Once again it is my pleasure to attend the invitation call of the BEHIND THE PHOTO contest sponsored by @nelyp and @ johan.norberg, backed by @appreciator.

It always starts with a crazy idea

My employee, who is also on this photo on the left had a crazy idea last year in January. He read about a recreational walk that was organized by an insurance company we work a lot for. It is a walk called, "The Belgian coast walk", in which you start in Ostend and walk all along the Belgian coast to De Panne. 42 kilometers of sand and dunes, up and down, sometimes, luckily a bit of road. He said to me: "That magical number of 42 kilometers, we have to have done that at least once in our lives?". I said, ok, let's do it. And that being said, I realised we would have to train a lot, to get that kind of distance in our legs.

But once we started with some longer walks (15 and 20 kilometers) we got the hang of it, but of course, on the street and in the woods, is not the same as on the beach.

But on May 19th, we started at 8 AM in Ostend for our walk along the Belgian coastline through the dunes, in the sand. And it all started well, we were clearly well prepared. Nice training schedule, good shoes, and good morale.

Us four, we all kept going strongly. But when we got to the last 5 kilometers, my left foot began to hurt. I thought to myself, that's normal, after 37 kilometers, that is just collateral damage. And we went on, with some aches in my left foot. The last kilometer was hell for me, I barely could walk on my foot, but I just wanted to get to that finish, you just don't stop at 41 kilometers, that is just nuts, even if your foot hurts, right?

One more kilometer... of hell!

Finish! Woohoo, delerium, we did it!

At the finish, the pain in my left foot sort of disappeared. I think it was because of the adrenalin of making it. And maybe also the beer we got from the organisers. We all were super content that we did a marathon, almost completely through sand and dunes, which is quite the accomplishment.

Wake up call!

The night after this was a little bit worse. My left foot swell up like a balloon, I couldn't sleep because of the pain. The next day, I had to go to the hospital. The result of the photos of my foot wasn't good, I broke two of my footbones, straight up in the middle they were broken. Result, no stepping on my foot for 6 weeks. And probably I would have issues with my foot for months. And so be it, I had issues with my left foot for almost a year, it has broken multiple times again. All because of the strain I put on my foot that particular day! So, you can't see it on the picture, but sometimes even victory tastes sour!

Sincerely,

Pele23