Trail des Fantomes 33K — August 2018
Trail des Fantomes took place in 11 August, on a nice saturday late morning at 11am in La Roche-en-Ardenne in south east part of the Belgium. The same day in the morning, we travelled from Amsterdam with my Running Junkies buddies (Gersom, Gerben, Anoek), and made it to the race just in time after a bit traffic jam and detours. Gersom, Thijs, and I ran the 33Km, whereas Gerben and Anoek did the 14Km. Alexander decided to do the 50Km and he was already there started running when we have arrived.
After a bit of last minute preparation to pick up the bib, fix the bib on the shirt, fill the water flasks, the race was on it is way.
I aim to take this race pretty easy, and tried to enjoy the course as much as I can. My main goal was to build up the kilometers before the Amsterdam marathon, and enjoy long distance train running before taking it to the next level in 2019.
The race starts with a steep climb, reaching out the top around 3,2km and then follows the path near the river.
The race contained 2 river crossing and 2 aid stations. The aid stations were filled with nice things such as cake, water lemon, banana, chips etc. My only complain is filling up the water bottles took more than 5 minutes which was not fun to wait in the line.
The first aid station was at km 14th. I ran out of water as always before the both aid stations. I keep on making the same mistake not to bring in the water system with me. 2 Salomon flasks were not enough to sustain my water need for the first 14kms, and ended up running the last 2–3km pretty empty tank.
After drinking some coke and eating the tasteful cake, I headed out.
I am not sure when exactly or how it happened but I slightly twisted my ankle after the aid station around 15th km, which started to drag me down after a while. The same ankle was badly twisted in may ’18. After a bit of mental fighting, I felt quite okay after the last aid station (28K).
The exit of the 2nd aid station follows by a steep climb. My physiotherapist warned me to save some fuel for this climb and she was right. Although I was expecting a much worse climb, I did manage the pull of the whole climb without stopping.
The last 4Km+ was a nice downhill to the finish line and I did able to manage a full sprint finish. It always feels good to finish strong!
