There are four other belgian guys that I would like to talk about are: Florent Caelen, Ghirma Woldu, Stijn Fincioen and Willem Van Schuerbeeck.
Teammate Florent and Ghirma also followed my pacers. Florent is another heavy talented athlete of our training group and he finished in 2h 18' 28" in his debut marathon. Ghirma who did his preparation for this marathon at altitude, ran a half minute faster with 2 h 17' 57" (2nd place BENELUX).
Stijn ran an outstanding race with a superb personal best of 2 h 17' 57" (3th place BENELUX). For me, he is the man of the race. He's a smart athlete and he will have to redefine his goals.
And to conclude Willem who made a fantastic debut with 2 h 20' 24". I know Willem quite well and I am sure he will run sub 2 h 20' in the future regarding his passion for running.
For me this race was a confirmation of the fact that running marathons is my destiny but to be honest I did hope to run faster. On the other hand when you ran two times 2 h 16' in one year, it would be unfair to complain. But I realize that my goals are ambitious. My coach gave me his analysis of the race and soon we will talk about the preparation of my next marathon.
Greetings Lander.