Oostende to Brugge 10 mile race

I was excited to finally do this race as I’ve been trying to do it for years. It’s a big one on the Belgium racing calendar but requires some organising. Fortunately my hubby took charge of things at home. He let me have the car and still managed to take our son to basketball training, collect our daughter from a sleepover and then take our son to a birthday party! He did a lot of walking and using the train but I’m so grateful as it allowed me to focus on my race as part of my next marathon preparations.

The race website is pretty useless so I had to follow my nose. I located the race HQ in Brugge, then followed other runners to a bus of which we were then driven to an industrial estate in Oostende where we were deposited. I did a three mile warm (got to get the miles in!), came back and dropped my kit off at a van and prayed I’d see it again! There were lots of Belgian internationals racing so there was a good atmosphere although I didn’t like the cage type construction that we had to stand in for the start of the race. The race was primarily run on the canal so it was flat and fast with only a bit of cobblestone, ice and wind to negotiate! I can’t say I loved the race but I performed solidly, even if not as fast as I thought I was capable and ended up coming third in my age group. That’s when it all started to go a bit wrong. As it was a big event there was quite a lot of prize money on offer, even in the masters’ age groups...but only for men! The male equivalent to me took home 150 euros while I took home zero! I couldn’t believe it. I questioned this and was told the male field is stronger than the females! I was shocked as I couldn’t believe that this type of narrow minded sexism still existed!
I have since written to Flanders news and it has also been tweeted in Flemish. Needless to say this is one race to avoid in Belgium!