First edition from Trail "Koning van Spanje"

Yesterday I (Jacomina) ran the first edition of the trail "Koning van Spanje" (King of Spain) in the south of the Netherlands. Mudsweatandtrails organised this trail from 28.8KM (also a 10.8KM version) - for an ultra as me, it was a short trail. The trail is named after the King of Spain climb in Gulpen. A hill that was occupied by the King during the 80-year war. This though climb from over 1KM uphill was at the start from the trail.



Last weeks I had some trouble with my knee (left over from the 80KM in Paris), so I was a bit nervous. But I knew, that with trails it is allowed to walk uphill and than my knee could recover a little. With that in mind and an enormous vibe to run the trail, I was anxious to start.
The first KMs I started quite fast, at least, I wasn't overrun by all the other runners. A few steep climbs, so I could walk uphill. After 8KMs we splashed through a river - mud in my shoes, big smile on my face and I really got into a flow. Slowly I went faster and faster - I hardly felt my knee, so that was a good sign. As I ran with my Camelbak, I could run through the refreshment posts; overtaking even more runners. Time flew by and suddenly there were only 3,4KMs left according to the French guys who were on my heels. I couldn't believe them (in Paris I was misinformed too many times by the French). But they were right and suddenly I recognized the last hill before Gulpen; we had camped right on top of it.

The last decent was quite steep (I knew as we went by car! uphill the evening before), but at the top I already could here Steve. Steve was the bagpipeplayer who welcomed everybody at the finish line. Very nice trail, very good organised and this afternoon a check on the knee at Velofit...

Link:
Video on local TV 

Say "cheese" after one minute