The humble 10k training run

The scene of a thousand runs.

I'm always writing about races, marathons, important long runs... and yet, most of my runs, by far, consist of the routine 10 km training run. It's only appropriate, I'm thinking, that I should record one post about this, a run that is equally important as the long runs that lead up to any particular long distance running event.

The 10 km training run is the filler that consolidates the endurance obtained by means of the long run. It ensures continuity of my running activity. Three times every week, I go out of the front door either for a straightforward easy (recovery) run that lasts around 55 minutes or for a 'quality' run which includes running at a fast pace.

By now, my running career spans a good quarter of a century. Throughout the years, the route of my standard 10k training run has changed according to where I was living. In the early days it used to start where there's the "LOVE" atrocity at Spinola Bay and followed the St Julian's, Sliema and Gżira coast towards Manoel Island and back. I still make it a point to run along parts of this route whenever I'm in Malta. It's surely the area most frequented by runners and joggers in Malta.

In my 'second' life in Belgium, my standard 10k started off as a cold and dark double loop early in the morning in Ixelles, to be replaced by much more pleasant variations at the Bois de la Cambre and the adjacent Forêt de Soignes. Then over to Hoeilaart and two alternatives: towards the same Forêt de Soignes but from the opposite direction, or towards Overijse and the straight road leading to Huldenberg.

But that's history. Now we seem to have established ourselves at the edge of Overijse, close to Hoeilaart. A steep hill creates a physical barrier from Hoeilaart, so my 10k has now been oriented towards Jezus Eik and the adjacent Arboretum. The fact that I work from home makes it possible for me to start my run at lunchtime, which is much more convenient than the early morning or the evening. I go up a slight uphill, then along a road running parallel to the E411 motorway, across a flyover spanning the motorway towards the main commercial street in Overijse, and soon enough into the Arboretum - the forest.

It takes me 18 minutes to leave the streets and enter the forest paths. That's too much, but the alternative would be to drive and start at the edge of the forest, which would be inconvenient for a daily run. That leaves 19 minutes of running in the forest and another 18 minutes to go back home. The forest section consists of a winding path to begin with, followed by a long straight with large trees on both sides, then a turn to the left into a picturesque S-shaped path leading down and back up to another path, which goes back to the first winding path. It's a pleasant route, marred just a bit by the occasional unleashed dog and one rather stony passage.

It's my standard run, and the way things stand, if I keep running for as long as I intend to do, it may well turn out to be the route I've run most. Literally a thousand times or more.

The Paris Marathon, 3 April 2016

Made it! I achieved my dream of running along the Champs Elysees, and went on to run my 16th marathon.

My preparation was disrupted by an illness in the last few weeks, but I had done sufficient long distance running prior to that to carry me through, even though a nagging cough kept me worried until the very last day. So my plan this time was quite simple: treat the marathon as a very long run, without any time pressure and without at any point trying to run faster than my standard comfortable pace. The sole objective was to keep running from start to finish.

The day dawned rather warm and sunny. That was an advantage during the normally shivery half hour before the start of the race, but less so as the day progressed and the sun reached higher up in the sky. The anticipated excitement was all there. Crowds everywhere cheered the 43,000 participants. We set off in separate groups to facilitate handling of the large numbers. I had indicated a finishing time of 3h45 so I started with the purple group at 9:30, ten minutes later than the scheduled 9:20.

From the Champs Elysees we went to Place de la Concorde then left towards Rue de Rivoli. The sun was straight ahead for a good long distance. It was the one thing that bothered me a bit in the beginning. But it was ok. I was thrilled about running a marathon in Paris. I kept looking at the street names to keep track where we were, but soon gave up as we entered unfamiliar parts of the city. I was looking forward to getting a glimpse of Sue and Gianluca at the 12 km mark, where they had planned to go to cheer me on, and sure enough they were there! Two high-fives gave an excellent boost to my morale.

The biggest surprise for me, and a matter of considerable concern, was the fact that the feeding stations did not provide any energy drinks. This was a major factor that I had been banking upon to keep me going. I always take a belt with an energy drink for my long distance runs, but this time I relied on the fact that in all my previous marathons these were provided by the organisers. But not in Paris! There was water (thankfully in bottles) plus bananas, oranges and dried fruit. After the second feeding station without any energy drink I decided that I had to replenish my muscle fuel reserves by taking banana. It was a risk, as I had never before eaten anything while running, but it was less risky than not taking anything at all except water. It worked. The two banana halves that I took combined with the increasing heat made me very thirsty, but this problem was resolved at the next drinking station 5 km later.

