Day 290 – EU – Belgium [Mons to Charleroi]

19/01/21

40km

  From Mons (Belgium) to Charleroi (Belgium)

Europe

Rainy, windy, cold, a defectuous GPS device and happy to arrive in Charleroi for a day off!

Oh what a day. I set out in the dark and in the pouring rain. There was no directional challenge today, I would be running on the N90 road, a straight segment to Charleroi. A secondary traffic axe that has the advantage of having a cycling lane throughout. I was safe from traffic. But every car or truck that went past me inevitably drove through puddles and ended up drenching me at every turn. I was cold, wet and slightly miserable. Then the wind picked up!

But it was not all. I have 2 Garmin GPS recorders on my handlebar. The main one, which is easy to operate as it’s on auto-pause and doesn’t require anything of me except press start at the beginning and stop when the run is over. And the secondary device which is less advanced, doesn’t have auto-pause function, and which I often neglect. Well. The main device started to show signs of fatigue yesterday and today it literally died on the handlebar.

(PS: I didn’t take my phone out of its ziplock bag until the rain stopped as I approached Charleroi – hence the paucity of pictures today!)

I decided to drop by the Decathlon shop in Charleroi, 2km from my destination tonight, and get a new GPS. That wasn’t a planned expense, I was sure these types of devices could last two or more years. Well. Maybe not when they are required to record a marathon every day! Anyway, I was glad I had a spare recorder and I was very diligent today operating the manual pause function!

Tomorrow is a day-off. I want to go around Charleroi, which has a reputation for being a heavily industrial city. But I know of some treasures which I would like to see for myself. I also need to work seriously on my itinerary. More about it tomorrow.

Check my daily run GPS data on or

Here is the map of today’s run: