Back to humble beginnings

Three days ago I ran for 3 km - 15 minutes - a run which I repeated the following day. One day of rest, and today I did 26 minutes for about 5 km.

How did I get down here? Well, it's a long story... (that's from "Down in the Sewer" by The Stranglers).

It was a long series of setbacks, starting with my motivation crisis last summer, followed by a three week period in the peak of summer in Malta, a slight recovery beginning of September after my return to Belgium, another stop for a one week vacation, then an injury in my calf, illness, a repeat injury on my comeback run... I haven't trained regularly since two months, and hadn't run at all for a whole month before last Thursday.

During this upheaval there were some interesting, I would call defining moments.

I would say the low point of my crisis was the Duisburg 10 km race on 8 August, which I started too fast, also considering my bad form due to lack of sufficient training, and which ended up being the third out of six races up till then in the Scott2Run series where I had to slow down to a walk. Admittedly, the route was difficult, the second half being mostly uphill on difficult terrain including cobbled paths, mud, narrow passages and so on. Even my choice of shoes was wrong on that day.

In Malta, for 3 weeks starting a few days later, I knew what to expect. I managed some runs that took an immense degree of will power to complete in the heat, but it was generally low key running with the inclusion of a good deal of swimming. For example, here...

That was simply wonderful!

I was taking it easy on purpose, with the intention of taking it up a notch or two in September. There was a 5 km race close to the end of August in Birżebbuġa. The temperature was around 33 C, the air humid, and two hours before the start I was still undecided whether to take part or not. I drove there, poured a lot of water on top of my head, drank another lot, and gave them my name. My intention was simply to complete the distance without slowing down to a walk. 5 kilometres! I did in fact run the whole way, which was actually a bit of an achievement in those conditions, but it was there and then that I decided that I was going to pick myself up and build up to a full marathon.

Easier said than done.

My recovery started very well, actually. Back in Belgium, beginning of September, I was dreading the final race for this year's edition of the Scott2Run series. This was a 10 km race in Bertem. Double the distance of Birżebbuġa and including a hill that's the steepest I know of all races I've ever done. In two times 5 km loops. Amazingly, it turned out to be one of best runs this year, probably second to the February half marathon in Malta. I registered the best speed, over 13 km/h, as well as my best finishing position for the whole series. It was a defining moment because I found out that, in spite of the doom and gloom, there was nothing basically wrong with me. My success here was due to three main factors, which I hope to keep in mind for the future:

1. I started slowly. (Now, really, after 23 years of running, do I still need to remind myself of this?)

2. I knew what to expect, so I was mentally prepared for the killer hill (times two).

3. I was determined to keep running and never slow down to a walk.

Following this success all seemed fine. I could resume regular training and build up my distances. I took a break of one week for a family commitment, but after the resumption a sharp pain in my right calf brought me to a sudden halt. Literally. Then a cold, then again the same injury...

Which is why my training runs this week were 3 kilometres and 5 kilometres. I hope my calf is now fine, and I have to be careful and ease back into my standard training schedule very gradually.

I was in Paris recently. In another defining moment, I knew that I had to run through the middle of the Champs Elysees, the Place de la Concorde and along the banks of the river Seine. I decided to aim to run the Paris marathon on 12 April 2015. Now, if my comeback goes according to plan, I might just be able to make it.

As the saying goes, mighty oaks from little acorns grow...

Erps-Kwerps - Easter Monday, 2014

Years ago, when a colleague at work mentioned the place to me, I wouldn't believe it was really named Erps-Kwerps. The same thing happened to our son Gianluca today afternoon. But Erps-Kwerps it really is, and the surrounding land is completely flat, which suited me just fine as I wasn't in the mood for any hills, more so as I'm nursing a sore hamstring.

Today's race was preceded by Gianluca's debut race - a one kilometre dash for children. With no training at all he finished the run in the middle of the pack. May this be the beginning of a long running career, Gianluca!

I started my own race with strong misgivings due to the hamstring. The past five days I've only done a short 25 minute jog two days ago, to keep it rested and allow it to heal, but during the warm-up I could still feel it hurting very slightly. A few minutes into the run, however, the pain disappeared and I could concentrate on my usual business of overtaking my rivals. A short stretch with cobbles was followed by longer asphalted stretches and some patches without asphalt, next to fields, a railway line, a huge car storage area and houses again as we headed back to Erps-Kwerps village for the start of a second loop.

No hills meant that I could maintain a constant pace. It's convenient when there are no uphills, but it also means there are no downhills and by the middle of the second loop I was becoming tired. Not too tired, however, and I managed to keep a steady rhythm. At the 11th kilometre I heard someone coming up close from behind. I was in no mood for any sprinting - I was already going as fast as I could - and I wished he would pass by and disappear, but he never did. Instead, I approached another couple as we neared the last bends before the finish, and I overtook them too!

Utter exhaustion at the finish was rewarded by a good time of 53:45 for approx. 11.8 km. It was my best performance to date in this year's edition of the Scott2Run. Tomorrow I'll find out the effect of this strong effort (I don't think I could have run any faster today!) on my long-suffering hamstring. Fingers crossed, it's still fine up till this evening...

Scott2Run 2014 - the first three events

The first group of three races for this year's Scott2Run competition kicked off on a bad footing for me on 22 March, continued with a close to disastrous performance a week later, but was concluded with a fine, fine run on race number three today.

Vilvoorde 12km - 22 March 2014

I had long been looking forward to this. I had been training well, putting in some fairly long runs as well as speed sessions, so I took a fair degree of confidence with me to Vilvoorde. But the day turned out to be cold and wintry, and I was never able to fire myself up properly.

The event consists of two loops - each one with a long steep hill during the first half followed by a flat mid-section and a final downhill stretch. The uphill part of the second loop I suddenly slowed down to a walk. It happens sometimes. A number of other runners passed me while I recovered my breath (and some strength in my legs). I started to jog again after two or three minutes, and began to re-overtake some of the runners who had passed me during the walking stage.

All considered, the final timing of 56:48 wasn't so bad. The field of participants was rather small, so I still managed to collect a useful amount of points.

Furaloop 16km (Tervuren) - 29 March 2014

Mostly in one of my 'haunts', the Arboretum part of the Zonienbos (Foret des Soignes) that straddles Jezus Eik in Overijse and Tervuren.

I realised there was a hills 'issue' in this one, so I checked the height profile on the Furalopers' website the days before. I found that most of the uphill parts were in the first half, while the second half was generally downhill. So I went to Tervuren determined to make up for the previous week's disappointment while being careful not to overdo it in the first, hilly, part.

The first 8km were, indeed, very hilly, but I managed them quite well, overtaking a large number of rivals in the process. The second half, as predicted, was generally flat or downhill.

Up to a certain point.

Suddenly I saw looming up ahead a steep hill. I thought it would be a short stretch, and then we would resume going downhill. But then we came to another hill. It went on and on. Determined as I was not to slow down to a walk this time... slow down to a walk is exactly what I did. Once. Lots of rivals going by. Restart at a slow jog. Another hill, one I've done lots of times in my training. Another stop! What a disaster.

I lost about four minutes from my normal time at the end, though I did manage to recover enough energy in the final 2 or 3 km to have a respectable finish, at a sprint. Official timing: 1h18:58.

Picking up the pieces - Wednesday 2 April 2014

I had been looking forward to a good year of running, with lots of ambitious plans, and here I was slowing down to a walk in the very first two races of this year's edition of the Scott2Run.

I'd never slowed down to a walk in two successive races. I sorely needed a morale booster, so I decided to risk a make-or-break long run. I'd gone up to 25 km - 2h15 in my pre-Scott2Run preparation. Next long run: 27km - 2h30. That's what I set out to do, and that's what I did without any particular problem.

That's how I found out that there's nothing seriously wrong with my current form. With the wisdom of hindsight, I can lay the blame for my recent mishaps on:

a. Having done a short run on the day before the race;
b. Having had a stressful morning a few hours before the race, doing the weekly shopping and such stuff;
c. In the case of the Furaloop 16km, bad mental preparation for the route.

I also seriously need to improve my form going uphill. I used to be very good at this, but, seemingly, not any more.

Perk, Kasteeljogging - 11.5km - 6 April 2014

This used to be a triple loop in a park, with long stretches where runners are forced to go single file or risk twisting a knee or an ankle while trying to overtake on very rough ground. They have now changed this into a more sensible double loop, finishing with a long lap around the club football grounds.

