Monday, October 12, 2009

Watermolen Cup 2009 - Epilogue

Success!

I have just checked the final classification of the Watermolen Cup competition, and I just managed to scrape through into the 20th position of my category, with 1574 points, barely two points ahead of my closest rival. It was the last position available for obtaining a prize - 16th to 20th place in the male veteran category - a 25 euro voucher from the Watermolen sports shop.

It was the prize I have been aiming for since the beginning of the competition, all the way since March at Dworp, that interesting but very hilly race through forests in that area, just a couple of weeks after the Malta marathon. Two points. Any slower in any one of the seven races (again, the minimum allowable to obtain a classification), and Francois Rotiers would have beaten me for the 20th position.

So, even the disastrous Kortenberg 12k turned out to be extremely important in the end. While, of course, the race for nut cases on a hot 15 August in mid afternoon, the Zaventem half marathon, was the decisive event that gave me the highest number of points in the competition. That was an incredible run!

These 13 races of the Watermolen Cup will from now on be the framework running calendar for my adopted home in Belgium. I intend to repeat the competition next year, just keeping wary of the possibility of having to negotiate some steep, narrow, slippery forest paths on certain occasions. Hopefully, I'll manage to run in those places where I was unable to participate this year.

So thank you, organisers of the Watermolen Cup. I'm keeping the number 5700 for the 2100 edition.

No comments: