Huge discharge from supporters Karel Sabbe
But upon his arrival, the discharge was enormous.
“Extraordinary athlete & exceptional achievement”
“Very exciting. It’s indescribable, really not”; says Vivianne Vanlerberghe, Karel Sabbe’s mother. “You had to be here to know what it feels like. At one point, 20 minutes before the cutoff, it was dead quiet here.”
Emma Vandoorne, Karel Sabbe’s wife: “I’m not that stress-resistant in that area. It was very stressful and the relief was enormous when he finished in the nick of time. The many supporters continued to believe in it and Twitter exploded with congratulations for a very special athlete and an exceptional achievement.”
“It’s more than a physical achievement,” says supporter Frank Decorte. “I think it’s mainly a mental issue to actually endure all those hardships, not only during the game, but also in preparation to achieve such a result.”
Exciting until the end
Until the very end, doubts gnawed whether Karel Sabbe would come in under the allowed maximum time of 60 hours.
Jan Sabbe, Karel’s brother: “I assume. I am absolutely convinced that he will do everything he can to make it, absolutely.”
It is a long wait for an intermediate score, but at half past ten the time has come. The last checkpoint, the water tower is in sight.
And now we can even see that Karel Sabbe seems to have everything under control.
Vivianne Vanlerberghe, mother of Karel Sabbe: “We are proud and erm… proud. And incredibly nervous? Yes, very nervous. Terrible. That’s why we paddled to get the tension out.”
It became a thriller to the end. And that was also apparent from the many tweets that follow each other on a large screen.
Supporter Hilde Breda: “For me that is… I have a son who runs marathons himself, but this is 10 times worse. I would not like my own child to do this, really.”
Anyway, with a superhuman performance Karel Sabbe joins the Hall of Fame of the Barkley Marathons, the toughest ultra run in the world.