Except for the initial two or three minutes, that were rather crowded and where overtaking was next to impossible, the going for me was very smooth. Most of the time I was overtaking other runners without exerting myself too much. While I ran, I realised that I hardly need to make any effort to run on flat terrain, which is what we had throughout today. Having 'rehearsed' the final lap around the club football grounds during warm-up before the race, I was prepared for this too and finished strongly at 53:19.

So, I guess, I'm back on track for a (still) promising 2014 running campaign.

Steenokkerzeel 10k

Typical Flemish suburb located a short distance away from Brussels.

It was the last race that I needed to accomplish to gain a total of nine and a placing in the final classification of the 2013 Scott 2 Run challenge.

I almost missed it.

The race was on Saturday 5th October. The following day, on 6th October, there was the Brussels marathon, and this was the date that stuck in my mind, so I had the impression that the final race of the challenge, at Steenokkerzeel, would be on Sunday 6th October. My plan was that on Friday I would do a final easy 10km run, so that on Saturday I would rest to be in good shape for a race on Sunday.

Saturday morning I looked at the website for the competition, to confirm the starting time and so on. That's when I realised with a shock that the race was that very afternoon, and certainly not on Sunday! So I had to quickly change my plans for the day, prepare my running gear and drive to Steenokkerzeel for a 10km race.

Normally I take a day off running before a race, but this time I had done a standard training run of 10km the day before, so for this race I could only hope to do an easy run and simply gather the necessary points to achieve my placing in the final classification. It turned out the route was completely flat, no treacherous muddy paths in the forest, two loops along flat, well paved streets, and I managed to give a pretty good account of myself in spite of not being properly rested.

And (finally!) I obtained a well deserved classification in the top 25 of my age category. It really was well deserved, as I had to overcome many obstacles throughout this edition. In several cases I simply turned up without racing properly, just to put in a presence and get the necessary points and the minimum requirement of nine race participations. But if I hadn't bothered to check the website at the last possible moment on the morning of the last race, the good work I'd done in August following my back injury, scraping through a couple of races during that month would have been all in vain, as I would have missed the last, ninth, race due to a silly mix-up in the dates.

Placing 22nd in the overall final classification earned me a 45 euro gift voucher, which I can exchange for a Scott product at their warehouse in Kortenberg. This warehouse is open every first Saturday of the month, but the gift voucher expires at the end of February. Next Saturday is the last possible date when I can use it. The saga of my 2013 Scott 2 Run competition continues...

Still running...

Some have misinterpreted my "That's all, folks" along with "Now I'll call it a day as far as running marathons is concerned" to mean that I've given up running altogether.

I even reinforced that impression by not writing here at all for a long time.

Well, nothing could be further from the truth. The crucial word that some have missed was "marathons". I was calling it a day as far as running marathons was concerned. Not running. So in fact I did keep on running, although with several interruptions and comebacks, which seem to have become the rule in this day and age (i.e. past half a century...) for me.

After a very difficult marathon in Rotterdam in April earlier this year, I decided that I didn't need to put myself through the pain of running marathons, so I would be running shorter races instead. The Scott2Run aggregate challenge was already in progress, but I was still in time to join the fray.

The challenge consists of 17 races held between March and early October in the Flemish part of the Brabant region. You compete with other athletes in your age and sex category by acquiring points depending on the placing you achieve in each race participation, final totals being based on the best 9 results for each athlete. This means that you need to complete 9 out of the 17 races to be eligible for a prize, which is given to the top 25 placed athletes in each category.

By the day I ran the marathon, I had already missed three races, and the following Sunday I thought it would be risky to do the fourth one - a 16 km - so the first available race was a 12 km race in an unheard of place called Tildonk, on 1st May, a public holiday on Wednesday. There were now 13 races left, of which I needed to complete 9, and one of the 13 was unavailable anyway since I would be away on summer vacation. So it was 12 races available, with the ever-present risk of injury or illness or not being able to participate in some of them for any number of reasons.

Well, here in this blog, a long while ago I decided to start to record my most memorable runs. I grew lazy in this, and I've been missing out on some of the good ones. In this post I'm recording collectively all the runs of this year's Scott2Run challenge, except for the last one, which is hopefully yet to happen, and each in their own way these runs have been quite remarkable. So here goes.

