The race I have been looking forward to for two years had finally arrived and I was not ready for it! My training lately has been terrible and with the heat, hills and cobblestone, I was in trouble. We got up early and took the tram to Brussels from the house. We had to drive to the tram stop. There were 40,000 people running this race and there were not enough port-a-potties!  We stood in line forever. We meet a few people that spoke English but mostly it was just Eric and I. They had 6 waves and we were in the last one. They started each wave with a cannon shot. That was a bit freaky.

I wanted to have a good race, then my goal was to finish faster than my half marathons, then my goal was just to finish. This race was rough from the beginning. The first mile was mostly downhill which wasn’t bad and there was a lot of weaving around people who were walking. The first mile was going great but my legs started cramping and they felt like crap most of the way. I ended up with 13:37 for mile one but the next 7 miles were just crap. I’ve never had so many 15 minute miles so early in a race since I started running. I know the heat was the major factor, it was 70 degrees at our 10am start. Before the race it poured so it was also very humid. Yuck! It was a very hilly course as they kept running us down into tunnels and then back up the other side. We did that at least 3 times. I did so much walking because those uphill were kind of steep, short, but steep.

The water stops were well placed but they gave us actual bottles of water so there were bottles and caps everywhere! It was such a mess. The route was mostly shaded in the beginning, thank GOD! There wasn’t wind either so it was a hot, thick air race. We ran through parts of Brussels and in some nice parks. There was music throughout the course which helped, there was much crowd support but there was enough. You know it is a bad race when you are celebrating miles that are under 15. Haha. Somehow mile 9 was my second fastest at 13:51. I’m not sure where that came from but it made me happy. I finished the last two miles walking. It was up hill and there wasn’t much shade. My body had had it by this point and I didn’t want end up on the side of the road like some of the people I was seeing. I was never so happy to see a finish line and get my medal.

After the race, I felt pretty good. We took Michael and Juliette around the town to the Royal Palace, the Grand place and the peeing boy. 

We had Starbucks, ice cream and finally called it a day and headed back to the house. We went out for steak for dinner and enjoyed the night eating chocolates around the table.

Chateau Veves & Dinant

We had an early morning drive to Chateau Veves. It is a very cool castle. 

We drove over to France for lunch at McDonald’s again before heading to Dinant. The road to Dinant was scenic. We drove along the Meuse river. Dinant is home of Adolf Sax, the inventor of the saxophone. There are saxophone everywhere! 

It is also home of Leffe Beer. We learned all about the beer and the history of the brewery and sampled all sorts beer. It was a nice. 

After we got back to Jim and Elizabeth’s place we ordered pizza, my prerace ritual and went to bed. We had an early morning with the race and it was still HOT!

Off to Brussels, Waterloo & Leuven

We all had breakfast at the hotel the last day in Paris. We had to catch the 10am train to Brussels. It was a very nice quick ride to Brussels and we met Jim and Elizabeth at the train station. It was so nice to see them again! We went straight to the park for packet pick up for our 20KM race. We stopped at McDonald’s for lunch and went to Waterloo. They have a new museum and it was very interesting. There were some great information films that were in 4D so that was interesting. We walked up the 200+ steps to the lion mountain to see the view of the countryside. That was a work out! We went to farm to see where the British were and watched another interesting video.

After Waterloo, we headed to the house to drop off our stuff and freshen up. We then headed to Leuven for dinner. We saw the “new” library at the university. The old library was burned down in 1914 when the Germany’s torched the city. The new library was built with funds from Herbert Hoover and university students in the US. The place is amazing!  

We had dinner at a local pub/bar. I had chicken pot pie, it was delicious. We walked around the streets and stopped for ice cream before leaving. It was seriously the best ice cream I’ve even had. It was amazing. 

Overall it was a great day!

Palace of Versailles

We got up sort of early and headed for Versailles. It was so HOT! We stopped at the Tunisian Bakery for breakfast before boarding the train to the city of Versailles. It was a very long, hot ride. We finally arrived and after a bit of spat, we headed to the castle. The line for entrance was so long. We stood in line for almost 2 hours to get in. I’m not sure I would ever do that again! The place was cool but we wasted so much time just waiting to get in. And it was hot!

After walking through the place, we went out to the gardens and fountains. The gardens and fountains were beautiful but it was just too hot to enjoy. We stood in another long line for a sandwich and drink. We walked around the gardens and I got lost and our trip to Queen’s Hamlet took way longer than it needed too. Again it was HOT and I was miserable. We eventually got to the farm, that was cool to see the animals and somehow ended up at the Queen’s hamlet. I was never so grateful for the fresh orange juice guy. It was exactly want I needed! We did a lot of walking and eventually found our way to the train station, it was over a 3 mile walk! We walked 10 miles that day in the heat, it was almost 90 degrees. It was a miserable day. We all pretty much wanted to just call it a night when we got back to our hotel at like 6pm.

I took a shower and just relaxed in bed watching a British children’s cartoon. Eventually I took Grumpy Pants (Eric) out for dinner. After dinner, I got my first chocolate croissant and he got some ice cream and we walked to Notre Dame and sat by the river eating our treats. On the walk back to the hotel, we stopped at the St. Michel Fountain. There was a street performer there and he was great. I actually saw Eric laugh for the first time that day. It helped that the temperature had gone down a lot and it was a great performance. We went back to the hotel and spent some time just sitting on our balcony watching the crowds below. It was a great end to an awful day.