It's the problems section of this post. Please bear with me. The good points come later. I need to mention the main problem I encountered in the Paris marathon, which was of course the overcrowding. There was a queue to enter the bag storage area (compounded by additional security checks because of those beasts the terrorists), another queue to enter the 3h45 finishers' group starting corrall, and similar queues on exhausted legs to retrieve the bags and simply to get out of the area after the finish, this time compounded by well wishers and spectators who were blocking the way out. And during the run itself... I had to slow down or weave my way around slower runners, not just at the first couple of kilometres as is normal for most races, but all the way from start to finish. Ok, I'm not getting any younger and certainly not any faster with the advancing years, but there's a good probability that my worst ever finishing time for a marathon, 3h55, is partly due to the constant weaving in between slower runners resulting in an actual distance run that was even longer than 42.2 km. The strange thing is that I was overtaking other runners all the time. All of these slower participants had started either in my own corrall, i.e. stating that they would finish in 3h45, or even in a faster corrall, expecting to finish in 3h30, but in actual fact they must have been grossly overoptimistic because at a slow 3h55 I beat them all by a good margin.

So I'm still learning lessons from my 16th marathon at 53 years of age; (1) the big city marathons are too crowded for my liking, and (2) you have to state an overoptimistic finishing time to avoid slower runners getting in your way, because everyone else does it.

Gripes over. I'm hugely pleased with myself, for the following reasons:

1. I actually ran the Paris marathon, having promised myself to do this and having missed the previous edition.

2. I have completed my 16th marathon. No mean achievement for a common mortal.

3. I was overtaking other participants from start to finish.

4. I didn't experience too much discomfort at any time. Well... quite some discomfort during the last 10 km, but not too much. At the 32 km mark I used the old mental trick: I'm now beginning a 10k run, something I've done thousands of times. This will be yet another one. One kilometre later I started a 9 km run, and so it went on. As time and distance wore on I imagined myself doing the final stages of my standard long run at home: the Arboretum in the forest, the Jezus Eik church, Brusselsesteenweg, the bridge over the E411 motorway and the final one mile stretch before reaching home. It wasn't easy - it's a marathon we're talking about! - but I never experienced the overwhelming urge to slow down to a walk. On the contrary, I was seeking to overtake slower runners who were blocking my path even in these late stages of the race.

5. Final position no. 12,427 out of more than 43,000 starters and 41,757 who finished the race. So, at 53 I placed in the top third of the final overall classification.

6. 11,1766th of 31,651 men who finished the race.

7. 1564th of 5612 in my age and sex category - that's in the top 28%.

But I know that with better luck in my preparation and if I choose a less crowded marathon, I can do better, So, bring on the next marathon!

Two weeks to go before Paris

At least in my case, the main story behind most marathons is in the build-up, rather than in the actual marathon itself.

The Paris marathon, that I hope to run in two weeks' time today, looks like being another case in point.

I decided that I wanted to run the Paris marathon in September 2014, while on a visit there. Being in Paris always thrills me, and touring around the various landmarks such as the Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysees, Place de la Concorde and so many others, I thought: I just have to run the Paris marathon. My next scheduled marathon was in spring the following year, so I no longer had any doubt where that would happen. I resolved that in 7 months' time I would run through the middle of the Champs Elysees.

Except that I didn't. So many things can go wrong in the build-up to a marathon, so I often leave it till the latest possible to commit myself by paying the entrance fee. This time I left it too late because in January 2015, 3 months before the event, it was already sold out. Which is why in April 2015 I ran the Vienna marathon instead.

Well... Paris is still there and I'm still running, so what I failed to do in 2015 I could always do in 2016. This time I didn't take any chances. Almost a full year before the big day, I entered my name for the Paris marathon.

I had ample time to plan my training. My plan is quite simple for any event - in one week I normally go for 3 runs of 10 km plus one long run. The 10k's may optionally include a speed session or a race. The long run becomes longer by 15 minutes every 3 weeks, i.e. 1 and a half hours for 3 weeks, then 1h 45minutes the following 3 weeks, and so on until I reach 3 hours. My longest run before a marathon is 3h 15 minutes (equivalent to about 36 km), which is followed by tapering for the 3 weeks leading to the event.

