Uitslagenlijst Veluwezoomtrail

Uitslagenlijst Veluwezoomtrail - A trail race in the Netherlands which we found quite a challenge!We'd gone over to see Vicky's Aunt Lidi in Rosenburg and following a nice couple of hours with her we were able to spend some time in Den Haag with our good friend Willem, an overseas member of Clwydian Range Runners. Willem has been up to see us in Denbighshire and he and his wife Kathy had us round to their traditional Dutch apartment for a lunchtime feast clearly designed to slow us down for the following days event. 

 http://www.veluwezoomtrail.nl/index.html

 

Not a flat race by any means despite being in Holland and here's the course profile to show the ups and downs. We managed to get a late entry for the short race (15k on Vicky's Garmin) and I finished 16th in 72.34, Vicky was 258th in 125.40. At the start of the race there were hundreds of lean fit looking runners in fairly flashy running gear, not many of the faded club vests and tatty shorts to be found on our mountains at home. A few folk were wearing Inov8 shoes which gave me an excuse to start conversations with the locals - there didn't seem to be any other foreign runners - as this was in the eastern forests of the Netherlands maybe this wasn't a surprise. The start seemed steady enough through a long section of undulating forest which was very pretty, and then we headed up to a section of moorland on a combination of trails and steps, I overtook plenty on the downs and kept my place on the ups so gradually worked my way through the field. And then, quite high up, we were directed over a long section of sandy dunes, so this was what the Marathon des Sables is all about, I expected the Dutch dune runners to start streaming past but maybe recent beach running in Prestatyn has paid off as I kept up OK. And then, disaster.......I followed a group of runners down a narrow forest path to meet another group of runners coming towards us looking very annoyed, we'd all gone wrong and had to backtrack. Despite all the shenanigans I managed to finish strongly overtaking a fair number in the last couple of k's - my Boost bar did the trick again giving me a surge of energy just at the right time. Willem  completed the medium distance race (27K) and some of his clubmates did the long race (52K) - maybe another time?

We finished the weekend in Utrecht, a fine old city with a magnificently Gothic cathedral. St Martin's of course!










                          Looking for good ale we found a fine little pub called the Florin

This was formerly the Florin and Firkin one of the Dutch outposts of the chain of pioneering Firkin brewpubs from the 1980's for those of you who remember such delights as Dogbolter. There's a complete list of Firkin pubs on wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firkin_Brewery.

An ever better pub with a long list of beers on tap was Cafe Belgie which really hit the spot from a rehydration pint of view!