24 May 2009 - Tervuren Parkloop, 10.8km - 0h47:37

Tervuren is a suburb of Brussels that is one of the most popular places of residence for expatriates around the Belgian capital. It is dominated by a beautiful park, built by the flamboyant King Leopold II in the late 19th century, and housing a grand African museum.

One could hardly expect a race held in Tervuren not to feature the local park prominently. There were, in fact, no surprises, and the route quickly headed into the park where we negotiated numerous paths under the shade provided by the tall trees on this gorgeous May morning. The ground conditions were generally fine since it hadn't rained for quite a few days, so we could concentrate simply on racing each other and on the changing inclines, mostly not too challenging, and alternating over and over from slightly uphill to slightly downhill.

The race distance wasn't advertised very clearly at all. The Watermolen Cup website gave the distance as 14 km in one place, and 10.2 km in another. On the spot, before the start, it transpired that it was the latter case, so I reckoned if I did well I would finish in my 'standard' 44 minutes for 10k plus a further minute to cover the extra 200 metres - adding up to 45 minutes.

I ran at a moderately strong pace, overtaking a large number of rivals throughout the route while going uphill as well downhill. But still, at the end, I was just a little bit disappointed for two reasons. First of all, in the last few minutes I almost tired out, allowing two of my rivals to catch up and overtake me. Besides which, the finishing time was worse than expected - 0h47:37. Oh well, I thought, my 'standard' 10k must be getting slower with the advancing years, and my preferred race distance is pushing evermore toward the longer distances...

Until I discovered that the actual distance run was not 10.2 km at all, but 10.8, which is 600 metres longer than expected! Which accounts for my getting tired in the last few minutes, since I had been targeting an earlier completion, as well as for the extra two and a half minutes. Conclusion - my 'standard' 10k pace hasn't deteriorated, yet... 88th out of 312 finishers, 24th out of 68 in my age category, isn't such a bad placing after all.

Golden Oldies - 2 - The St Patrick's AC Summer League

For a few years, the St Patrick's Athletic Club Summer League 'took over' from the MMOC fun runs. They were more formal, with pre-registration and overall final classifications, and were longer at a standard 10km, but retained the summer evening feel of the defunct fun runs.

One characteristic of these races was that there never was established a fixed routine of locations where they were held. This resulted in a long series of one-offs that was very interesting in itself, which included:

Xgħajra - a picturesque and hilly route in an area that, for most of us, was not very familiar. I hold fond memories of this lovely race;

Pembroke - another hilly area, including some rough patches going through the Armed Forces practice shooting area (luckily not in use during the race), consisting of a double loop;

Naxxar - this one didn't work out well, since there was a loop within a loop resulting in a whole mix-up of bad turnings and incorrect timings;

Għajn Tuffieħa - practically a carbon copy of the MAAA Winter League event, this was unique in the fact that it was a terrifically hot day, with a temperature of 40 Celsius, and several cases of athletes being affected badly by the heat. I remember drinking lots of water during the day, in preparation for the heat-fest, and surviving the ordeal very well;

Sliema - this wasn't a summer evening affair, but a morning race held on Mnarja, 29 June, which marked the beginning of one particular Summer League. It was a very well-attended event, held on the occasion of one of the many parish feasts of this locality, in conjunction with a local band club. We ran down Dingli Street and along the Sliema promenade and back. It was as hot as you could expect of a summer league.

The organisation of three races within a few weeks turned out to be too burdensome for the St Patrick's club, and the Summer League crystallised into its one stable component, which was the Birżebbuġa 10K, still alive and kicking and one of the main road running events of the Maltese summer.

Golden Oldies - 1 - The MMOC Fun Runs

I love the Maltese running scene. It's one of the factors that I miss most of my native country. There's a well established calendar of races, and one gets used to a yearly cycle of training for the different events, each of which provides a pleasant, friendly atmosphere and is well attended.

Inevitably, along the years, some events eventually die out. Care for a nostalgia trip...?