Last year in Vienna I tired out quite badly in the last few kilometres, so I thought that in 3 weeks tapering I may have been losing some endurance. This time I decided that the last very long run would be 2 weeks before the marathon and that I would ensure that the last 2 weeks would be very easy so that I am well rested on the big day. I also decided that only one 36k was not enough to get used to running very long distances. My last very long run at 2 weeks out would be my second 36k. This was the plan:

1h30 x 3 --- 1h45 x 3 --- 2h x 3 and so on until 2h45 x 3 --- one week break --- 3h x 2 --- 3h15 x 2

The last four very long runs would be every one and a half weeks instead of once a week, to allow enough time for leg muscle recovery. In the plan I built in two weeks for unforeseen stoppages for mishaps or illness, but none happened so I ran a 20 kilometre race, Les Hivernales de Boitsfort, in early February to fill in the schedule.

The plan worked like a dream. I overcame snow, wind, rain, back injury, a cold coinciding precisely with a stoppage for a holiday in Montenegro, plantar fasciitis, mild tendonitis... without missing a single long run! Three hours for 33k, then 36k... practically perfect runs.

Today would have been my last 36k, then 2 weeks very easy to be rested and in good shape for the big day. It was not to be, of course. I now have a nasty cold. My Facebook newsfeed 'reminds' me that in two weeks' time I'll be running the Schneider Paris Marathon. Let's just hope that I'll recover sufficiently to get back into shape.

It's a good thing I had included two 36k runs and not just one. My last long run before the marathon will be 3 and a half weeks before - much too long for comfort, but that's the way it has to be. At least it was 36k and not just 33k. And my leg muscles will surely be rested.

About 8 years ago I ran a full marathon on just one 3 hour long run (plus of course the normal build up) a full six weeks before the event followed by four weeks of no running at all due to a cold. This time I've done 3 hours twice, then 3 hours 15 minutes 'only' 3 and a half weeks before the event. I can still do Paris.

I only dearly hope to recover very soon from the cold and that it doesn't last for 4 weeks!

Les Hivernaltes de Boitsfort 20 km - 7 February 2016

I had not run this race, one of my ‘early’ favourites in Belgium, since several years. This time I thought it would serve as good race practice ahead of my upcoming marathon in 8 weeks’ time. It would also delay by one week my build up of long runs, which would otherwise peak one week too early. And serve as a welcome break from very long runs, which I have now been doing without fail since I can’t remember when.

Although I could have thought of a somewhat more restful “break”. This hardly qualifies as a break at all. A 20 km race on a hilly route cannot be considered to be a rest. The really effective rest period will probably happen the next 5 days with no running at all while on a sightseeing visit to Montenegro.

They have a habit of changing race routes in Belgium. Les Hivernales is no exception. This year’s was at least the third different version of the route that I can remember out of my six participations to date. The initial loop around the streets of Boitsfort was a bit more extended this time. It gave us the chance to get really warmed up before embarking up the hill into the Foret des Soignes. There, we followed the usual fairly steeply undulating route which, this year, instead of going out to a narrow path adjacent to the road, turned back into the forest. This was a good idea.

This route change didn’t catch me by surprise as I had already had a look at it on the organisers’ website. So I was already bracing myself for a probable steep hill and, sure enough, at around the ninth kilometre following a long fast downhill stretch, we went down into a slight dip and came up against a wall, i.e. a steep hill. This was the turning point of my run – a positive turning point. Many felt justified to walk up this 200 metre stretch. But I know, from experience, that once I walk it’s the end of my performance and I will later keep slowing down to a walk for every little excuse. I decided to treat this like running up a flight of steps and above all not to be upset at the loss of speed. In any case, I was going past other ‘walkers’, meaning that I was actually gaining ground compared to walking pace.

Soon enough, the path came back to level and my breathing settled back to normal. It helped no little that at the moment I’m rather fit from my marathon training and that I had rested properly with no running at all during the previous two days. We rejoined the laggards from the 10 km race. Going past so many runners was a further boost for me and I kept up the momentum even after the latter went along their own way while we took a further detour on our 20k route.

From here on it was the usual route. It wasn’t flat but never too steep either, except for the bit at Groenendaal going up into the Tumulidreef at 16 to 17 km. I passed a fair number of rivals in the last few kilometres. Two of them overtook me again in the last half kilometre, but I didn’t react as I was running the fastest I could. My good work had already been done – throughout the run.

It's feels so good at the end of a race when I'm convinced that I couldn't have run any faster.

