Alright! It’s time to go! In a few hours, I’m leaving for the French Alps to fulfill what has been a goal for over 2 years. The idea is to hike the Pointe Percée area for a few days and then pick up Kim and head for Chamonix and try to find some distraction to prevent getting overly nervous!

People who know me, even just a bit, will probably know that not being able to run would be hell for me. I already went to (admittingly, just the top layer of) hell and back when I was injured at the end of last year. I hated it. After a while, I found my peace with temporarily being unable to run by focussing on coming back better & stronger than before. But what if there was no such thing to focus on? What if there was no hope on coming back at all?

T minus 8 days. CCC is closing in fast now, and things have taken a turn for the worse. After the Ghent-Ieper run, I had some minor pain in my left quadriceps. I gave them some well deserved rest. And then some more, just to make sure. But when I ran again, a week later, another issue arose. This time, my left knee started hurting. A familiar pain this time, all the more worrying…

It seems just a few weeks ago when Tony told me the amount of points required to enter UTMB was raised from 7 to 8 points.

Alright, I just decided to turn doubts into decisions and run the 2nd edition of the “Loop van Vlaanderen” tomorrow.

Marathons. There ’s something legendary about them, which is probably why they appeal fascinating to so many. Of course, there ’s the story of Pheidippides to feed the legend. There are the amazing images of thousands & thousands of people at the start of the big city marathons, not to mention the stories they tell afterwards. But let ’s cut the crap, shall we?