No. 1 - Wednesday 1 May - Tildonk - 12.6 km - 0h59:19. Two days later I had another race, an old favourite close to home, the Hoeilaart 11.2 km, but I thought that I couldn't afford to miss yet another race if I wanted to achieve my nine placings, and decided to participate in this one at training pace to notch up a couple of hundred points, and save up my energy for two days later and do Hoeilaart as well. It was one of the rare occasions when we had a warm sunny day this spring, and the event turned out to be a pleasant affair - three 4 km completely flat loops along country roads and pathways in an agricultural area. No warm up, just as in training runs, and I took it easy, just enjoying the pretty landscape and avoiding the slower runners at the back of the field. Of course, I ended up overtaking other runners, but took great care not to exert myself too much. I really should consider doing more of this type of relaxed "racing"...

No. 2 - Friday 3 May - Hoeilaart - 11.2 km - 0h51:27. The combination Tildonk/Hoeilaart over three days worked out fine. I wasn't tired at all from the race of two days previously, and here I could run a proper race, which I hadn't done for many months due to my preparation for April's marathon. It was my typical race when I do well, starting at a moderate pace just keeping up with the rest of my section of the field, avoiding the slower runners, and after the initial crowding thins out overtaking rivals one after the other, possibly until the end, when I have to find a kerb where to sit down, utterly exhausted, but satisfied that I've performed to 99% of my capacity.

No. 3 - Sunday 9 June - Sterrebeek - 10 km - 0h46:07. Recovering from a cold, yet again I was more concentrated on notching up points rather than racing proper. It's what kept me going at one particularly difficult point. It turned out that I notched the most points here at least from the first seven races.

No. 4 - Saturday 22 June - Machelen - 9 km - 0h39:52. I didn't do the Buizingen 12k, for no reason except that I don't like this particular route. It may have been an error, as it turned out, as I might even now not be able to obtain my nine placings because of this omission. But Machelen I did do, even though it's becoming a habit for me to lose my way until I get there... And I did it extremely well, though not as well as I thought at first. You see, the Belgians have rather a cavalier regard to race distances. Like, for example, this one, which was advertised as a 10 km run, so when I came in at less than 40 minutes I thought that I had run a lifetime best for a 10k at the age of 50! It couldn't be the case, of course, but it was still one of my best performances for several years, and my fastest pace achieved yet in this edition of the Scott2Run - 13.54 kph.

Summer break. Five placings to go, with six races available after the break. But during the holidays I had a silly accident. A badly assembled deckchair collapsed under my weight, and I fell on a horizontal metal bar with my back. I could barely walk afterwards and had to stop training for close to three weeks, but was lucky to escape a bad injury to my spine. Such was the "run-up" to:

No. 5 - Friday 9 August - Duisburg 10.2 km - 0h53:00. I would need to do at least one of this and the Zaventem half marathon, six days later, in order to be able to achieve nine placings for the final classification. My injury was almost healed, so I calculated that maybe I could try both events at training pace and just get the points. I barely managed the first one. It was a pleasant event on a summer Friday evening, with lots of beer and chips stalls, and posters abounding with pictures of a certain Suzy who was turning 50 on the day. If we saw her, the posters urged us, we were to give her a "kuss". The route was your typical Belgian convoluted affair among country lanes, rough paths consisting of dust, gravel, weeds or (worst of all) cobbles. I made it to the finish at faster than training pace, but not by much. Following this, I had to stop running again, as my injury wasn't over at all yet. The half marathon was out of the question, of course, but I had managed to get the points that mattered at Duisburg.

No. 6 - Friday 23 August - Vossem 11.7 km - 0h54:15. Many people say that summer in Belgium is a joke. But it isn't, and this event quite often happens at the peak of the summer heat. At 7 in the evening, the temperature was in the high 20s as we prepared for this race. My injury was now really over, and I had had enough training sessions to do this race at almost standard pace, starting off cautiously, but soon enough going through the overtaking routine, through rough country lanes then up and down many paths in the forest adjacent the Tervuren park. It was only in the last couple of hundred metres as we were racing back to Vossem that I had to slow down a bit, thoroughly exhausted, but happy at the entirely satisfactory end result. I was back in the running!

