Belgium Bio Trail 2017 in Floreffe
By RV.
10-20-30k race
25k run for me (20k announced, + 2k to join the race, 3k of "oups lost my way")
+378m
no chrono, open start from 9h30 to 11am
only local bio food and drink proposed during the race and after,
in the huge and unforgettable site of Floreffe abbey (some part of the 12 century)
a boarding school where I spent 4 terrible years...
yep, not easy to go back 30 years later in this place without remembering young scholarship time, but for this particular kind of event (no time recording, local bio food, and the marvelous landscape), i was ready (and had no choice: my wife registrated me last week).
first i thought of the 10k, but she encoded an optimistic 20k, a barefoot who finally ended to be a 25k for me...
after a parking adventure, i finally joint the start (was running) half an hour before the deadline, just in time to join the late folk for the run (like me).
as seen on the information board, the start was gonna be packed of hard slope, but it didn't feel so hard for that part. Slope were hard but short, most of the half run was more country path, more and more rocky one.
the second part was along the Sambre river path. nice one.
barefoot feet were still ok after 8k, with no chrono i stopped every time the landscape needed to be gratify by a pic!
As announced (i think), the food and drink stop was gonna be at around 10k, so i finished all my water at 9K. wrong choice...
The refuel was in fact at k14...fortunatly a couple of runners shared their water and dry fruits (thanks to them) on K12. The ground was more and more rocky and stones, the temperature was higher than expected, uncomfortable conditions to run barefoot...
with that water refill, it was gonna be easier but stil not a piece of cake.
finally the bio refueling was approaching, kind a TGIFD on a run ;-)
after that a nice part of off path run, really appreciated by my feet.
than the had part was coming, very hard part, the full rock and stone one.
not for a few hundreds meter, no no...for miles and miles :-(
yep, knew it, it was being to beautiful for a barefoot runner.
sorry folks, for that part i grabbed my VFF, in my backpack (couldn't finish it in a day without them).
the final K was coming with joy, passing by late and exhausted runners.
yeah the end and the abbey beer was gonna be pure delight.
and guess what?
it was!
one of my longest barefoot run (around 22k barefoot, 3k in VFF), my feet are completely ok.
marvelous kind of race, no stress, pure pleasure, people were more open to speak on the race compare to traditional ones.
if you get any chance to participate in this kind of race, do not hesitate!
have safe and fun (barefoot)run!
RV.