Love for Limburg: looking back on 6 marathons, day 4

From the 1st to the 6th of april I ran 6 marathons through Limburg. A retrospective on a marathon a day.

Day 4: Horn – Urmond. 7:30 in the morning. With a fresh perspective I rumble downstairs. An extensive breakfast and a friendly hostness welcome my morning. Today I run to Urmond with my dad. I realise this is a special moment. After a short goodbye we hit the road. We immediately catch a nice pace, and on the way we come across odd place name signs. We agree to make a selfie with each sign we find. In the meantime my dad tells about his own adventures. As a teenager with a rusty old moped on an adventure to a place in Germany. Love often happens without a plan. Also that day. I let the story slide in during the many faces of the Maas. At Linne we see a house of rebel. We decide that we both want to live there.

Then our colourful shirts and foolish gazing attracts the attention of a lady. We tell about our mini adventure through Limburg. It appears she loves stories, and she invites us for coffee. Together with her husband we talk about running, traveling, dreams. And walking. The good old man will go for his 34th Kennedy March. With lots of respect we take off our proverbial hats. With an extra backpack for extra stories we say goodbye. I suddenly realise we should capture this. And we do.

On our way to the next place name sign. After half an hour of sitting our running fibers fell asleep. No worries, slowly the speed increases. In Monfort the phone rings. Piet of Maasland Radio. I switch to a ferm walking pace and tell on the radio what is happening. And what is running through my head. Especially amazement and suprise, and an intense feeling of happiness. My dad runs back and forth. Navigating, walking and talking to the radio doesn’t go that well. It does give us hilarious views. I mention the scene on the radio, hopefully visual enough. A nice talk, and in the meantime a big getting lost sequence.

Close to Susteren this blows up in our face. I think the pace is too low. I stand still too much, my dad says. Both we have a point, but we want to continue. After an intense conversation we agree that we keep track of the junctions across the route. And that I run back and forth when making pictures. I decide to embrace the pace. A mental breaking point turns over to a cloud of positive energy. We witness beautiful forests around Born and Guttecoven. The owl guards it as a true philosopher.

At Urmond we are at 48 kilometers. My dad wants to fullfil the 50K. With an extra lap through Berg aan de Maas we succeeed. With a chain of storis, acts, setbacks and beautiful moments, Alex welcomes us with a cup of coffee. The cat keeps nuzzling up against us. In the meantime we try to describe the journey. Too early. We put our dad on the train in Sittard, he wants to sleep in his own bed. A spicy meal and the old familiar Worms are ready. The gamer in me awakes a little bit. A day to never forget.