No. 7 - Sunday 1 September - Bertem 10.6 km - 0h48:11. This was a killer! The route was entirely along rough paths, much of the way on cobbles, gravel or dirt/dust/weeds, including some uphill sections, one of which was so steep we had to slow down to a walk. Going back to running after the steepest part, but still going uphill and breathless, required superhuman willpower... The road back down was cobbled, and followed by a (finally) asphalted stretch back to the start. This loop we did twice. A very tough race, where I registered another good performance.

No. 8 - Saturday 7 September - Overijse 14.6 km (advertised as 13 km...) - 1h08:48. My home race. I could jog from home to the start. Strangely enough, there weren't many participants in this, which worked to my advantage as it resulted in a higher number of points. Two loops, again quite hilly, cobbly at one stretch and literally running through fields at others. Typically tough and exhausting.

Now it's just one more race to go at Steenokkerzeel in early Octber, and I will have made it. Nine races and inclusion in the top 25 in the final classification, the last four placings being the only four yet available. A great feat for me, considering all the difficulties and setbacks. Only, that is, if I make it intact to the finish at Steenokkerzeel...

The run-up to Madrid...

After more than 6 months it's certainly well past the time for an update. Our good friend Ernest Ellis has graced the front page of this blog for long enough now...

Early February - Les Hivernales de Boitsfort - 20km - 1h31:37
I wasn't in the mood to write at the time, but this was an exhilarating race. We were just beginning to enter the peak of winter, the landscape was covered in snow: it was quite spectacular. The ground conditions weren't so bad either as the snow hadn't thawed and refroze or anything like that - it was still fresh and uncompacted. It probably slowed us down somewhat, especially going uphill, but still I enjoyed this race tremendously. Of course, the fact that I kept a steady pace and never felt tired at all was an important factor in my enjoyment.

Beautiful race. Yet again, thank you Royal Racing Club de Bruxelles. At five successive participations, this is by far the event I've done most in Belgium and definitely one of my favourite races here.

24 March - Parkloop Sparta, Vilvoorde - 12km - 0h55:30
In Belgium, spring has an uncanny habit of arriving exactly on schedule. This year was no exception, and since quite a few days now we're enjoying some fantastic weather. After so many months of running in the cold, it's so refreshing to be able to go out wearing just shorts and a vest.

Today marked the start of a new season for the Scott2run competition. I remember Vilvoorde very well from last year, so this time the steep uphill tracks were not a surprise and I was well prepared for them. I had in mind last year's time, which I wanted to beat, and I was doing good progress, overtaking many rivals without overexerting myself. In the last kilometre I set my sight on a last rival whom I could possibly overtake, so I imagined that he was myself running the same race last year. If I overtook him, I would improve my time over last year, I thought.

My imagination wasn't very far off the mark, at all: I did manage to overtake this guy by a handful of seconds, by almost exactly the same time that I clipped off of last year's effort!

Zaventem Half Marathon - 15 August 2011 - 1h40:18

I was doing quite well up to 16km, when suddenly my steam ran out, and I barely managed to jog the final 5km. So, then, the big question is this: how will I be able to run a full 42km in less than four weeks' time?

Machelen 9.8km - 24 June 2011 - 0h43:53

The main feature of this edition was the heat. The temperature was in the high 20s, the sun was shining bright, and hot!

The warming up phase included the usual routine for hot weather racing - drinking lots of water and pouring some more on top of my head. I seem to have learned the lesson from Huldenberg very well, because after the Sterrebeek 16k I again managed to get the race just right - not too fast in the beginning, and chasing the next runner ahead during the second half. It's actually easier when a race consists of two repeated loops, because in the second part you know exactly what to expect.

Well, 'easier' doesn't really describe today's race. This being a relatively short distance, the pace is inevitably faster, and more so since it's almost completely flat all the way. Again, I managed to hold on to my position in the final sprint - I seem to be getting good at this! Besides which, I overtook a good number of rivals and can't recall anyone overtaking me after the initial few minutes of settling down. It was no surprise that I ended up running at the fastest pace in this year's series.

At a price... soon after crossing the finish I simply rolled onto the ground and lay there full length, gasping for breath. But I wasn't alone in this. It really was a hot, gruelling effort!

