Now it really looks as if I may recover completely from the injury that has been holding me back from proper running for close to a year. In which case, a marathon in September would be quite a realistic possibility. Which marathon?
A quick browse reveals that I'm quite spoilt for choice, but... wherever I choose I'll need to travel. I haven't found any marathon in Belgium planned for September 2011. But wait a second... I had an idea there was one somewhere in Oostende. Let's have a look... Of course, the 'In Flanders Fields' marathon! I've been eying this ever since relocating to Belgium, and this would be the ideal occasion to do it.
Ever since I read Ben Elton's 'The First Casualty', set in the midst of World War I, I've wanted to visit Ieper (Ypres in French, or Wipers as the English soldiers used to pronounce it), which has become a sort of shrine for the mass of humanity that fell victim to that utter folly. In Flanders fields is where countless thousands of soldiers from both sides faced each other behind trenches, living in squalid conditions, periodically having a suicidal go at enemy lines, in full sight of enemy fire, and falling down like flies. Never again, one would have thought. Yeah, right.
I feel strongly about war, and now that I live in Belgium Ieper is a must-go place for me. The possibility of a marathon there, at exactly the time when I should be ready for one, makes it even more a must-participate event. The reviews in marathonguide.com are also very good, so the 'In Flanders Fields' marathon seems to be the people's choice.
There are a couple of disadvantages. A marathon in September means that I need to do several three-hour runs, and one 3h15 run, right in the peak of summer in August... I would probably need to give up the Zaventem half marathon, to which I have been looking forward. But one needs to look at the positive side. Being able to choose between a marathon and a half marathon would be a luxury, considering that for several months last year I was fearing having to give up running altogether!
Of course, it's nowhere as exotic as the Petra marathon (Jordan, 9 September), or Maui (Hawaii). Neither is it a big time event like Berlin (25 September - a tour of this major city, along with another circa 40,000 participants). I could choose to go to Vilnius (Lithuania), Tallinn (Estonia), Stockholm, Odense in Denmark, Oslo, Warsaw. There are local marathons in places like Wolverhampton (England) or Dingle (Ireland). The choice is really quite enormous. There's a Bacchus marathon in Surrey, England, with "voluntary" sampling of wines along the route (health warning: alcohol dehydrates the body...).
I could be in the mood for going uphill all the way, except for (mercifully) the very last kilometre, and do the Jungfrau marathon starting in Interlaken, Switzerland (a beautiful place, by the way). Well, when I say "do the Jungfrau marathon", I should really say try, and fail, to do the Jungrau marathon: a 2,000 metre rise is not for ordinary mortals.
One never knows, of course, what circumstances and opportunities may arise. Maybe I'll settle for the most straightforward possibility of a marathon around this period, after all - boring old Brussels. But that comes in the following month, October, and in my next post in the series "Which marathon".
