From station to station at an easy pace. 54 km on dikes and heath, where the necessary obstacles had to be overcome. You don't necessarily need speed for a challenge.
After the failed Brabant Ultra Trailattempt, in which I focused on speed instead of the surroundings, it was time for a slow and easy run again. Ideally I would like to run a part of the Meuse-Niederrhein path again, but that's not a good idea because of the recent floods in that area and the unfavorable location at and across the German border. But a preferably ready-made trip from station to station seemed like a good idea to me. And as it goes, almost all roads lead to Arnhem… there you have a lot of stations and it's situated in the center of our country so a great place to travel to. One of the NS MST trails I hadn't done yet was the one from Deventer to Arnhem, over 50 kilometers of playing outdoors.
Book town
Actually I hardly know Deventer. A long time ago my brother lived there and I have been there once or twice with the annual book market, which is probably the biggest book market in the Netherlands. To me it was just a nice old town, nothing more. But this hike lets you get to know the special area around Deventer.
After just over a mile I left the historical city centre behind me and crossed the river IJssel via the Wilhelmina bridge. A bridge with a turbulent history. Two years after its completion the Germans blew it up during their retreat… and then it was rebuilt in 1948. Now, however, it leads to quieter paths.
The first part of the route runs parallel to the Marskramerpad (LAW 3). It's a beautiful, tidy green dike that seems to be situated in the middle of the landscape and that winds around the village of Wilp, quite literally with very flowing shapes. Is this a dike from the past? No, it is not. Wilp may lie some 2 kilometres from the IJssel River, but when the water is at its highest, it can reach this dike. In theory, it is then high enough to prevent flooding even at the very highest water level.
Dense overgrowth
I almost ran past it, even though it was one of the highlights of the route. The ‘barn’ actually an old flourmill, only caught my eye because it had a shield attached to it. And when I took a closer look, it turned out to be a masterpiece for lovers of apocalyptic art. Nature had claimed the space back. And not sweetly, no with organic tree shapes that almost seemed to be alive. There was no question of reclaiming space by chance, although I don't know whether Henrique Oliveira thought the same thing about the design.
Unfortunately, nature also took back the path on the ditch side of a meadow. Where the dike had such neatly mowed grass that it looked like a golf course, here the nettles and grasses were rampant. At one point, it was so bad that I decided to wear my Raidlight Transition Pants to avoid being stung to death by the nettles.
A few dozen metres further, however, came the next problem: I had to cross the water. But the side was overgrown almost everywhere, and the unfathomable water was filled with reeds of 2 m length. An extremely steep concrete wall seemed to be the only thing that could lead directly to the other side. But that wasn't smart: the stream was too narrow to roll out and the wall too steep, high and slippery to walk down on the not too grippy Superiors.
I stood there for about 20 minutes, doubting what to do. Until I went through even higher nettles and spotted an option on the side. Still smooth concrete, but there was soft hay underneath and a few feet of free space to tumble when falling. I needed those too… the Superiors again showed their worst side on the wet concrete, sending me hurtling into the abyss after only half a step.
A first ice cream
The start of my run was a little different than usual. In the train I was constantly suffering from hypo’s, also at the start of the trail my blood sugars were still quite low. But apparently something was wrong with my body processing the food, as my blood sugar steadily rose in the first few kilometers. The advantage was that I didn't really need to eat during the first few hours.
The downside came when, after about 20 kilometers, I found out that I really needed to go to the toilet… (I didn't do it at the small train station in Deventer and apparently that food was in the way). Luckily I was near Klarenbeek by then. There were some restaurants open on Sundays. And so I soon had a de luxe ice cream, actually a dessert, with a blood sugar that was too high (around 11 mmol/l at that moment). I took my chances anyway, decided not to go for a small correction, and luckily that turned out to be a correct estimation. Instead of rising, the blood sugar slowly dropped again after the stop.
The part after Klarenbeek I found actually the most boring part of the run. There were only a few small paths and a part was over quite wide paths. Also, the route sometimes seemed to point to non-existing paths. To top it off, I kept running into a group of horse girls. One moment I would go into a side path and have to wait for them, the next moment they would run in front of me again and I would have to slow down because the horses were slower than me.
And a second ice cream
‘On the way there are no fixed places for food and drinks’, at least that is what was written on the route description. Reality was more forgiving. In Klarenbeek you only have to get off the trail for a couple of hundred meters, and in Loenen you actually walk right into a tourist trap along a parking lot with ice and springroll trucks. Some of these trucks are also there in winter, I know from previous times in the area. A few minutes later I walked with a soft ice cream with nuts along the Loener waterfalls.
At first I thought I would get a part of the route of the Veluwe Wintertrekking day 2 again. But fortunately that was not the case. Instead of going to the heath and the Deelerwoud, the route went straight to Arnhem over the Veluwezoom.
This weekend I had almost signed up to do the 50km Posbanktrail because of wildlife guarantee on the early departure. I had always wanted to see a wild boar, but even I had to admit that the trail was unfeasible in terms of time planning. In that case, I would have had to disappoint someone on Friday by going early to an overnight stop. So it was a real treat that around four o'clock in the afternoon I suddenly came face to face with mama boar and a couple of little ones (hidden in the bushes on the photo). With their cute little tails proudly backwards the family took off.
Wild Animals
The route through the Veluwezoom was clearly chosen with an eye for quiet routes. I hardly met any hikers. The paths were overgrown and hardly used. On one path I almost had to run the hurdles because of all the branches and fallen trees.
That I am not the most heroic trail runner is perhaps well known. After trails like this with tall grass (and because of the quietness ideal for deer and the like) I always check my legs. It takes you a few minutes, but it can definitely pay off. I removed about 4 small ticks before they could settle. Especially in places where a lot of wild animals pass by, the chance of catching one is high.
My bravado was put to the test again right after that on the heath. A very ‘enthusiastic’ bull stood in the middle of the path. I saw him from afar, but usually you can pass reasonably quietly. Not in this case, his enthusiasm deflated as I approached and he suddenly began to scrape his hoof. When I saw the cow on the other side of the path, I understood that I had better make up my mind. Luckily, it was only a detour of a kilometre according to the watch.
All in all, I had pretty much achieved my goal of a very quiet run because of these interventions and the ice creams. Meanwhile, I had been running a lot longer than I thought when I entered the parks of Arnhem for the umpteenth time. But what does it matter, when you can run in these beautiful surroundings?
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