Before we went home, all finishers received a deserved prize for our efforts - a bottle of Farnese, Montepulciano d'Abruzzo d.o.c. - denominazione di origine controllata... Cheers!

A great race!

Sterrebeek Scottloop - 15,6km - Sunday 12 June 2011 - 1h12:07

I doubt if I could have run this even one second faster. It's the first time, post-injury, that I've run a race faster than on a previous occasion. Of course, one important reason was that the previous occasion in November 2009 the weather conditions were much worse - the ground was slippery and there was a strong wind that in some parts slowed me down almost to walking pace.

This time the conditions were practically ideal - sunshine, 16 C or so and a fresh breeze. The route... is what it is. It's mostly in the countryside along paved paths surrounded by large fields, very picturesque. Then, almost inevitably in Belgium, you hit the unpaved paths. One, in particular, was so tricky. It was a lane in between fields consisting of a higher strip in the middle covered by vegetation, and two lower narrow strips on the sides, mostly soil or gravel, that had been formed over the years by the wheels of farming vehicles. You need to stay behind the runner in front of you, or switch 'lanes' to overtake, but do it fast as the space is narrow. Sometimes you need to switch simply because the ground gets too uneven. I do hate this type of terrain! You can't run properly, you can't overtake properly, you feel 'obliged' to keep up the pace not to hold back runners behind you, and you risk getting injured. Later there was second rough stretch, not as long as the first, which even had a warning sign indicating treacherous ground caused by exposed roots.

Typically for Belgium, the race consists of two loops, which is not such a bad thing since at the half way mark you then know exactly what to expect in the second part. It was at the half way point that a young lady passed me. Nothing unusual so far, it happens (too) many times. But it was the point where I had planned to speed up the pace, which pace, although cautious so far, had not been leisurely at all. After a few minutes I caught up with her and overtook her again. A few more minutes, and I started to feel the effects of the strong pace. But since in my previous race I had had to stop running and walk for a bit, giving up this time was absolutely out of the question. I simply had to go on running. I took heart from the fact that I was still overtaking other runners, which could only mean that I wasn't slowing down in spite of feeling tired.

When the second stretch of treacherous ground was over in the second loop we were getting close to the finish. Now it was just one final kilometre of flat ground and proper road surface. Time to prepare for the final sprint! I heard the sound of hard breathing getting louder behind me (my own breathing wasn't too relaxed either...) and without looking I was sure who it was. She wasn't prepared to give up without a fight, but then neither was I. I lengthened the pace and ran flat out, especially after the final bend.

Made it! I've recovered the ability to win a final sprint! It was so competitive that we had to be physically stopped at the finishing line to allow for barcode scanning for the official time.

Thank you for a great race, young lady. Thank you Sterrebeek. I look forward to coming back next year.

Running like a baby

Scott2Run: Felix Sohieloop, Hoeilaart 11.2 km - Friday 6 May - 0h51:00

Back to one of my favourite races, after two absences due to a cold and then my injury. This year I'm quite sure that the distance was slightly longer - we ran a wider path in the wooded patch in Groenendaal, plus a strange detour into a carwash station on the way back to the sports centre. It may be part of the reason why I finished close to 3 minutes later than my last participation in 2009. The main reason, of course, is that I've slowed down somewhat due to not being able to run normally because of the not-completely-healed pain in my hamstring, and due to another two years of inexorable deterioration as I grow older... cheery thought...

This is one of the runs where I really run flat out, and this edition was no exception. Pity it starts so late, at 8pm. Even in the first loop it's already quite dark under the thick foliage in Groenendaal. In the second loop it's worse, and with my short eyesight and the pain in my left buttock with each step, the uneven ground at the steep uphill narrow footpath was really treacherous.

There were no incidents, however. I raced in and all-in-all finished in a decent time of exactly 51 minutes - exhausted!

Scott2Run: Huldenberg 10.7 km - Sunday 15 May - 0h49:32

I should have known, in fact I did know, that Huldenberg lies in a hilly area, and any race starting here would involve a lot of going up and down hills. But I was more concerned with achieving a good placing, and avoiding getting bogged down in a crowded start as has been happening in my recent races.

