Diary of an expatriate runner - 1 - Living in a bubble

Time does indeed fly. This year it will be five years since I left my native Malta to work in Belgium. One would suppose that by this time I would have got so used to living here that I could consider myself half Belgian.

How wrong would one be! There are so many factors working against this. There's the language, or in the Belgian case I should better say languages. To integrate properly in a newly adopted home country you must learn their language properly. Here you need to learn two languages, since half the population refuses to speak the other national language. So I generally stick to talking Maltese, since I'm nearly always in the company of Maltese people anyway, both at home and at work. Our job is translating EU documents into Maltese, which means that my colleagues are mostly Maltese. It almost feels as if I never left Malta, except that the view outside the office window shows Brussels instead of Valletta.

There's the internet, which makes it so easy to keep in touch. We read the Maltese newspapers on line. We watch Italian TV on satellite, and Maltese TV on dive.com. Through the internet we can interact with our friends all over the world including, mainly, in Malta. It's like we're living in a bubble - an extension of our home country planted in Belgian territory. So much for integration in our newly adopted home country...

Actually, some degree of integration is inevitable. It grows on you. You get used to the weather cycle, the public transport system, the road network, the housing, the people and their surprisingly relaxed way of life, traffic jams, beer that was made in heaven, lovely towns, parks and forests - and the Belgian running scene.

At first it seemed to me there wasn't any running scene at all. I arrived in Belgium in the beginning of winter, and winter in Belgium is mostly cold and dark. I managed to maintain a regular training schedule of sorts, but it was really tough. There were so many important things to sort out, and the discovery of the Belgian running set-up was certainly not among my top priorities. I did take part in the popular Brussels 20km race in May, with about 25,000 other participants, but that was about it. I had no other information whatsoever about running in Belgium.

Perhaps I should have joined a local running club. But I never got round to it, partly due to the language problem. I stayed in touch with the Maltese running scene, keeping fit through regular training, and on various occasions during my frequent visits to Malta I would take part in events that I knew so well - the Dingli 10, Birżebbuġa, the Pembroke 10k, the half marathon...

It was and still is like living two separate lives in parallel. When in Belgium, with its day-to-day realities and the work and general life routine, Malta seems so remote that it's like a dream. But every time we're in Malta the situation flips over and we immediately switch to Malta-mode as we meet our relatives and friends and go around all the familiar places we know so well. We feel as if we had never left, and now it's Belgium that seems a very remote existence.

Bit by bit, I came to realise that the running scene in Belgium is every bit as lively as it is in Malta. A marathon is held every year in Brussels, Antwerp, Bruges, Ghent, Vise (close to the Dutch border and in fact going to Maastricht in the Netherlands and back), in Ypres, on the coast close to Oostende, and others of which I may not even be aware. There are numerous road races, organised by the various local sports centres. Most regions have their own annual "challenge", consisting of a number of races within the region spread out throughout the year, quite similar to the St Patrick's AC race participation scheme, with points allocated by categories and according to the placing in each race.

Having now accomplished two marathons in Belgium (one in Brussels, the second in Antwerp), a handful of other occasional events, and after finally achieving my tenth marathon, quite appropriately in Malta last March, I'm now embarking on close to a full immersion in the Belgian running scene, through participation in what is known as the Watermolen Cup. This is the challenge, as mentioned in the previous paragraph, belonging to the region where I live, Vlaams Brabant. It will be an opportunity to discover other towns and villages in my region, and to pit the strength of my legs against that of the Belgians.

Which reminds me - there's another good reason why I didn't choose to join a Belgian running club. I'm already a proud member of St Patrick's Athletic Club, and that's the club whose glorious green and yellow colours I wear and represent in my Belgian running exploits.

Melsbroek driekastelen 12km - 0h51:35

For my second race in the 2009 Watermolen Cup I went to Melsbroek, which is a rather anonymous village sitting next to the Zaventem ("Brussels") international airport. Given its location, I suspected that the race organised here by the Vilvoorde Athletic Club wouldn't have too many hills and undulations. My intuition was correct, and in fact the route, which goes twice round a 6 km loop, is very nearly flat.

In spite of the name of the event, which refers to three castles, I only managed to see one. As is apparently customary in Belgium, a good proportion of the race runs through wooded areas, generally away from motor traffic. The paths were quite acceptable, with pleasant surroundings consisting of woods, large fields covered by yellow flowers, a lake and the aforementioned castle, all in next-to-perfect spring weather.

The flat profile made for a pretty fast pace. This being my first time here, I did not know the route, so it was only at the sixth kilometre that I found out that we were to do a double loop. It was quite disheartening to learn that participants in the single-loop short race had completed their effort, while those of us who were doing the main event had to run the same loop, at the same fast pace, all over again. Given that the field had thinned out, I probably ran the second loop faster, but by the final 2 km I couldn't keep up the pace, and was in fact overtaken by three rivals.

Those last two km, when my strength nearly ran out, were somewhat disappointing. It's possible, in fact it's a certainty, that I need to beef up my endurance. But a look at my watch as I crossed the finishing line provided a second valid explanation for my exhaustion. I had run very fast (by my standard), more than one minute better than the anticipated 53 minutes, and at less than 7 minutes per mile, which is a pace that I haven't achieved since a long time. Conclusion: excellent race! :-)

Pembroke (Malta) 10km - 5 April 2009 - 44m59s

The Pembroke 10k is an old favourite of mine. It's a tough and hilly route. Part of it runs through my home town in Malta, which is Swieqi, and most of the rest is familiar territory. This is my local race, so I always make it a point to watch out for it when planning my spring/Easter sojourn in Malta.

I just managed to make it to this year's edition. We arrived in Malta late Saturday evening, and a few hours later on Sunday morning I was at the starting line next to the Athleta Pembroke club house. It was a lovely spring morning, with a few tiny clouds blowing around in the deep blue Mediterranean sky. The temperature was so perfect that you didn't even notice it at all. There was a lively atmosphere, including eager children who would take part in shorter runs, their chattering parents, busy members of the organising team running around looking after the final details, and us seasoned old timers doing our warming up. It was fantastic. Whoever says Malta is undergoing some sort of crisis is talking through the back of his head.

I didn't have any special ambitions for today's race. My good friend Stephen Spiteri, who hails from Swieqi, was going to beat me for the first male from Swieqi trophy anyway. My recent lack of sufficient training, together with shortage of sleep due to the previous evening's late arrival, meant I couldn't aim for any spectacular performance, so I just aimed for a decent time by running at a moderate pace throughout. This got me through the toughest hills, and I was also able to maintain my position, including resisting a sustained chase from a rival coming in from behind all the way from the 7th km to the finish. 0h44:59 - one minute more than my usual times at this distance, but quite acceptable when all is considered.

Right after the finish, I was caught on video for a full two minutes trying to recover my breath while resting my head on my arms on top of a barrier... It was only at the end of the two minutes that I saw the camera - it surely wasn't a display of great athletic prowess... :-)