25 KM Trail in Woluwé

Aisling, Ingrid and I signed up for the 25 km trail walk that was held last Sunday in conjunction with the more well known 15 km of Woluwé, a community on the southeast side of Brussels.  As you can see above, there were less than 20 people at the start of the walk!   (There would be about a hundred trail runners that would pass us a few hours later.)

The trail itself was a great course - who knew there was so much green surrounding Brussels!  From the start, we followed an old tram track that had been turned into a walking and biking path, then we were led into the park around the Red Cloister which is now a museum and cultural center, and then into the Sonian Forest, more than 10,000 acres of winding trails and greenery.  It was beautiful.

Ingrid and I walk slow, we are well aware of that - we both have short legs and we also talk a lot while we are walking.  So we were prepared to be out for 5-6 hours (we also take breaks and try to sit down for 10-15 minutes every two hours or so - it really makes a difference in how our legs feel).  And Aisling was willing to adjust to our slower pace.  Which meant most of the other walkers got ahead of us pretty quickly.  And then the trail runners started passing us, and it was sometimes challenging to stay off the path to let them pass.  But we weren't too concerned - there was no time limit set for the trail, and we were having a good time, enjoying the perfect walking weather and gorgeous scenery.

However, we never expected that we would be going so slow that the organizers would start pulling up the trail markings before we finished - but that is exactly what happened!  To be fair, they did warn us at a certain point that that could happen, and the young man on a bike who was taking the markings away did stop when he caught up to us and made sure we had a map (he gave us his and helped Aisling download a route on her phone).  He was apologetic and friendly, and dare I say cute (even though he was probably as old as our own kids)?  So of course we forgave him. 

And luckily Aisling had a cycling map of Brussels with her, so we were able to navigate our way back out of the forest without getting too turned around, and made it back to the finish in 6 hours, as foreseen.

Luckily, they hadn't yet taken down the tent with the drinks, so we were still able to have a beer and toast our accomplishment (and get our friend above to take a nice group pic for us, which he said was the least he could do after leaving us behind in the forest, LOL!):

So if the organizers do decide institute a time limit on the trail walk next year, we might just be to blame for that.