Antwerp 10 Miles: Race Report

This report shares my experience in the Antwerp 10 mile race, run in April 2023. I'll go over some of the logistics of the race such as getting to the start as well as some impressions from the course itself and an overall verdict at the end.

First, I'll quickly address the question I get most frequently from non-runners: why do the run? What a silly question, because why do anything? It's fun, of course!

In this case another reason was that it's not far from me so I could arrive the morning of the race, but in general this sort of race is a once-a-year chance to meet like-minded people and experience a new city in a different way. Though if I always run races wherever I go, does it count as different?

Only the deepest questions on this blog.

Logistics

Many large races split the event into two days, requiring you to come by the day before the run itself to pick up your starting number (and of course delivering the side effect of ample chances for sponsors to sell gear). One nice perk of this race was that the run started at 1:30 pm, so they also allowed bib retrieval at any time before that on the same day. From where I live, it took approximately two hours to reach central Antwerp on a (very cheap) Flixbus.

From central Antwerp, you'd simply need to follow the rainbow parade of running shoes to reach the starting point. With 37,000 people registered, that brings almost 10% of the population of the whole city into a single place. However, if you want to spare your legs from the whole two mile walk there, you can cross the river Scheldt via metro or ferry. Naturally, many others will have a similar idea, so expect to be squished on the ride!

Here I actually owe a big thanks to Frederik, a local Antwerpenaar who was also running the race. I completely missed the ticket machine for the metro and he spotted me a ticket by buying an extra through his phone. I shall repay the debt in generous Strava kudos!

Course Thoughts

I haven't been on any kind of training schedule recently, but I tried my best at this race. Perhaps the impending heavy rain was a big motivator. I felt sorry for the people running in later waves who would spend the whole race drenched!

Miles 1-5

Unsurprisingly given the attendance numbers the entire course was jam-packed with people, from start to end. However, I'm used to this, and I'm not trying to set any records, so I just go with the flow when it's really too squezed to do my pace.

The first half of the race course was very quiet. Well, I don't blame crowds for not turning up when we're on highways the whole time. During the run I was already thinking to myself that I was going to go home and write about how disappointed I was!

Miles 6-10

Thankfully, the course finally emerged from the long tunnel into the main city center of Antwerp.

Since I'm a very open-minded and non-stubborn person, I let my mind be changed. This part of the city was genuinely pretty and had a tremendous level of crowd support. Spectators filled out the outside seating at all the cafes as we took in views of the port, castles, and gothic architecture from the city's golden age.

However, this part of the city (like many others in Flanders) had plenty of cobble sections. I had to take it easy on the stones as my legs were definitely not used to that level of pounding. At the end of the race I felt like I still had plenty of energy but my legs weren't up to the task of transferring that energy into the ground. Clearly, more training needed!

Leaving the city center means entering the longest tunnel of the course at over a mile long. It felt interminable and in the middle I was gripped with a strong sense of claustrophic dread as the daylight from both ends was no longer visible. But hey, at least my watch GPS tracked perfectly through all these tunnels, a big miracle in itself!

vs. Brussels Sprouts?

Last year I ran the 20km Through Brussels. Now that I have experienced running through cities number 1 and 2 of Belgium, how do they compare in my view?

Despite its shortcomings, I'd definitely pick Antwerp.

Just from a sustainability standpoint, this one starts well ahead of the race in Brussels. The explosive plonks of thousands of half-full water bottles being hurled onto the asphalt still echo in my mind when I think of that day. So the nice paper cups at this one were very welcome. And at least the title sponsor is an innocent little multinational insurance company, not an oil and natural gas company.

Second, the route through Antwerp does at least traverse the historical city center, even though it spends quite some time on highways before that. In Brussels we skirt outside the Grote Markt rather than visiting it, which could have been a memorable experience.

Final Verdict

I think if you're visiting within 3 hours of Antwerp it's a fun thing to do for a day. Even better if you're already visiting somewhere in Belgium at the time anyway. The same-day registration and number pick up right before the race makes it very accessible. The entry fee was about 30 euros this year. Oh, and I won't purchase the photos from this event either. Those cost about 22 euros, but due to the incredible volume of runners, every photo tagged with me requires a microscope to pick my face out of the crowd, so I'm not interested!