Some statistics: time 1:16:04. Finishing position 257th of  889 finishers. 42nd of 180 in my age group. 4:50 minutes per kilometre. 12.43 kph

Vlaams Brabant Loopcriterium, 2015

I wrote the other time that I've become a lazy writer. Almost a non-writer. Too much Facebook and too much Candy Crush. Too bad.

I used to write about every 'significant' run, which normally meant that every race would warrant a blog post. Well, not any more. Nowadays an entire season of races making up the yearly challenge of events in Vlaams Brabant (previously the Watermolen Cup, then Scott2Run, from this year Loopcriterium something) are wound up in a single blog post. It may also mean that the various individual races are becoming routine for me and no longer so 'significant'. Never mind.

The first run was quite significant, actually, and I even got round to writing a blog post but didn't manage to complete it. It was the first day of spring, still as cold as winter. We started at Tervuren and moved into the Arboretum forest, still very much in winter attire (both the forest and us runners). The other year I had to slow down to a walk after a hill too many in the second half. This year I was warned so I held back in the beginning to remain strong in the end. It worked, but I learned a great truth. I'm slowing down. There's nothing much I can do about it. We all age (unless we die young). A 70 year old runs slower than a 30 year old, and the slowdown is not sudden but gradual. Which is why my finishing times are becoming progressively longer. I was faster than last year but that comparison doesn't count because of the walking 'sessions'. Instead, I compared my time with a comeback run I had done 3 or 4 years ago, still nursing a hamstring injury, and then, hamstring and all, I was still quite faster than this year while fully fit. Never mind...

Two weeks (plus one day) later I had the Vienna marathon. I needed to get 7 runs in total to be able to classify at the end of the Loopcriterium, so a week after the marathon I had to go to Perk to chalk up another participation and a couple of hundred points. The intention was simply to take it easy and complete the loop. Obviously, I ended up racing and had quite a good performance too. The completely flat route worked to my advantage.

Another 2 weeks and I went to Porto for the Wings for Life run there. This was the 2nd or 3rd of May. Six days later I was in Hoeilaart for the Meifeest run, which I hadn't done for quite a few years. (Come to think of it, I realise that a good number of runs I couldn't run really fast due to being tired from preparatory long runs or from long distance events.) In Hoeilaart they have changed the day - from Friday to Saturday evening - as well as the old familiar course, which still goes into the Groenendaal wood but now takes in a much more challenging hill up to the rural area of the commune. I did well to keep running both times that we went up this hill. It was another good run, considering the hard work I had been doing the few weeks before - a full marathon and a 25 km Wings for Life.

Around 21st June, the official beginning of summer, we have the Machelen 9 point something kilometre race. This, too, they have changed. It's still in two loops but now they have included a rather long uphill street, which came as a bit of a surprise to me. Here, too, I maintained a reasonably good rhythm from start to finish, but the final time was nothing to write home about...

In the end of July, on a Friday evening, we had another double loop in Kortenberg. I was a bit wary of this one, as a few years ago I had a difficult race here and had to stop walking for a while in the forest. It turned out to be a good run for me, with a strong finish, although yet again I increased my final time.

Then came the summer visit to Malta, which made me miss the Duisburg 10 km and the Zaventem half marathon. Instead, I went straight into a race at the peak of the Mediterranean summer heat, a night race at Żebbuġ. I had to retire mid-way through this, fearing heat stroke. I hadn't been feeling well, either, and I think I did well to stop. I did recover well in the remaining 2 and a half weeks, putting in regular midweek training runs early in the morning running 15 loops around the block of buildings in Ta' Giorni where we were staying, and most importantly two hour runs for two Sundays running. Mid-August. That was excellent.

Back in cool and temperate Belgium... I needed two more races to complete my seven. Vossem I ran in much the same spirit as Machelen and Kortenberg. Meaning that I ran as fast as I thought I could reasonably expect, only to discover with dismay at the end that my performance worse than usual. I had laughed at a good friend of mine a number of years back, back in Malta, who in his fifties had complained that his times were a minute more each year. "What should he expect?" I had wondered, almost aloud. He's not getting any younger and the older you get the slower you become. Well, it's hard to accept that when it's you who are hit by this tough reality.

The last run to complete my set of seven was the dreaded Bertem, with its impossible hill in the forest, that I had conquered well, twice, the previous year. This time the hill never materialised. Bertem, too, had had its course changed. I realised this gradually during the first loop, and then, with a sense of relief we started the long, fast downhill run back to the start for the second loop. It should be ok, then, no more terrible hill to worry about. But I had forgotten that, instead of going up a very steep hill, we needed to go up by exactly the same elevation over a longer distance. For the first time in this year's edition of the Loopcriterium, in the second half of the last event, I slowed down to a walk! With consequent mediocre time.

