As also this weekend, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, no trail races were organized, I decided to create my own challenge: i set my mind on the black Extratrail route in Spa, which up until now I had never run. With its 32 km, 1100 m elevation gain and an FKT of 3h57m23s by Romain Mouton, this looked like a nice route to spend my Saturday.
The weather was quite nice and not too warm. The route starts with a nice climb and one has to be careful not to overdo it already from the start. I've somehow managed to split up my energy over the whole route and was able to run most of it. Only during the last climb near Andrimont I had to walk a bit uphill because of fatigue.
As for the logistics: I had two 500 ml soft flasks of water, which was just enough, but a bit more would have been more comfortable. There aren't many streamlets where one can refill a soft flask. The only one I remember was about 3 km from the finish, but I didn't refill. Right before the start, I took one Isostar sport bar. During the run, I had two Isostar Energy Booster+ BCAA gels and one Aptonia fruit jelly.
It was quite a fun afternoon there in Spa! And many thanks for my love Melike for taking care of the baby while I was doing my running thingy!