So I sprang enthusiastically into action from the start, forging a path for myself immediately up a long uphill stretch that I had once done on my mountainbike. After the first 10 minutes I had already expended too much reserves, and yet I kept up the pace. We then dropped downhill, no problem here, and back into the valley. It became clearer that this wasn't going to be the usual double loop, so popular in these areas, so the remaining 5 km were unknown to me - not a good omen. We were running along footpaths in the forest, with brooks and streams and so on, really beautiful. I should go exploring the area again.

I sensed a steep hill right round the corner, so to speak, and sure enough... there it was, going up and then curving further up... I suddenly stopped. It happens sometimes in my races. I walked uphill while others jogged past - a good few. I walked on for what must have been close to 5 minutes, until I approached the top of the hill. I had recovered my breath to be able to run, and even race, again.

I wonder what went on through the minds of those who had gone past me, a spent force trudging uphill, when this same spent force overtook them once again at the top of the hill and beyond :-) After a short while we started a sharp downhill, really fast and competitive. The injury in my hamstring was shouting out loud now, with each step, but I didn't care anymore and just kept racing.

It's a good thing, in fact, that I resumed racing in spite of having slowed down to a walk. I had run so fast in the first stage of the race, and probably also in the last bit, that it almost made up for the time lost while walking. The finishing time was a quite decent 0h49:32, and the fact that there were not so many participants in this race resulted in a high number of points for me in the Scott2Run general classification.

Now that I know the route I won't repeat the same mistake if, hopefully, I give it another try next year. My young son Gianluca likes to say, when I play badly on a computer game, that Papa is playing like a baby. At Huldenberg I made the classic mistake so common for beginners, that of starting too fast. Gianluca would be right to say that I ran like a baby.

Perk 10k - 17 April 2011 - 0:45:11

It was rather chilly this morning at the extensive sports grounds on the outskirts of Perk, a few kilometres north east of Brussels.

This region, close to the Zaventem international airport, is very flat and in fact the sports grounds consist of large areas of grass, mostly football pitches next to each other, with a clubhouse close to the entrance from the street. This street leads further out into the flat countryside, towards another obscure Flemish village. Across the street from the sports centre is a wooded park, the dominant feature of which is a castle.

The race consisted of three loops inside the park, followed by a dash towards the sports centre and a rather large final loop there. As usual, in the beginning, the running was a bit crowded, the path being no more than 3 metres wide or so. It got worse, and for a good part of a whole kilometre we had to run in Indian file, unable to overtake, unless we wanted to risk injury on the uneven, muddy ground hidden by a thick layer of fallen leaves mixed with tall grass.

Considering that for three longish stretches I couldn't do any overtaking - going faster in the other bits doesn't quite make up for it - I can say that my final time of 45 minutes and a few seconds was a good performance. In my pre-injury post-40 years of age era my standard good time for a 10k was 44 minutes. I'm back in 13 point something km/h territory again, and my recovering hamstring only 'protested' at two particular spots in the triple loop, where it was so muddy we had to waddle through like penguins.

Silly route. But a good race for me.

Vilvoorde Sparta Parkloop 12 km - 0:55:40 - 26 March 2011

To my mind, Vilvoorde is best known as the locality that provides the third letter in the Belgian political issue known as BHV - Brussel/Hal/Vilvoorde. It's an extremely complicated regional argument involving court jurisdictions, linguistic rights, and whether you have the right to vote to Flemish or Francophonic parties. In real life, it's a suburb lying to the north of Brussels, and today I discovered it lies underneath the high-level overpass that is part of the northern section of the Brussels ring road.

They have a sports centre named Sparta Vilvoorde at the outskirts of the locality, right next to the river that flows into Brussels. It's a well-kept football pitch with running track at the edge of a rather extensive park, and this is where the Sparta Parkloop was held.

There was a notice close to the registration that gave very accurate data about the course - 411 metres + two loops of 5700 metres + 112 metres for a total distance of 11.923 km - although it's very likely that in this case theory and practise to not exactly coincide, as I'll explain further on... There was also an altitude chart, where it was clearly shown that here, too, runners would need to climb a good bit, come back down and go back up for the second loop.

