NAERT Koen

General
ENCOURAGEMENT
When he is competing in a marathon his wife Elise always writes messages of encouragement on his water bottles. During the 2018 European Championships in Berlin, Germany, she wrote 'And now through the wall' as a reminder of something he said about the mental barrier of reaching the 35th kilometre of the race. During the 2019 Rotterdam Marathon in the Netherlands, he read a message from his son. "At kilometre 35, I saw a quote from a text my son had recorded and my wife had written on my drinking bottle, 'Come on, daddy, you can do it!' I thought back to the video I had seen before the marathon in which he said that too. That was an additional boost." (gva.be, 07 Apr 2019; runnersworld.com, 29 Jul 2019)

MEDITATION
He began practising meditation in 2012, a habit he says has made him a more relaxed person. "I started because I failed at important moments. I believed in myself, but unconsciously I had a lot of stress, I was worried about everything. Had I trained well? Drunk at the right times during the race? In 2012 I started meditating, and I haven't skipped a day since. It changed everything. I can handle much more. I am much less worried. I am no longer a brooder." (runnersworld.com, 29 Jul 2019)

OCCUPATION
He has worked as a nurse in the burns unit of the military hospital in Neder-Over-Heembeek, Belgium, and at the Queen Astrid Hospital in Brussels, Belgium. (koennaert.weebly.com, 16 Jan 2016; nieuwsblad.be, 13 Nov 2015; Facebook profile, 01 Dec 2019)