Good thing that 3 weeks later I made up for this demoralising setback with a decent performance at the Brussels half marathon.

It was enough for me to obtain yet another placing in the top 20 of my category for this year. There were exactly 7 out of 13 races that were physically possible for me to achieve, and I managed to do them all.

A long, dark, cold, wintry preparation for the Paris marathon now beckons. My last marathon?

Alive and running - Brussels half marathon, October 2015

Hello, fan... I may have become lazy with my blogging, but I'm still running. Just completed the Brussels half marathon a week ago.

Throughout spring and summer I managed yet another placing in my age category in the Flemish Brabant challenge competition (more on that in another post). In the meantime I was building up the length of my long runs in preparation for the half marathon, which included two-hour runs, plus weekly runs to stay in shape, in Malta in the peak of summer in August.

It was a good build up. I had a setback in mid-September due to a strain in my back, which forced me to stop running for one week, but I had enough time to recover for the big day on Sunday 4th October.

It was a day of perfect weather, sunny with a mild temperature. We set off from the Parc Cinquantenaire, about 8000 runners, towards Rue de la Loi through the middle of the EU district where I work, on to the the Parc de Bruxelles in front of the king's palace. The first 10 km are not so easy, undulating with a net rise in level, but not really tough.

I had a bit of a shock at the 10 km checkpoint, which had a clock showing the time, a bit over 50 minutes. This was very slow indeed, little better than training pace, but I consoled myself that either: (a) it was positioned in the wrong place (quite a common occurrence in races organised in Belgium), or (b) it was actually the half way mark, i.e. 10.55 km. It dawned on me later that the position was correct and the time was the official time from the start, including the time it took me to get to the starting line.

Of course, the main reason for the poor time is really simple. I'm slowing down, but more on that later.

On a positive note, my race was a crescendo from start to finish. After the 10 km mark there's a downhill stretch towards Watermael. It was easy to pick up the pace here, of course, but when the road levelled out I kept a good rhythm through Auderghem towards the much feared hill up Avenue de Tervuren. Here the half marathon runners are joined by the marathon runners who are coming back from their 21 km loop into Tervuren, and you lose track of which runners around you are your direct rivals for the half, or whether they are incidental rivals doing the full marathon. In any case, your main concern here to go up the hill, which is longer than one kilometre.

There's an obelisk that marks the end of the hill, and from then on there remain about 6 km to the end of the race. I decided to increase the pace some more and started picking up people ahead with the aim of overtaking them. Many of them may have been taking part in the full marathon, but I didn't care and it didn't matter. It helped me keep a strong pace. I wasn't the only one doing this, of course, and in fact I was also being overtaken by a few others. For instance, in some cases I would pick someone to reach who was also doing my overtaking game and I would soon realise I couldn't reach him (it was mostly men at this stage of the race). So I would forget about him and look for someone else, while in the meantime overtaking others whom I had ignored.

It was quite interesting, actually, and apart from improving my time it helped for the last stretch to go by rather quickly. We raced downhill towards the old centre of Brussels, back on the detested cobble stones, into the spectacular Grand Place, which I hardly noticed, and zigzagging from one cobbled street to the next until the final turn and the open space known as De Brouckere. The finishing sprint is not one of my strongest points and in fact I was overtaken by several runners here, but it's not really important - a great winning sprint earns you three or four positions (to place in 1324th instead of 1329th place out of 8000) and you gain maybe 5 to 10 seconds, but it leaves you half dead. I was happy enough with my solid effort spread throughout the 21 km.

I finished in 1h41:55, in 1374th position out of 7874, at an average pace of 4:50 minutes per km overall. My 10 km split was 48:35, one and a half seconds per kilometre slower than the overall pace. 

I've resigned myself to the inevitable. I'm slowing down at roughly one minute per year but at 53 I'm still placing much higher than midpoint in the overall classification. This was my favourite type of performance - the first section at a moderate pace which helps preserve energy for a strong second half - well executed.

As I remarked on Facebook, a one minute slowdown per year would mean a half marathon in 1h59 at the age of 70. I should be quite happy with that.

For all my effort, I got this nice medal, sore leg muscles for two days, and a happy conviction that I can look forward to doing well in other future events.

