Adventure Trail Run Vestingloop race recap

I did the 10k road race of the Vestingloop last year. Didn’t have a great experience, so I decided I didn’t want to do that race again this year. However, I decided to go for the 15k adventure trail run instead. 

I was a bit nervous about this one since the 10k last year wasn’t super well organized and they didn’t give me a GPX file for the trail, so I was worried I was going to get lost since I’m back of the pack and the field wasn’t that big. Luckily for me, the signage was great and I did not get lost. 

I don’t run many trail races, but I do train on the trails near my house once in a while. The trail race is the first distance to set off during the Vestingloop, soon followed by some walking distances and later on in the day the road races take place. 

Since the race started early it was still pretty quiet in the starting area, so it was easy to pick up my bib and drop off my bag. The start and finish are two different locations, so if you drop off your bag, you need to go back to the starting area to pick it up after the race.

The race started off in 3 waves, but you weren’t assigned a wave, they just kept filling the corral until it was full and if you managed to get in it on time, that would be your wave. The first corral filled up really quickly, so I ended up in the second wave. The interesting thing about Den Bosch is that it doesn’t take you that long to get out of the city and onto some really nice trails. 

The route went through Bossche Broek first, then landgoed Pettelaar and then back through Bossche Broek again. A combination of fields, forest paths and some city streets at the end. We did have to share some parts of the route with the walkers, but only for a short while and generally in opposite directions. 

Even though the race started early it was already quite sunny and warm. I did pretty well on the first part of the trail, but really struggled the last 3 to 4 kilometers and by that time there weren’t many other runners still left on the course. I did have my bottle of Tailwind Nutrition with me, but even so I got some muscle cramps in my calf towards the end of the race. 

So, it wasn’t a great race when it came to my time, but I did really enjoy the route and will definitely consider doing this race again.