The Great Bruges Marathon
Belgium, known for its beer, chocolate, waffles and frites. Especially its incredibly strong beer!
On Sunday 6 October six MAC’s had made their way under the Channel to take part in the Great Bruges Marathon and Half Marathon. The journey and weekend had been planned meticulously by Colin Davenport, renowned for his enthusiasm for all things train related.
The course starts in ‘t Zand and weaved around the cobbled streets of the city for the first 5k before heading north along a canal path to the small town of Damme. A series of country lanes lead runners back to the city where the half marathon takes a left turn to the finish, with the full marathon heading to the southern suburban areas. It’s in the second half of the race where the majority of the course’s whopping elevation gain of 60 metres is to be found. Both races finish in the city’s Grand Place in the shadow of the Belfort landmark tower.
For Matlock, in the marathon, first runner back was Greg Hopkinson finishing 10th overall and the first international runner in a time of 2:39:12. He was followed by Colin Davenport who was 25th and then a bit further back were Dan Ashcroft, Jack Cummins and Dennis Belbin. In the half marathon, Simon Flitter finished somewhere in the top half.
Following the race, runners got a medal, pasta and beer. The remainder of the weekend was spent watching Club Bruges, taking a sightseeing tour of the city, a brewery tour and sampling some of the ridiculously strong beer.
