Its been a whirlwind couple of days since we arrived in Belgium. After almost 18 hours of travel, including a short layover in London, we got off the train in a little town of Lichtevelde. We were met by a very nice group of volunteers from the race organization who happily shuttled us to our hotel just outside of Torhout. The hotel itself lives beside a castle which was buit in 1790. Fortunately the hotel is a little newer! The surrounding grounds and gardens were simply beautiful.
We had a good first night in Blegium - only a little sleeplessness. Some of our group including myself headed into Torhout for some groceries and a little sightseeing. It is a small town that seems to have a mixture of old and new buildings.
After a much needed nap in the afternoon, we regrouped for a few photos outside the hotel. Then climbed into the cars to head in for the traditional parade, speeches and pasta dinner. However when we arrived at the appointed destination, the contingent of countries with their colours had left already!!! How disappointing - for the athletes and the parade. Fortunately, a couple of our party members were in town early to pick up friends from the train station, they were our representatives in the parade! Oh my - of course there was lots of drama! Need I say more. The one good result however, was that we arrived at the pasta dinner early!! We had our choice of tables and stayed close to the food buffet!
As we ended our day I was hoping that this incident would be an isolated one - we needed everything else to go on time - including getting to the start line! Despite missing the parade, most were still happy and optimistic - just enjoying the wonderful opportunity to be in a different country, meeting previous friends from past races and finding new friends. One of the girls in our group had the chance to exchange jerseys with a French runner and was excited to do so. All in the spirit of comraderie and good competition.
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