Every now and then I am faced with the limits of my own body. I’m well-aware I’m not a very active person, but it’s still frustrating when I can’t accomplish something I had planned. This is a post about how I  sometimes overestimate myself. It’s also a bit of a cautionary tale. All of this takes place at the gorgeous dunes of Egmond aan Zee in the Netherlands.

A friend of mine and I had the genius idea to take part in the annual hiking marathon of Egmond aan Zee. This marathon spans two days and 42,2km.

I had stocked up on blister band-aids. I haven’t done many hikes, but I know all about blisters from the ones I have done (the Bloesemroute & Zandvoort). I even put gelly thingies around my toes in order to protect them.

One of my mistakes was that I opted not to wear my hiking shoes. They are too tight, and not comfortable so it was a good decision not to wear them but I should have worn proper sneakers instead. I wore sneakery-fashion shoes though with no bedding and flat soles.

Day 1: North Route – 21,1km

The first day I started out incredibly hopeful. The weather wasn’t great, but it wasn’t the kind of weather you expect for a mid-wintery January.

The first stamp stop and actual start of the hike is usually quite an event. There’s music, there’s drinks, there’s food, it is a proper event put together by people who know what they are doing.

The first part of the hike is along the beach. I happily said bye bye to the people walking 10,5k that day and continued onwards on the 21,1k route. Little did I know that I would come to regret that decision…

An organised hike like this has quite a few stops with refreshments along the route. They hand out free candies & drinks and there’s even some entertainment. This is not meant to be the gruelling hike it turned out to be.

I spotted many animals during this walk. I spotted the very rare black guillemot, many sanderlings, highland cows & wild horses.

And the north route is really beautiful. The walk leaves the beach at the Forestry Commission’s dunes in Schoorl, which ended up in the PWN North Holland Dune Reserves. This reserve is biggest continuous nature reserve in The Netherlands. Dunes are rare in Europe. That denotes the international importance of the reserve. This area, in its present form, was formed during the last ten centuries. Needless to say, it is worth a visit when you’re in the area.

We then entered Bergen aan Zee. Here, I knew something was seriously wrong with my right hip. It hurt so much I could hardly walk anymore. My feet (surprisingly) were absolutely fine, it was just the hip. I kept going though.

I literally dragged myself over the finish. My friend was tired, but fine so she helped me with motivational speeches. The medics came up to me when I sat down on the ground when I passed the finish and worriedly asked if I was OK. I shooed them away like any headstrong person would do…

My friend and I were staying in a lovely Airbnb in Egmond aan Zee, but I couldn’t enjoy myself. My hip hurt so much, I walked to dinner like a proper Frankenstein lady and I vowed I wouldn’t hike the next day.

Day 2: South Route – 10,5km

That night I slept like a baby, and when we woke up in the morning I foolishly decided to take part in the hike of day 2. My hip still hurt, but not as badly as the day before. I just couldn’t deal with the fact that we came to Egmond aan Zee to hike two days and due to my pains we couldn’t. Instead of the 21,1 km hike, we opted for the shorter route.

The south route isn’t as beautiful as the route in the north (at least the 10,5km) route isn’t, which was good because I don’t think I could’ve focused on the views. I was fully focused on the pain in my right hip.

We walked through the village of Egmond aan Zee.

Then we walked a short while over the beach and then through the dunes.

We finished and my hip was slightly OK. It didn’t hurt as much as the day before, and even though it hurt I could make the walk back to the restaurant for lunch and to my car without too many issues.

Conclusion

The biggest problem occurred the following weeks & months. Instead of my right hip, my left hip started to hurt and this pain didn’t go away until April. Even now, I feel it sometimes when I walk for a longer time. I should’ve been more careful, I should’ve worn good shoes, I shouldn’t have pushed myself to continue walking the next day, but shoulda woulda coulda. There’s nothing I can do about it now.

One thing is for sure it was a learning experience. I will continue hiking. I will build my body up in the upcoming months and years, and I will not walk beyond my limit again. It hurts too much to do so. There are hikes in the world I would like to do, but before I do I will work on myself. Patagonia, Uganda, Nepal, I’m coming for you as soon as my body is ready for the hikes 🙂

Have you ever been on an gruelling hike which your body wasn’t ready for? Tell me all about it in the comment section!