The MMOC Fun Runs

I will start with the event where it all started, for me. The Malta marathon organising committee's fun runs throughout each summer. These used to be a series of short races held roughly every other Wednesday in different parts of the island, starting at 7pm. My first such fun run was in Marsascala, starting next to the San Tumas tower, all the way along the coast towards the old national swimming pool and back, for a total of 4.2km. In those days (the very early 90s) there would be over 200 participants in these runs, and the printed results would be handed out at the following race.

Other races in this series, most of them 4 to 5 km long, included:
Birżebbuġa - from Al Fresco to Freeport and back
Ta' Xbiex - Whitehall Mansions to Tignè and back
Siġġiewi - starting at the main square, a 5km loop through country roads around this village
Qawra - another fast loop starting and finishing next to Ta' Fra Ben
Rabat - 7.7km from Point de Vue place to Dingli and back, finishing next to the Roman Villa
Żurrieq - a 5 km loop starting from the Zurrieq Wolves clubhouse.

At the end of each race, they would raffle out a pair of shoes, by drawing the number given according to your placing. I was lucky at least twice on these occasions. On one remarkable instance, at a stage when the top athletes had begun to concentrate on more 'serious' events, I even came in first! This was at Siġġiewi - an incredible sensation, which is bound to remain a unique case.

It's a pity that these fun runs are no more. The informality, the summer evening atmosphere... they were unbeatable. They were also a means to encourage new participants to join the wonderful world of athletics, a sort of 'soft' introduction that was a 100% success in my case.

Unfortunately, their raison d'etre gradually came to an end. The fun runs had been introduced to fill a long gap of inactivity in athletics during the months of summer. But, with the growth of the Maltese athletics scene, other races began to 'creep' into this season too, with an inevitable dwindling and eventual dying out of attendances.

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... :-)

Wavre - Bruxelles (25,6km) 2h07:34

This one didn't go too well at all I'm afraid.

The very first kilometre, just a few metres round the corner, was a steep hill - guaranteed to make you lose precious reserves of energy at a stage when you're not properly warmed up. I tried adopting the same strategy as in my recent marathon, running as smoothly as possible without exerting myself too much. But conditions here were completely different. To begin with I wasn't sufficiently trained, my last long run having been the marathon itself no less than 4 weeks earlier. A hamstring strain had prevented me from doing at least one decent long training run for the past month, so my endurance has inevitably started to diminish. But I like to look at the bright side. Hamstring strains are notoriously nasty and long-lasting, so I count myself lucky that I'm actually running races so early after the injury.

If the terrain had been any bit close to normal, I might still have run a reasonably good race. It was not to be! As if the frequent hills were not enough, it got worse. The forest paths were extremely muddy. Imagine running up a long, steep path with your feet unable to grip the slippery slush. We hopped from one slippery side to the other over the groove in the middle. At one point I tripped on a hidden root, and was lucky to stay upright and avoid tasting the mud... But a few moments later I decided it was almost as fast to walk as to "run" in those conditions. And once I slow down to walk in a race, for every little excuse after that I slow down to walk again.

It was such a relief to run on terra firma once again a few minutes later - going uphill on a normal road surface was almost like running downhill, compared to the previous mudfest. I picked up a rhythm once more, only to hit another uphill muddy patch, followed by a cobbled stretch. It was too much! If this is what they mean by cross-country running, it's certainly not my idea of fun. Give me long distance races, any time. Hills are no problem either - it's where I normally overtake most rivals. But mud is just a bloody nuisance, with a built-in high risk of getting injured.

Sorry, guys at Training 7. You've been really nice, the race is well organised, but this event is not for me. It's a pity, actually, as I had been looking forward to this race - 25 km from Wavre all the way to Brussels, just as in the fascinating third stage of the Malta Challenge marathon - for quite a few years. My insufficient state of fitness didn't help at all of course - the final slowdown to a walk at a slightly uphill stretch facing the wind, in the penultimate kilometre, was only due to the fact that I was so tired from all my previous efforts.

Never mind. The finishing time was marginally better than 5 minutes per kilometre, which is not too bad considering the many difficulties. And there are lots of opportunities to make up for today's disappointment in the coming weeks and months.

It's 8 in the evening and the sun is still shining. How I just love it when we switch to summer time!