crossing the finish line, we were directed to go through the dinner tent, then to the stairs to the ball...not the bottom one at the entrance but the side one above the fire stair case, eeee 😱.

At the top, there were a few crew and a stack of juice and banana. Looks like the finishers were spotty and they've gone down to get food and what not. Very nice people. We chatted a bit, got the shirts, went up a few more balls (this was tough) to finally grab an elevator to descend.

We knew that Bertrand was behind us so we headed to the shower. Only after then, I saw his message that he was already at the tent and it was 11:30p. Where did the time go?! It had been well over an hour since we finished. We could catch the train back if we went now. That leaves us no time to eat. We grabbed soup to go and grabbed a bottle of beer for a finisher prize. We made it to the station at 11:57 except the last train left at 11:56, nooo!!! Our ride home was slipping away in slomo but surely in front of our eyes. It was cold, I was tired and hungry, pout 😞. What to do, what to do.

Bertrand talked to the conductor. I'm sure he wasn't expecting much but to his surprise, he said there'll be another train that'll go partial route. Really?! Looked like another guy was staying out on the platform. This might be our chance! In the next 20min, 3 trains came...and went into the depot. Noooo. Just when I was ready to call it quits, a train pulled in. Yes! But! It changed the line too, which meant going somewhere else, oh no! We went as far as it did but we were still pretty far from the center. What next? There was absolutely nothing around that station. Not even a cab. We're so stranded!!! After some time, another train came by. Whatever, get on and go further, anywhere but here! We got off at a metro connection hoping to catch it. But by that time, last metro was long gone. Oh no...sob. Bus? Outside of Montgomery station, there were a bunch of bus connections. But which one goes to the center? Does any? Bertrand was a trooper and asked a guy, a godsend! He said 1:15 night owl bus will go to Bourse, right next to the apartment, yes yes yes yes yes!!! We won't have to spend the night homeless!!

At 2am, we reached Bourse. Weaving through streets-full of people, we finally made it to the apartment. We were hungry but not-being-stranded took precedence. Back in the room, we ate whatever we had. It was almost 4am by the time we ate and showered but outside crowd was more powerful than ever. Super late night cap might have been a blessing in disguise. My feet were scary-looking after being in wet shoes for 10+ hours. Casualty: a toe nail...not bad. Welcome to 80k club, Vinh! We were one of ~90 finishers out of 130 runners! What a debut, way to go!!

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Photos

Packet pick-up
@Atomium

Packet pick-up
@Atomium