Nijmegen 2009 and back again!!!

It is a couple of weeks since it happened but here is my account of my marching holiday in Holland for the 4 Dagsee (Nijmegen). It this isn't a green hobby nothing is!

I had trained for half a year and over 200km, before making this journey. Here is my account of it.

Day 1 (about 43km) (Accoring to the weather men = rain, reality = very sunny) (time in bed 2-3 hours max)

I had still a slight hangover when we got started. I was surprised to see how many people lined the streets of the entire road. From about 5 in the morning there were people on the streets shouting and giving out food to us. It is incredible, so much happening at once. I had to keep the march tempo and socialize, at the same time. Kids were at the forefront tons of them, they wished us good luck and we gave them Hi5s, some of them wanted souvenirs and stickers, but we hadn't any with us. At some point my group had to march in front of a danish general, that was of course challenging, because we had to march proper and look decent, as well as keep to the official procedure. Food was what ever we were given and what we had packed with us, we had also a guy on a bike, we patched up the injured and gave us food and provisions at every rest. I had a bad stomach, apparently there were many who had it, apparently something was going around. I survived and made it, at the start of the evening I made a dash for the beer tent and meet a few Military Police from Holland who had been out all day, blocking roads, keeping the peace and controlling the traffic. They were great and we had a few rounds together, it is funny how easy everyone is to talk to. I had 2 blisters on my foot by the end of the day.

Day 2 (just over 41km) (according to the weather men = tons of rain, reality = sunny with cloud cover) (6 hours of sleep)
Probably the best march we have ever had, we were in top. It was a laugh from start to finish. My inner clown danced, clapped and jumped all over the place. The people lining the streets, the public, loved us for our entertainment value. My sergeant ran around all the roundabouts against a Swedish sergeant. The crowd loved it, at one point our entire group ran round the round about,you could see our flags race round, it looked very spectacular. We were marked as psychos after that. It was a real festival/party atmosphere in the air. Tomorrow there should be twice as many people and on Sunday even more. At the end of the march we marched in tact and slowly into the beer tent. We got our selves sorted out, shower, dinner etc... after that. I had four more blisters, a total of 6 which is very good for such a trip.

Day 3 (about 41km) (According to the weather men = slight rain, but sunny, reality = hell on earth, rain, rain and more rain) (time in bed 6+ hours)

Woke up, thinking I had been rained upon, but my sleeping bag was full of condensation. Thanks to a treatment of tiger balm. I was very positive through out and sung all day, I have been told at times too loudly. I was happy, but at times in slight pain. I thought I could feel the bones and muscles in my feet. There were about the same amount of people today, but a lot less music, mainly due to the threat of rain and later constant downpour. I got to see a lot of spectacular views, from the tops of hills. Hills being the name and objective of the day. 7 hills to be precise, it being also the name of the road. We shouted "push, push, push a little harder", to get momentum up every one and often people around us did the same, it worked and we made light work of them. A few from our group had a bit of a hard time later on, but they then had it a lot better the day after. I was ok all day until at the end of the evening I found out that my heels were worn with sores, I basically had loose skin on both, they wern't entierly raw, but they needed some urgent patching up. After 2 hours of cleaning my foot (plaster adhesive is hard to get off) and 15 mins of patching up. I was ready for another 40 + km. It turns out we had been 45mins faster on this day than any other.

Day 4 (about 41km) (According to the weather men = lots and lots of rain, reality = grey and cloudy, a short but violent burst of rain) ( time in bed 6+ hours).

Sleeping bag was not as wet as the night before. I also think I must have slept like a child, but heck with that after 3 days no one had checked my weights, they were rechecked and I still carried 11.5kg, with water and food I got close to 16kg. This was good news and fully prepared for the day, I got my foot re patched and then had breakfast. I could see that already now things were being packed away, as this was the last day.

On the last day the Scandinavians, all meet up in the square and were to leave at the same time. First the Norwegians and Swedes left to the sound of claps from the Danish. I was deeply moved by this, then the entire danish cycle patrol, ringed their bells as they whizzed past, tears started to form and at the end of it all we sung the entirety of the Danish national song. I was moved to tears.

My group then marched off to the sound of march music.

The day was in many ways like all the others, the route was in many spots less crowded with people, but that was most likely due to the weather. I kept my resolve and humor up and marched like all the previous days. My ankles were of no concern or bother to me, but I still could feel the bones and muscles in my feet.

About the time of the third rest, we went over a pontoon bridge, placed there just for the day, People started to be more numerous and we had a good speed going. Yep, all was great until we reached Nijmegen, where I started to tire and fought with myself to keep on. I needed distractions and found on at a barge of dancers, where I ran up it and did a bit of dancing, before jumping down and joining my group. I made it, at the fourth and final rest, my group was chased by a few Swedes into goal. The first thing I did was take my boots of, change my shirt and placed my feet in the air. Later on we got our medals, I was so happy, but what moved me most was the hugs I got afterwards. I did this with a great team, we kept each other going and every one made it! So, I couldn't hide the fact that I had shed a tear or two in the process.

One part of the group who were in best shape did a final 5km march though the town of Nijmegen, while I joined the group of less capable who needed transport home or a slow 2km walk back to base.

We were lucky.

The trip back to camp, was arranged by uniformed gentleman, who could see that we were struggling and so got us all home. The first thing I did was sleep. I got maybe half an hours of sleep before I was awoken, I got a plaque for my wall and a certificate. I had some food, a bath and packed my stuff for the trip back home. After that it was basically sleep, sleep and more sleep, all the way back to Denmark.

Do I regret the journey no, in fact I will train up for the next starting with a week or two from now. I had less than 10 blisters for the entire trip.