„Niech każdy sam opowie swoją historię” – Stef Schuermans, współorganizator Legends Trail

"Let the others tell their stories" – interview with Stef Schuermans, one of the Legends Trail race directors

Stef, did Legends Trail live up to your expectations?

Legends Trail was better than expected in any way. In the beginning (more than a year ago) we dreamt of 5-10, maybe even 15 participants. In every way the whole story of Legends Trail became much bigger and better than we could hope. Not only from a racing point of view but also all the other points...

What do you think can be improved, what didn't go quite as planned, what will be changed next year and what is gonna stay the same? And what are you the happiest about the first edition of Legends Trail?

Many things can be improved. But weirdly enough for a first edition these are all small things. Bases can be a bit better. Witlof (chickory) is not the favourite vegetable of foreigners…(*) Most important is that the racers didn`t really notice if something wasn`t going as planned.

What am I the happiest about? No bad accidents and everybody was back in the base safe!

(*) I liked it very much. If it was up to me, I would leave it! (Kamil)

Did the race attract the type of runners you expected? How did the favourites perform? Have there been any surprises and major upsets in the field?

We wanted runners who had experience in this kind of races, but also people who just participated for the adventure. People who had no clue how kilometer 101 would feel but somehow still would reach the finish line. We had all of this so we got the mix of people we wanted…

I would refrain from commenting on surprises and upsets, as on a 250k race anything can happen and finishing in itself was hard enough. The differences were so small that everybody could have won.

I know this race is the common baby of you and Tim. But who of you two was more of a sports director, who was the logistics director, who dealt with the media, etc?

We are very complementary. As somebody said: "Tim would create a well organised and structured race with a couple of participants only, Stef would have a big race with lots of people running in total chaos".

"It's all about the stories", as Stu Westfield said. Have there been any particular stories during the race or connected with it that particularly stuck in your memory?

Stu is right in that. Of course there were many, I think not only each of the 47 participants created their own story but the same can be said about every our volunteer. As I said, each and every one of those racers deserves great respect. I'd rather let the others tell their stories...

Here are the stories from participants collected by one of them, Maarten Schön: CLICK

​Talking of Stu, he wasn't the only big name you have invited to help you. Another one was the medical team director, Dr. Geert Meese. Such a personality perhaps deserves a few more words of introduction?

One of our participants knew Geert from Marathon de Sables. Geert is a anaesthetist who has a passion for ultra races. He has been a doctor in many ultra events all over the world (Marathon de Sables, TransOmania, among others) and was willing to step into the whole race without hesitation. Geert was leading our whole medical team, taking care of racers, but most of all he managed to take all of the medical work off our backs. For us as the race organisers, his presence was one of the best things that could happen...

How did it feel for Tim and you to be race directors for the first time? Didn't you wish you could actually join the race rather than observe the game you organised?

For me I was jealous, very jealous. I remember being snowed in at CP4.1 (a small tent in the middle of the forest) and running over the course in non-running shoes and being extremely happy just to be out.

We created a race that had been missed in Belgium, something we probably wouldn`t finish but something we would like to start in. It was hard not to be jealous then...

Beside the obvious lesson of race organisation, do you think this experience can benefit you as ultrarunners?

That's two different worlds, but I fear I will be more critical to other races and way more respectful to other RD`s. I never expected it to be this much work to be honest.

We already know there is gonna be Legends Trail next year. But you have also announced two brand new races to be held in 2016. Could you please expand on that, and invite the runners to take part?

These two races are completely different. We created Legends Trail to have a completely different race in our region. But we also missed 100 miles events so we created these ones. The Great Escape will be held in summer (first weekend of July) and will include the distances of 100 miles, 50 miles and 45 km going through two countries: Luxemburg and Belgium. The whole course will be signposted from start to finish and will be on way better trails than Legends Trail. It's going to be hilly, with steep uphills and downhills, a lot of single tracks, but still very runnable. This event will be in the Ardennes and again will have stunning views. We thought it was weird nobody has ever created a race over one of the most beautiful marked trails in Belgium...

The other race, Bello Gallico Trail, will have the same distances and will be held in December. In Belgium we missed fast, flat ultras. Everybody kept talking about meters of ascent while a flat fast course is a completely different ball game. It will be run in the only national park in Belgium and will offer the foreign runners a good impression of Flanders right next to the German and Dutch border.

And the final question – I'll ask the same as I asked Stu: would you or Tim consider running Legends Trail yourself?

We would love to but fear will never be able to. I think it is too complicated to be running in a race you organise at the same time.

Kamil Weinberg 

Follow @festiwalbiegow