The run was as tough as expected. I adopted the same race strategy as the previous week at the Tervuren Furaloop 16 km - a moderate pace in the first half followed by a stronger second half where I would overtake as many rivals as possible. I was quite anxious about how my leg muscles, especially my not-yet-healed left hamstring, would react to two strong efforts in the space of one week. During the race it felt as normal as I've become used to expect, and in fact in the second loop my main problem was that I felt tired due to the previous week's strong effort, not because of any recurring injury. In the final downhill, when I was trying to go really fast, I still ended up being overtaken by several others. Too bad. I'm not doing any fast interval training, so I'm still unable to push hard and sprint at the end of a race. Besides, it certainly wasn't worth the while to risk getting injured again. Running fast down a twisting narrow path would be simply asking for trouble.

For the time being, I'm more than satisfied with having achieved two races, with seemingly no lasting harmful effect, at a respectable though still substandard (compared to my standard) pace. There's still a lot of time to achieve a better pace. Here I ran the "11923 metres" in 0:55:40. Quite OK, and slightly faster than the previous week... except that I have strong doubts about the distance. In some sections the painted arrows followed zigzagged gravel paths, but everyone was running straight on the grass cutting across the zigzags. I would have been a fool not to follow suit!

Scott2Run (1) - Furaloop 16 km - 20 March 2011 - 1h15:43

At long last, back to real racing for the first time since more than 13 months.

It's the start of a brand new Scott2Run season here in Flemish Brabant, and the first of the series was a 10 miler starting and finishing in Tervuren today afternoon. We had close to perfect weather for the event, mostly sunny, not too cold at around 13 degrees, no wind at all. The sports complex area was teeming with youngsters and not-so-youngsters enjoying a lovely March Sunday afternoon, including of course hundreds of runners eager to debut in this second edition of the Scott2Run competition, which from 2010 has replaced the old Watermolen Cup.

The Furaloop 16 km is not a walk in the park! (Of course not, silly, it's a run in the forest...). Indeed. After a kilometre or so of running in residential streets, the route heads straight into the Foret de Soignes. I had done some research about the event, and I knew that it's quite a hilly affair. The run is almost entirely along forest paths, luckily wide enough for comfortable overtaking, on good gravelly ground that's not muddy at all.

I wanted to be careful to avoid the error of going too fast in the beginning. I'm still recovering my best form, the distance is rather lengthy, and after 13 months without any racing I'm a bit of a "beginner" - and beginners' most common mistake is that of being carried away and using up too much energy in the first half of a run, to end up exhausted in the second half.

So I chose an old tactic of mine, going at a moderate pace up to the midpoint, generally keeping my position and if necessary overtaking anyone who seems too slow, and then increasing the pace for the second half of the race. Many years ago I overheard an old running friend of mine (hello Tony Dimech, who knows, maybe you'll get to read this some day...) remark to his companion as I overtook them in the second part of a race in Malta, 'There he goes switching on his turbo engine'. I liked that, and 15 years later it's the same expression that I keep in mind when thinking of accelerating during the second half of a race.

The tactic worked, on the whole. It was a good thing that I had known in advance about the hilly nature of the route, so I wasn't taken by surprise there. It was quite satisfying that, although I have hardly done any hills at all during training for my comeback, I held my own very well in the (relatively mild) uphill stretches. It felt like it's always done during races. Fantastic! And after passing the 8km marker I did, indeed, switch on the "turbo engine". I started overtaking rivals. As I approached each successive "victim" I would say to myself, this guy normally ends up behind me in races (since I'm running slower than my standard pace), so he's no super runner, I can beat him. And beat them I did, quite a few of them.

It came to a point that I had moved up the field to reach other runners who were running at a pace that I couldn't beat. So during the last 3 km, when my legs started to tire out, I had to settle for maintaining my position, an objective that was, also, largely successful. The hamstring injury, which has still not healed completely, was beginning to make itself felt, and in certain uphill stretches now it was also affecting my gait.

The final couple of kilometres, back in built-up streets, I had become tired, but I managed to keep my pace nonetheless. True, I was overtaken by two or three rivals, but kept more or less the same distance from a fellow in blue who I had been following for a good while. I haven't been doing any speedwork involving intervals yet, so I lack the punch to carry out a sprint in the final run-up. It seemed like it was never going to end! But end it did, at a very respectable 1h15:43. Very good, considering the long stop due to injury and the fact that I still have to recover and regain my best form.

Let's just wait for the consequences in my hamstring the next few days. Hopefully, it should be OK.

I'M BACK "IN THE RUNNING"!