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Tag: Martijn

Beer Lovers’ Marathon 2025

Published on 18 May 2025

I did it again! The Beer Lovers’ Marathon that is… Sans wig this time, but with a homemade blue balmoral bonnet with a red toorie, embodying Tintin in his The Black Island album.

The theme of the Beer Lovers’ Marathon this year was “Belgian Comics”, so that’s why I gave my best interpretation of Tintin in his album “The Black Island”, or as it’s called in Gaelic “An T-Eilan Dubh”: kilted—obviously—wearing a blue balmoral bonnet with a red toorie, and a blue, long-sleeved running shirt, with the album cover printed on the back.

My first attempt at this marathon was in 2022, and it definitely went better this time: more than half an hour faster! I still had to walk the last bit, but I managed to run most of it this time. I actually already started feeling my right knee from about kilometer 20, and my left knee started acting up soon after that.

After climbing the 374-step Montagne de Bueren staircase, and the nasty climb following that—around the 11th beer stop at 34,4 km, Saint Nitouche—my my knees told me that, if I still wanted to use them after that day, I’d better stop running…

I tried a little jog every once in a while, but the signal my knees gave me was clear: don’t overdo it… Even after slowing down, the pacemaker with the “10 minutes until the bar closes” sign never caught up with me, and all seventeen beer stops on the course were still serving beer by the time I reached them.

In despite of the pain, I still ran the final 100 meters from the last beer stop to the finish. You can’t finish a marathon walking, can you? In the end, I finished 1152th, of 2274 finishers in total, so not too shabby at all!

(See this run on Strava)

Cycling in de Bollenstreek

Published on 13 April 2025

While hashing usually involves running, sometimes hashers get on a bicycle as well. Every year in spring, the Dutch full moon hash FILTH H3 organises such a bicycle hash—or bash for short—in the Bollenstreek, the tulip region of the Netherlands. As the weather promised to be nice, I folded up my SUGG bike to shove it on the luggage rack of a train heading north!

At first it looked like I wasn’t even going to make it: just before the scheduled departure the train I booked was shown on the boards as delayed for 30 minutes, then postponed indefinitely, and then, all of a sudden, announced as arriving on another platform! For a while, things were looking fine, but then, because of the 40 minute delay we already had by then, we were chucked out of the train in Breda, instead of Rotterdam!

In the end, after a few more train changes than planned, I made it to the start of the bash in Hillegom in time, only half an hour later than planned. After waiting for some latecomers—because of similar train troubles—there were about two dozen hashers on bikes, ready for a ride through the Bollenstreek!

As mentioned, the weather promised to be nice, and it delivered! Cloudless skies and over 20ºC all the way, and tulips in bloom everywhere. And conveniently, the Bollenstreek is very flat, making cycling there very enjoyable. An unexpected bonus was the craft beer they had in the chip shop on trail!

After almost 40km, we ended up at the hares’ home, where the beers were cold, and the barbecue was fired up. Down-downs were given and drunk in a very long, two-part circle, which I even didn’t see the end of, since I had a train to catch, if I still wanted to make it home that night.

While everything went swimmingly at first—I even had time for a quick beer in Rotterdam Biergarten in between trains—in Breda it all went sideways again. The train—which was already hot when the airco was still kinda working—didn’t budge for half hour, and heated up even more. Eventually the train started moving again, and just a couple of minutes before one o’clock, it arrived in Brussels Central. One last, short ride on my bicycle, and I was finally home again!

Carnival in Tilburg

Carnival in Tilburg

Published on 1 March 2025

Somehow I keep ending up in North Brabant during carnival. However, while last time it was by accident, this time it was intentional: I went to Tilburg—for the occasion renamed Kruikenstad—for a special carnival run!

Tilburg station was very crowded when I arrived, and the square in front of it was even worse! The reason became clear when I overheard people discussing today’s schedule while I was having my coffee at Buut Vrij: right around the time I arrived in Tilburg, Prince Carnival—every town or village over there has one appointed for the carnival season—was expected there. I was basically crashing his welcome party!

Since I still had some time before my run, I seized the opportunity to discover the local craft beer scene. I didn’t expect many places to be open, or serving anything special during carnival, and my first intended stop—Café Kandinsky—was indeed closed… Luckily in the LOC Brewery it was business as usual, so I could try some of their beers there. I wanted to take a couple of cans for later—I love the Dutch hashers and their runs, but their choice of beers less so—but apparently there is a very strict separation between the hospitality industry and retail in the Netherlands! So after being unable to sell me any beer to go, bartender Teun was so kind to call ahead to Koen of De Bierbrigadier—the craft beer shop in town—to ask him to already put some LOC beers in the fridge for me, so they would be ready and cold for consumption later.

