Ludo Depoortere alone walked 6,025 kilometers this year. For comparison: top marathon runner Koen Naert trains approximately 7,000 kilometers per year. If his calculations were correct – and they were – he would today, on his own soil in Geluwe, round that magical cape of 100,000 kilometers. “I actually hadn’t thought about that at first,” says Ludo. “At the end of 2024, I was almost at 94,000 kilometers. But I saw those totals pop up again via Facebook, and then I thought: how nice would it be to complete those 100,000 kilometers here, in my hometown Geluwe.”
Ludo used to be a cyclist, stopped exercising for a while, and started again in 2009 – walking. “Ultra walking even and then I got the bug and switched to ultra running.” He ran Christmas corridas for years and still reached fast speeds. “Reasonably smooth, at about 16 kilometers per hour.”
His greatest performance even earned him international fame. Ludo was the first Belgian to successfully complete the Authentic Phidippides Run: 490 kilometers from Athens to Sparta and back, in 77 hours. “That was my best race ever. After Corinth, a small dog came running with me. It stayed with me for almost 140 kilometers, until just before Sparta. Sometimes it disappeared into the bushes, but it always came back, even on three legs. I have photos of that, that really happened.”
The story had a tragic ending. “On the way back to Athens, the dog lay dead on the main road, run over by a car. I had to cry terribly there. That was my guardian angel.”
With his hundred thousandth kilometer under his belt, Ludo is far from exhausted. He still dreams of participating in a world championship and also wants to run the Phidippides again. “Done with walking, done with living? That would be nice, but it can certainly take another twenty years,” Ludo concludes.