Last year, in 2023, I took part in a 100km walk in Belgium. It was called the Dodentocht, or Death March. Every year, some 13,000 people start that walk, with about 9,000 finish it. I was one of them. But I was determined that this would not be a one-off event, a flash in the pan, never to be repeated. I wanted to do it again. So this year, early in the year, I looked at the website for the Dodentocht, and made careful not of the date when they would start taking entries. On that day, I sat down to my computer and watched the countdown to the opening of the enrolment. First, I watched in minutes. Then I watched in seconds, until the seconds entered single digits: 10, 9, 8, and so on, until it came to zero. And then the system crashed. I couldn’t get in.
I tried again later that day, without success. By the time that I could get access to the site, I was greeted with the message that enrolment had closed, it was full.
But I was determined, and so I went looking for an alternative. That brought me to the Megamarsch site. Megamarsch is an events company that is part of Columbia, better known for their outdoor and leisure clothing ranges. They organise 100km events in several cities of Europe. I looked at where there might be an event, and found one in Switzerland, not far from Basel, in the town of Schaffhausen. And so, I booked my ticked and waited for the big day. The route looked like a big figure of 8, with Schaffhausen itself at the centre. I studied that height profile. There would be a significant amount of up and down in the first half of the route, but the second half looked relatively flat.
When the big day came, I made my way to Schaffhausen, meeting my good friend Matthias on the way. Together, we walked from the train station to the start, where we waited for the event to happen. Shortly before noon, the participants were lining up, and as the clocks struck the hour, we were off. I estimated that number at somewhere between 1500 and 2000 people.
At first, the route was on asphalt. I was wearing running shoes with air soles, and that was comfortable enough. We left the city centre, crossed over the river, and crossed back again a little before the Rheinfallen waterfall.
Then the route went uphill and into the woods. The going was fairly easy on the asphalt, but in the woods, we were on forest tracks and later on narrow trails. There had been recent rain, and in places the trail was wet and muddy. But I kept going. The kilometres rolled by as we went over a small hill, and down to the farmlands around Osterfingen, before reaching the 20km mark at Trasadingen, where there was the first refreshment stop. I had brought plenty of chocolate and bananas for energy, but in reality, I needn’t have. The march organisers had everything that was needed.
After a short refreshment stop and talking time to change my running shoes for walking boots, we were on our way again. Once again, we were going uphill. We passed the vineyards near Hallau and Oberhallau, without going into them, or indeed any other village in that area. By then, the light was fading, and by the time we reached the main road west of Sibbingen, we were practically in darkness. I put on my head-torch and kept going.
The route winds and twists its way up the hillside. This was the longest ascent on the route, going all the way up to Lange Rande at 900m. Perhaps it was well that the torchlight only allowed me to see a few metres in front. I might have been put off by the length of the route upwards if I could see further. Close to the top, we were in mist, but that told me I was nearly at the summit. And then we were on the way down. We had been warned of a wet, steep, and slippery stretch on the way down the hill, and sure enough, it was there. The sticks were useful then, and I kept going. Then we were onto forestry tracks again. They twisted and turned through the woods and brought us right to the edge of Hemmental, and the next refreshment station.
Once again, we did not stay too long but went on our way after just enough refreshment. We were just over 7km from Schaffhausen and the halfway point. We reached the edge of the city quickly enough, but it seemed to take forever to get to the centre. We passed the 50km sign just before the railway station, went through the underpass, and emerged into the city centre itself. We had not a beer all day, so we stopped at a little pizzeria and indulged in one each before going on.
After Schaffauesn, the route follows the river upstream through Büssingen. Büssingen is a little piece of Germany stuck inside Switzerland, and totally surrounded by Switzerland. Everything in Büssingen was closed, so there was no point in stopping. We went from Schaffhausen in Switzerland, into Bussingen in German, back into Switzerland, and back into Germany at Gailingen, before crossing the river and going back into Switzerland at Diessenhofen by way of the wooden bridge. In Diessenhofen, there was the third official refreshment point.
Whereas at the first refreshment point, everyone was lively and eager, In Diessenhofen, after more than 60km, some people were nursing tired muscles and blistered feet. I was doing OK, and so was Matthias. We went on.
Matthias went ahead of me after Diessenhofen, and I was soon walking alone through the night. Stein am Rhein came not long after the 65km marker, and then I was following the right bank of the river downstream. I skirted Hemishofen and Bibermühle, then turned north. I was past 70km at that stage. There was a lot of dark countryside before I reached the village of Ramsen and the 80km marker. Instead of going into Ramsen, the route just touches the edge of the village and goes back into the countryside before reaching the fourth refreshment point at Buch where Matthias was waiting for me. There were even more people nursing their aches and administering first aid to their feet in Buch.
But Matthias and I went on. Just 17km to go. Leaving Buch, there were the first hints of dawn in the eastern sky, and it was not long before I could remove the head-torch. We passed Randegg, and Bietingen, and Thayngen before the route turned south for the last few kilometres back to Schaffhausen. The industrial area near Herblingen was the first sign that we were really coming back into Schaffhausen. That seemed to go on forever before reaching the residential sector in Niklausen. After that, almost without warning, I was in the city itself. There was a marked at 99km. Then there was a marker saying 900m to go, then 800m, then 700m, and so on, until we came back to where we had started, now the finishing line.
The Megamarch events allow 24 hours to complete the 100km. We did it in 23 hours, though who is counting. Just finishing was the objective.
Walkingman 