Amsterdam H3 Trail nº1442 – Carnaval in Tilburg

With cold beers in my bag, I then headed to the start location for the run. As is not uncommon for trails by the Amsterdam Hash House Harriers—the organisers of this run—the start was from the hare’s home. After waiting for everyone to actually find the place, and changing into a theme appropriate outfit, we were off! I was one of only two runners—the others were walkers—but we did get some nice views on trail the walkers didn’t! There were a couple of drink stops on trail, but one was quite unique: it was on a hand-operated chain ferry, in the middle of the canal!

After the run, we gathered back at Pink Panter’s apartment for Circle and dinner.

Since the Belgian rail unions were still partly on strike, I didn’t want to leave it until the last train to get home. So after dinner, I made my way through the partying city to the station—which was way less crowded than when I arrived there earlier that day—to catch an early train to Breda. Over there, it was a bit more chaotic—bigger carnival crowds, multiple last minute platform changes—but I made it on my train to Brussels eventually.

Homage to a Clansman 2024

Homage to a Clansman 2024

Published on 5 October 2024

Once again, the Scottish clans with members in Belgium, gathered in Ypres to pay homage to their kinsmen fallen in The Great War. This year, there were representatives of the clans Hay, MacLaren, Ramsay, MacKinnon, Lamont, Sutherland, MacLeod, MacMillan, and Scott.

Read here why I am a member of the Clan MacLaren Society

For the clan MacLaren, I was the only one member able to make it to the ceremony this year. I knew this quite a while In advance, so I was able to order a poppy wreath made at Lady Haig’s Poppy Factory, with the MacLaren clan crest and motto already mounted in it. Apart from the convenience, it is also nice to know that it keeps disabled ex-servicemen and women employed, and that the proceeds help out veterans and their families in Scotland.

So early on Saturday morning, I found myself at the train station in full, traditional Boy Scouts of Belgium uniform—including hat¹ and thumbstick—and my MacLaren kilt, to start my journey to Ypres. Earlier than I would have liked, but due to engineering works on the rail network my trip would include a replacement bus and take much longer than usually… Since it was a matter of of arriving 15 minutes late or 45 minutes early, I at least had some time for coffee and cake at local roastery SloWWings before the ceremony would start.

After meeting up with the other clansmen and clanswomen and the Grote Markt of Ypres, we marched to the Menin Gate, headed by the Clan Hay Pipe Band. After arrival, we waited for the stroke of twelve and the sound of the bugles playing The Last Post. The ceremony then started with a reading of the fourth stanza of “For the Fallen”, a poem written by Laurence Binyon:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

A representative of each clan than read out five names of their kinsmen fallen in Belgium and France in World War One. As the only Maclaren present, that honour fell to me. After that, each clan then in turn laid down a wreath. Again, for the MacLarens, for the first time, that honour fell to me.

After the ceremony we headed back to the Grote Markt of Ypres, for an aperitif in Clans Pub Les Halles, and a lunch in the In Flanders Field Museum café.

Since I had a long journey back to Brussels ahead of me, I said my goodbyes then and went back to the station, sadly missing out on the afternoon ceremony at the Scottish Memorial in Zonnebeke.

¹ The keen observer will have noticed the dents on my hat are wrong for a BSB hat. This is because I only replaced my old hat eaten away by moths the day before with a hat from the catholic scouts shop, and didn’t have time to reshape it.

More Interscandi!

More Interscandi!

Published on 27 July 2024

The first and only full day of Interscandi continues to follow the usual schedule: breakfast, run, lunch on the way, circle, and dinner and a themed party. Considering we were based in the second largest city of Germany, we had a surprisingly green run!

After last night’s pub crawl, the hot dorm room, and the loud music from the venues on the Reeperbahn, not everyone made it in time for breakfast, but luckily I did!

After an U-Bahn and an S-Bahh to Hoheneichen, we were ready to run the trail. My choice was the long trail, good for 14,3 km of running, including some ‘checking’ (running in the wrong direction to find out where the trail actually continues).

So, a note about the party and dinner: the theme was ‘vikings in drag or flip flops’, although the formulation changed over time, and mermaids were squeezed in there somehow as well… I decided to just go for a viking in a viking dress.

Since I’m not much of a party goer, I snuck out early to put my battle axe safely away, change into my usual kilt, and go back to Craft Bier Bar Hamburg, probably the bar with the most interesting taplist at the moment!