After being injured at the time of last year’s edition (which turned out quite memorable with Bruno running the entire 42.195 km in his heavy-weight, full length pair of jeans) there was no way I was going to miss out on the 2016 edition of the Bosmarathon in Aalter this year. A trip down memory lane: close to my parents, the majority of the trail is run on the trails & roads I pretty much know by heart from when I was still living with my parents.

Once the disappointment after dropping out of UTMB had somewhat settled, it was time to decide whether I’d give it another go. It’s not an easy decision, but it helped I had from the end of August until the end of December to make up my mind. 

As part of a yearly tradition, Kim & her friends spend the week between Christmas & New Year in a house. A week of catching up with friends, doing some activities with the kids, good food, good company and quite some mountain-biking too. Your truly, however, does not mountain bike. Yours truly does not even own such bike. But I wasn’t going to let that spoil the fun or keep me from joining the boys on their trip!

I don’t think I could have anticipated the impact quitting UTMB would have had on me. And for a while, I was in denial. The trip to Gran Canaria helped. A change of environment. Nature. Tons of hikes and a good run. I felt back at it. But the weeks after that trip, I lost my hunger for running. I guess you could call it running depression.

Hm, yeah. I know. That title doesn’t sound impressive at all. But then again, it IS the name of this pretty rad race in Kuurne. Last year, I ran the race as pace maker for a Gwendolyn (who eventually won the race) and finished just over 1h20 myself, a personal best on the half marathon. Since, though, I improved that best at the Havenloop. Putting things in perspective, I was just back from Gran Canaria and had hardly put in any running at all since UTMB. So bottom line: I had no idea what to expect. At all.

In need for some final warmth & sunshine before winter kicked in, Kim & I started searching for an affordable flight to a destination down south. We somehow stumbled upon Gran Canaria and booked in a moment of travel-fever.