Nijmegen Vierdaagse

I went to Nijmegen, The Netherlands last week and did 102.5 miles over the last 4 days with a 15 kilo ruck. Now that I am comfortably resting at home with swollen feet and ankles and extreme chafing in my own Netherlands(That was terrible placement for a seam, Dri-Duke.) I'll post up some pics for those of you not on my FB.

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Here's the first town we walked through on the first day. The people were fantastic everywhere; it was like a hero's welcome every time we went through a town. Kids would line the street for high fives, people were holding out bowls of fruit, cucumber slices, candy, throwing flowers, etc.

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Here you can see the line of people behind me still crossing the bridge over whatever river that was. 41,000+ people walked in the event. Classes ranged from 30km no pack, 40km with and without a pack, and 50 km without a pack, per day. I walked the 40km with 15kilo pack class.

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Here I am standing under the famous(maybe) boots and hat at the Camp Heumensoord (Human Sword!) gate at the end of the first day. This route was 28.5 miles. I completed it at 1400, with the time limit set for 1700. We stepped off at 0430 that morning.

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Here's a bunch of people walking. The event began as all military, but now, sadly, military marchers are vastly outnumbered. 41,000+ walkers overall.

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Hooray Beers!

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My friend is sad that we are out of Beers.

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And here I am, just finished the last day and got my medal. I was kind of happy at this point...

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Until I found out there was a 5k victory lap. We gathered all the Americans we could find and made a little formation.

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There were dutch girls everywhere with signs for free kisses. Of course I couldn't say no.

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100+ miles and this was my only blister.

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And of course, the after party!
This was easily the most rewarding experience of my life. Of course, I brought a few cigars with me, but at the end of each day all I wanted to do was lay day on my rack with a pizza and pass out, which is exactly what I did.

Here's a video of the victory lap. The video is less than a minute long, but could have easily lasted over an hour. The crowds were like this through each of the 10ish towns we passed through each day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RW3P...layer_embedded

Awesome pics...........thanks for sharing. It looks like you had a good time.

That is way cool man, the video didn't show up though.

Hmm, video should work now.