I have known about the existence of the Legends Trail for some time. I always thought it out of my league, mostly due to the rather strict time limit, and the possible harsh weather conditions in combination with the obligation to sleep outside. Running 275km in winter time in the Ardennes could be very tough.
And then in the summer of 2024, I registered for the Oslo-Bergen Trail in July, and started looking at how my season upto that event would be. I decided that I would want a B-race somewhere in February, and a C-race in December and in April.
The C-race in December became an unsupported adventure with Piet. The C-race in April will be Nord Trail Monts de Flandres on April 20th.
For the B-race in February, I finaly choose to run the Legends Trail. At that moment I thought it would be 250km, just half of the OBT distance, so that suits my goal. Running it in winter time would be tough. Let’s see what it brings.
After recovering from Venntrilogie, I started a 12 week training plan. I focussed on some tempo runs early on, followed by back-to-back-to-back SSR trainings afterwards. The last 3 weeks before race-week would be just easy runs. And I planned a day-long run at the end of January, about 1 month before the race. During that run, I also wanted to sleep in my bivvy, in the forests. So I could experience another aspect of Legends Trail once in advance.
The training went fairly well. I skipped some SSR runs for easy runs, but apart from that I was pretty consistently following my plan.
The day-long run was Transfamenne+Transardennaise. It was a mild success. Due to the weather -it rained for the whole trip-, sleeping in the bivvy didn’t go very well. But I had about 3h30 of half-sleep with rain dripping on my face. I had fun running and was out on my feet for a long day.
Goals achieved!
My plan is to finish Legends Trail in about 58 hours.
I plan to run from the start on Friday evening to CP3, at km 157. I think I will arrive there around midnight or a bit later on Saturday evening. There I will lay down for some hours of sleep in my bivvy. After that it will be one long push to the finish, with estimated finish early on Monday morning.
I will use maps to navigate. The organisation provides 1:20.000 maps of the course.
There will be about 13hrs between dusk and dawn each night. I plan to stay within a group of runners during the night, or at least have someone with me. It is always nice to have company in the darkest hours. And it is helpfull to navigate correctly if your are not alone.
Mieke will be in the neighbourghood to pick me up at the finish. After that we will spend a day and night in and around a hotel in Bomal.
Registration - kit check - eating - resting.
Then we all take the bus from Bernardfagne to Achouffe. On the journey, I feel rather stressed. My shoulders are tense, even if I try to relax them every time I notice it.
But then we unload from the busses, gather at the starting line and not much later it’s a go!
I start well at the front of the pack. After some 500m on the road, we dive onto a single track. The group I am with runs in single file. The pace is good for me. I am having fun.
As long as I am in this group I don’t realy need to navigate, just follow the person in front of me. This is rather comfortable. The downside is that I loose track of where we are exactly. Which would make it tricky if I became isolated. So I am strongly motivated to stay within this group.
Some hours later the group has thinned and spread out. I am still moving well with some runners around me. I find the downhills going a bit too hard to my taste (my quads start muttering).
Entering La Roche-en-Ardenne, I meet Jan. While chatting with him, I am introduced to Giovanni, who will also run OBT this year. We run together for some time, but then loose sight of each other.
I run alone for some time and then Dirk catches up with me. We chat a bit and decide to stay together until CP1. We move rather well and arrive at CP1 after 8h30 of running and in high spirits.
In CP1 there is pasta bolognese! I take the time to rest and eat. I refill my flasks and restock my pack with food for the next section. I also decide to leave my down jacket in my drop bag. That leaves more room for the rest, and wins me 300gr of weight on my shoulders.
While I am getting ready to move out again, I check in with Dirk. Yes, he agrees to get out with me, and will be ready in some minutes.
I am feeling strong and am eager to get moving again. We set out together at a brisk walk to warm up our muscles. And then start jogging away. The food sits a bit heavy on Dirk’s stomach, so we slow down again.
After about 2hrs of running, I need to take a sanitary stop. Dirk decides to wait for me and meanwhile takes a small nap.
During the next part, Dirk starts to slow down in the ascents. He urges me to push on, but I want to honour our agreement to stay together as long as it’s dark. Another hill later, I have to wait some minutes at the top before Dirk appears. Again he urges me to leave him behind. And so it is decided. I continue alone.
Half an hour later, I can turn off my head torch. Dawn is there!
Around sun rise, I get caught up by Merijn and 2 other runners. I hook my wagon to that group and we run together for some time.
At the intermediate support point there is hot soup. I burn my mouth a little bit.
I have a nice conversation with Merijn about navigation, triggered by him seeing me navigate by maps. He suggests that I look into the topotrail events.
In one of the subsequent downhills, I have to let the others go. They are bombing the downhills much too fast for me. I continue alone in the direction of CP2. I am still feeling good and moving well, but I am also looking forward to rest a bit in CP2.
And then I realize that I am not where I think I am. The fact that the crossroads where I am doesn’t match the one on the map is a giveaway. I clearly did not pay enough attention to my maps while running with the others. I track back to a position I am certain of, and then retrace the route in my head while verifying on the map.
I am 6km further away from CP2 then I thought I was. That’s a bit of a bummer. But no real harm is done, so I continue running.
Luckily there is a nice muddy stretch in front of me, to keep my mind occupied.
I arrive at CP2 just before noon. Time to eat (curry with rice and chicken) and rest. The local crew is just fantastic. Someone even takes off my (very muddy) shoes for me. The medic inspects my feet and toes: all is well! Thanks to the combination of toe socks and Altra Lone Peaks.
After about 1hr of rest, I gather my pack and set out again. Mieke had let me known that she and Hilke and Siegert were in the area. It’s nice meeting them later on, on the side of the trail, for a hug and a little talk. 🧡💚
My quads are sore. I feel it mostly in the downhills. I guess this is the result of running too fast, especially on the downhills, Friday night. This is a disadvantage of wanting to stay in a group that maintains a just-a-bit-to-hard pace.
After 1h30 of running, I am back in a group of runners. It’s Jan and Giovanni who I met earlier, with David and Pieter-Jan. I decide to stick with them as long as their pace feels comfortable. The running goes easier when you’re not alone.
We have some difficulties to find the right route under the Viaduct de Sécheval, even with 5 people navigating. Or maybe we were just chatting too much? But together we figure it out and get back on track.
Another 1h30 later we arrive at the intermediate support point. I am feeling tired now. I sit down a bit while eating a nice wrap filled with cheese and ham. It’s Jan’s plan to arrive at the top of Ninglingspo before darkness. So there is not much time for resting, we have to set out again.
Those 10min of rest have helped a bit. I continue to keep up with the group without much problem.
From here on the trail becomes harder. We are faced with a succession of steep climbs and descents on rough terrain. There is mud, there are tree roots, rocks, narrow slippy paths and wooden bridges. We reach Ninglingspo before dark, but only just.
But this is just the start of a hard second part of this section.
In the forest I quickly have to turn on my head torch, to make sure I don’t stumble over one of the many obstacles. I am getting more and more tired. I start to yawn now and then.
The path down is a MTB single track. The next path up is strewn with white (in the light of the head torch) rocks of all sizes. Here I have some nice hallucinations. The rocks in front of me change shape into all kind of objects. I see animals (a lion, a beaver, a panter, …). I see toys, model trains, small furniture. The weird thing is that somehow I know that this is not real and that I am hallucinating. But it seems so real to me that I have to repeat it to myself the whole time.
At the top of the climb along Chefna, Jan has to get a rock out of his shoe. I sit down and within seconds I fall asleep. A short time later, the others wake me up: time to get going again.
In the following descent, at a certain point, we should turn left from the path. But we don’t see the track. There is only a dense pine forest before us. After running up and down along the forest edge a couple of times, we decide to penetrate the forest and go looking for that track. We have to push ourselves through and between the trees. I start to feel a bit claustrofobic. I begin to retrace my steps to get back out of the forest, before I start to panic. Some 10min later, all five of us are back on the path next to the forest. We didn’t find the track and decide to circumvent the forest and rejoin the route on the other side.
Then comes the last descent toward Lorcé and CP3.
In CP3 I eat 2 plates of pasta with bacon, spinach and brocoli. Then I get ready to catch some sleep. I have been awake for 44hrs now. This is a new record for me.
In the race rules is clearly noted that a runner has to sleep outside of the CPs. While I am sitting in CP3 and waiting for my food to be delivered by the friendly crew, I promptly fall asleep on my chair. Within seconds, someone shakes me awake to tell me it is not allowed to sleep here. I take my sleeping bag, liner, sleeping mat and bivvy outside and search for a spot on the grass lot next to the CP. It is freezing, but I am not realy cold. After about 2hrs of sleep, I wake up and fail to fall asleep again. I try for 45min, and then give up and rise.
I eat another plate of pasta and drink two cups of coffee. Even if I don’t feel much refreshed, I feel strong enough to get out and start running again. This will be a long section, so I stack my pack with lots of food and 4 full flasks.
After a brisk walk, I quickly start running again. I am looking forward to the sun rise.
Firstly I am moving well, alone in the dark. I am overtaken by another runner. We exchange some words, and he pushes on.
About 2hrs later, the man with the hammer is there and hits me square in the face! Suddenly I am feeling very tired. My head seems to be filled with coton. I struggle to think clearly. I am no longer advancing straight along the path, but sway from side to side. I look at my map and promptly forget what I saw.
I decide to sit down and take a good look at the map. I notice that the route has made a big loop, and I am only a couple of hunderd meters from CP3 again. Then I decide to get back to the CP.
In CP3, I sit myself on a chair, and fall asleep again. Promptly, someone comes to shake me awake. I stare in the distance. And there it is in my head: the decision to stop the race here and now. I feel just too tired to get on.
I hand over my tracker. One of the volunteers drives me to the finish spot, and there Mieke collects me.
– THE END –
I spend the rest of the Sunday sleeping, resting and eating. I don’t feel too bad. My head is still a bit fuzzy. My legs are sore, but not overly so.
The next morning is quiet different. Now I am overwhelmed by all kinds of emotions. I feel frustrated because I didn’t make it to the end. I am disappointed with myself.
We go walking in a forest nearby Col de Rideux. I use this walk to talk about my emotions to Mieke. I go through the process of settling them within my mind.
Yes, I am disappointed. The disappointment is there and I acknowledge it, I give it its place. And now I can move past it.
I turn all kind of alternative scenarios through my head: What if this didn’t happen so close to CP3? What if I wasn’t alone at the moment? What if I tried to sleep a little longer? What if…?
And then I leave these questions behind me. There is nothing to be gained by them. What happened, happened. I took the decision that I took.
I turn towards positive thoughts about myself and my running. I did complete 167km of the course (the 175km distance comes from some navigational errors). I still am a strong ultra runner. I know what I am capable of. I will get better from this.
I started this race well prepared, physically. I trained a lot and felt strong. I had done an overnight run in the Ardennes a month ago, which gave me a lot of confidence.
On the other hand, my mental preparation was not ideal. I had (and still have) a rather stressfull period at work. I didn’t manage to sleep more and better in the weeks leading up to this event.
And then race day itself was not ideal either. Due to a train strike, I had to get up very early (04:45) to catch the 05:52 train to Leuven. There I would rejoin some other runners and drive to Bernardfagne together. There were only 2 trains leaving De Panne that morning: 05:52 and 09:52. The appointment to drive together was at 13:30 in Leuven. The 09:52 train would arrive at 12:40 in Leuven. That would give me a buffer of less than an hour. I didn’t want to take that risk in times of train strikes.
I learned the hard way that it is important to get everything right. Training your body is necessary for an ultra. But so is training your mind, making sure you process your stress. And sleeping and resting is as important as training. Make sure you get to the starting line fully rested.
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