Wings for Life 2015, Porto

Porto is the second largest city of Portugal. It lies at the mouth of the Douro river that pours into the Atlantic Ocean. It's famous for giving the world the alcoholic drink known as port, made from grapes grown in the Douro valley and fermented and aged in cellars at the river bank close to the coast.

For some reason I chose this city when I registered for my second Wings for Life run, many months ago. It may have been due to the fact that a flight to Porto was available from Brussels at a low cost. I'm not really sure why. I was just a bit concerned that, since Portugal lies quite close to the Mediterranean, a long distance race in May might turn out to be too hot for comfort.

I needn't have worried one bit about this. I should have known that, being at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, Portugal is the place where the humid oceanic air hits the European mainland, there to precipitate as rainfall. I should have worried, instead, of the possibility of rain on my big day in Porto.

The forecast said rain from 10 days ahead, and it wasn't wrong. We gathered in the Placa Galica after 11 in the morning wearing all sorts of plastic covers, waited to hand over our bag of clothes, and gathered behind the starting banner. As is my custom, I sat down on the ground amid a crowd of standing runners waiting for the start, hugging myself and trying to occupy as small a surface area as possible to avoid getting cold or wet.

Off we went! I forgot all about the rain the moment we began to run. My only concern was to hit the right pace: 4 minutes 52 seconds per kilometre, which I later realised was 3 seconds per kilometre too fast for my target. I kept very close to this pace, then we started the downhill section of the run. This is where the kilometre splits became quite fast as we approached the coast.

Then we hit the coast. And the Atlantic Ocean hit back. A strong south south westerly wind was blowing in from the sea, straight into our faces. The pace slowed down to 5 minutes per kilometre, and it never picked up after that.

Pity. It was a beautiful route. We set off close to the city centre, turned left, in front of "my" hotel, right and left again along a long road towards the coast. We entered the industrial district and then the coast road. Two days later I discovered this to be a spectacular route - during the run I was only concerned with maintaining the pace, also by sheltering behind other runners.

We followed the coast road back into the mouth of the river Douro, approaching the popular wharf (the Ribeira) close to the landmark Luis I bridge. This was at about 19 km, and by this stage I had given up on checking the time splits. They were consistently slower than my target pace and I thought, why stress myself? Looking at the watch was only causing discouragement, so I concentrated on catching up rivals and going as far as possible before being caught by the Catcher car.

We crossed the bridge towards the Gaia side of the river and kept going along the river bank, again approaching the Atlantic coast. The route profile on the event website had mentioned a sharp uphill at 21 km. I braced myself for this, but it never arrived! Finally, at about 24 km there was a hill of sorts, rather steep in fact, but it was over after a couple of minutes or so.

25 km.

Straight into a fierce wind from the Atlantic. We had already heard the cacophony of the Catcher car from the other side of the river. The rate of approach of this car relative to my pace was 4 kph, but the moment you hear it, even from afar, you think, I'm doomed. I was tired and the wind made it much worse.

26 km.

By this stage it was difficult even to keep on running. Last year in Ypres I was caught at 28.3 km, and the target this year was to beat that distance. Now, I didn't care and I just wanted to be caught and to stop.

27 km.

A final effort and I would actually beat my target! Then I heard the cacophony coming up from behind, and none too soon.

The worst part of this event, and something I hope will be improved in future, is getting back to base at the end of the effort. They have shuttle buses taking runners back from stations placed at intervals of 5 km: at 15 km, 20 km, 25 km and so on. It was bound to happen that I would be "caught" exactly in the middle between two stations. The walk straight into the storm towards the 30 km mark lasted for most of eternity. I barely managed to stop the last bus coming back from 30k. Inside the bus, a caring soul took pity on me and handed me an unused reflective sheet to cover myself during the trip back.

My official result was 27.45 km, quite high up in the general standings in actual fact, but worse than my first Wings for Life in Ypres.

For various reasons. Three weeks earlier I had run a full marathon, from which I had probably not recovered sufficiently. The wind did not help at all, and I probably started too fast. Looking back at my best running performances in the past, quite often they happen when I start at an easy pace. To make matters worse, I helped myself to too hearty a breakfast. Bacon, eggs, sausage, the works.

Ah yes, I almost forgot. I'm yet another year older than I was in Ypres.

Having said all this, Porto was a great experience. I'm more than ever determined now to do all the other Wings for Life locations, including India, Peru, Melbourne, Taiwan, Florida and Niagara Falls. By the current situation, this project will take me up to the age of 86. By then I will be happy even if I don't achieve 28.3 km as I did in 2014 in Ypres...