Paarden en punten in Castricum

A week after the previous waypoint trail, I decided to give it another go in the dunes near Castricum. With a mascot and improved tactics this 42 km went a lot easier than last week's.

At the first Viking Outdoor Waypoint Challenge there were still a few areas for improvement. Especially the big pile of selfies became a little too much for me. And the continuous stopping to search for a waypoint was devastating to my running rhythm. However, the search itself was a lot of fun and that's why a week later I made a second attempt in Castricum to get another 15 waypoints.

Auditions

The first improvement I wanted to make was to reduce the number of selfies. Many other trail runners who take part in the challenge already have a mascot of their own. A pair of rubber chickens, a smurf or just their dog for example. I was a bit sceptical about it because a mascot also takes up space – which is scarce because I already bring a down jacket – in my racevest and you also need to be able to take the mascot out easily so you don't waste too much time on pictures.

At first I thought of a diabetes related plush as a mascot. Beyond Type 1 had a very cool snail with insulin pump that fits my running style perfectly. But unfortunately this Percy the Snail was no longer available. The teddy bears from other diabetes organisations didn't do much better or were too expensive. Only the happy smiling drop of insulin from I Heart Guts inspired me. Unfortunately the drop was a bit too large (almost football sized), but I ordered it anyway because it's just fun.

Luckily I thought of a company I had once written a review about when I was still working as a journalist: Giant Microbes. Once I got a load of plush illnesses from them, resulting in a media page with the title ‘Give your girlfriend chlamydia’. Always in for a joke. In the meantime they had expanded the range considerably. They now have the beta cell, equipped with a zipper and compartment containing an insulin molecule. Beta cells are the cells that produce insulin in the pancreas, allowing our cells to absorb glucose from the blood. In type 1 diabetes, these beta cells are damaged, so we no longer produce insulin. In order to survive you have to administer it yourself.

Route planning

Again I used Komoot and Garmin Explore to create the route and waypoints. For the route I this time entered the points separately in Komoot instead of making an output of the saved points in Explore. In this way Komoot automatically adds them to the trail in as logical a place as possible.

The route itself didn't come close to the beach, just like the previous time. A missed opportunity. But something I could use to solve my other problem: not getting into a rhythm. By leaving the route of the waypoints halfway and going on the beach, I could make sure I only had waypoints at the beginning and at the end of my route. The intermediate part I could run normally. Because the route was only 20-25 km in the shortest way, I could easily run 15 km. On the beach, my favorite place to run.

Tree man

The start of the route was this time at the station of Castricum. By train I passed this station many times on my way to Egmond aan Zee, but I had never been in Castricum before. It surprised me how near the dunes are to the station. And unfortunately also how busy it was at the beginning of the route with cyclists and walkers.

Luckily I had found my first waypoint within 2 km. It was a high staircase, which led up a dune. Of course I also wanted to take a look at the stairs for a better picture, but that led to a little inconvenience: the trail only went over the stairs on the way back. By treading on the stairs, the Garmin lost track and refused to show any further turns on my route. Not that this was really a problem as I already had to look at the screen regularly in order not to miss a point.

Instead of going up the stairs, I actually had to turn left in front of them. The first part of the route remained pretty flat. But the points that were picked out in this part were well thought out. No benches, but prohibition signs, a ‘ watchtower’ and even a 'tree man'.

For a moment I was nearly misled at a place where it was busier again with running groups and cyclists. I was looking for a water point and thought that the spot where the cyclists were standing had to be my waypoint. A market stall with drinking cups on it, sounds a lot like a water point to me. So I walked slowly towards it until they were gone. However, after I had taken the picture, I stumbled upon an actual water point. Luckily I wasn't the only donkey there.

Dancing hair

After passing a ridiculous vantage point, which only looked out on the heavy industry near the coast, I finally got to the beach. Lovely sea air. There was also a strong breeze, and the colourful screens of the kitesurfers were shooting through the sky. Because of the wind it seemed a bit too cold to go swimming, but the beach gave me the opportunity to trot out for a while with my manes flapping in the wind.

After about ten kilometres I would leave the beach and dive into the dunes near Egmond. A point the Half of Egmond also passes (don't believe the stories that this race is the toughest, it's not even close). Climbing up the dune, I was totally sandblasted, and once over the dune I was greeted by a fence. Oops, I forgot that here too, just like in the Waterleidingduinen, you should have a ticket to enter. Luckily Franny could arrange that for me. After a short photo break on the windy dune, I could legally continue.

My reason for returning back into the dunes here was not just to make the right distance on the beach. Near this entrance there would also be a herd of wild horses, so called exmoor ponies. I wanted to take a closer look at them. They didn't seem really wild to me, they stood as a large herd exactly on the indicated spot on the map. But they are definitely beautiful animals that graze the dunes.

By the way, I can really recommend this piece of dune should Viking want to extend the route. The wet terrain with heathland, hills and great views can be a great challenge for trail training. As not all paths are clear to see, it is quite possible to put in a more difficult waypoint here.

Launched

It took a while before I got back to the busier environment where the waypoints were. Still with beautiful dunes, but here there were already some paths and cobblestones to be found. On top of a viewpoint I tried to make some more photos of myself and the mascot. Because of the wind it didn't work out very well, the camera kept falling off the bench. You have to sacrifice to please your mascot.

The most special waypoints on this route had to do with the Second World War. First of all the launch site for V1 rockets. Without the sign and GPS point I would have missed it completely, as the concrete base of the launch platform was completely covered with autumn leaves. It's bizarre when you consider that large rockets were fired here, in our country. Beneath this piece of concrete was a steam catapult which had to launch a jet engine bomb over a total runway of 45 m. The rocket was actually quite slow and looked more like an airplane. But it could do a lot of damage.

The other special point is the art bunker. This bunker was commissioned by the Stedelijk Museum as early as 1938 because of the political unrest in Europe. During the war, amongst others the Night Watch and some Van Goghs were located in this bunker. With the knowledge of the Germans of course, who also found it a safe place to store ‘their’ art.

New challenges

Not much later I came back to the stairs where I had messed up my watch. This time the run – just a little more than a marathon – felt a lot easier than a week earlier. Maybe because I was more rested after the dental problems. Personally, however, I think that the alternation with a long stretch without waypoints also made it easier for me.

In any case, I am very curious about the coming waypoint areas. If at all possible, I'll try to score a few in the north this month. But at the same time I am also working on other interesting challenges. Variety helps keep courage.

With the CRAW-team T1eD Togetherwith whom I register all my running and cycling kilometres, we've already reached the third region. At the moment we still have two open spots for team members. Diabetes is an advantage, but not a necessity.

Horses and waypoints in Castricum