On a misty, chilly mid-November dawn I set out to get back on track in my preparation for a marathon some time in spring of next year. It was more than five weeks since I'd last run for more than an hour, including three weeks without any training at all due to a bad backache that, literally, floored me. So I was quite apprehensive about my level of fitness barely ten days after having resumed training. Eight years, almost to the day, after moving to Belgium, I was about to partake of a great spectacle, laid out especially for my comeback long run by my adopted home country.
From the edge of Hoeilaart I set out towards the Foret de Soignes, where the colourful Belgian autumn was in full display. It's the last few days before autumn gives way to a wintry landscape. The forest paths are covered by a carpet of fallen red, brown and yellow leaves, but there are still enough leaves clinging to the branches to complete an all-round spectacle, on the ground and up above.
In some places it was very foggy, but there were clear patches. I was practically running from one low-lying cloud to the another. I was so enthralled with the spectacle that I forgot all about my level of fitness and the 5-week gap in long distance running.
At one point, the rising sun broke through a multitude of tree trunks and branches in front of me, adding a golden aura to my run.
Glorious!
I managed to run the 90 minutes back to the starting point. The plan was that if I felt strong enough after 90 minutes I would add a second, shorter loop, for a possible total of 2 hours, i.e. the long run I was doing five weeks earlier, before the injury. So I ran an additional 15 minutes in the opposite direction towards Overijse and then turned back, et voilà - simple, really - two hours done and my long distance training is back on track. Great run!
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