Weekend in France

We just got back from a quick two days in France - my friend Joy, her husband and son (my godson) are there visiting her in-laws and we were invited for the weekend.  Always a treat to be in France, even if it's short.

A walk through the village on Saturday afternoon so the boys could score some pastries:

Fun times with good friends, what more do we need in life?

Great Breweries 25K

My walking buddy Ingrid and I signed up for this new running/walking event months ago and despite struggling with high hamstring tendinosis since I returned from the US, I was looking forward to it.  Both my doctor and my physical therapist said walking was perfectly fine for me, and I didn't really want to have to cancel.  I've been having most discomfort from sitting and driving, so I knew the worst part was going to be getting there and coming home afterwards in the car.

The race headquarters, start and finish, was located at the famous Duvel brewery complex in Puurs.  Despite being extremely crowded and busy, the event was well organized and we quickly got our race bibs, t-shirts and hit the porta-potties before lining up to start.  The full marathon started earlier in the day; we started at the late time of 11:30 after the 25K runners, as the day quickly turned from gray and misty to sunny and hot.

The course took us through beautiful countryside and fields on the way to the Palm brewery in Londerzeel, where we walked through the restored castle as well as the modern brewery building, and got a free taste of their new beer, Cornet, while we took a break to eat our sandwiches and get out of the sun a bit.  

The course continued - this area of Belgium is not far from where all of my in-laws live so it was fun to pass through.  There were tons of walkers, of all ages, shapes, sizes and speeds.   We particularly liked the clown in the beer barrel suit we passed several times:

The day continued to be extremely hot and muggy.  We, along with many other participants, were not really prepared for the heat - the forecast had been rain and storms - and so I didn't have sunglasses or my usual hat.  It got pretty uncomfortable, and at the next two beer-tasting spots we stuck with water, sports drink and a banana.  Lots of people were partying pretty hard at those stops, where there was always a bar, live music and beach chairs, but we kept on going.  We were afraid if we had another beer and sat in a beach chair we'd never be able to get up and keep walking.

At about 18 km, we started to hear thunder and in the distance a dark cloud started to roll towards us.  The wind picked up and it suddenly got cooler which was a huge relief.  Luckily, we only had to put our raincoats on for about 15 minutes or so - we were spared a really big storm.

After a bit more than 5 hours of walking we finally made it back to the Duvel brewery, where after you came in and got the usual stuff (a medal, a cookie, another sports drink) they had a big tent with a bar where, with vouchers on your race bib, you could have three different beers from each of the breweries we passed.  

Ingrid only had one beer, since she was driving, I tried two: a Tripel Karmeliet and a Palm Special Hops.  Nom nom.  I can tell you, after walking 25 sweaty kilometers, those beers tasted so good!  We got a gift box with three bottles of the beers to take home, too!  Quite a marketing event for the breweries, I guess.  

If you look closely, you'll see that the medal also serves as a bottle opener - how convenient!

All in all, it was a very well organized event with a great atmosphere.  My legs, while I definitely felt it in my calves and feet, were fine and while I was very stiff when I got home, my tendinosis didn't seem to be aggravated by the walking, which is great.  Ingrid and I felt like 25K was just about as far a distance as we would want to walk at this point - any longer seems like it would be too long, and five hours sounds just about right - as long as there's a cold beer waiting at the finish, that is!