What I appreciate about the FKT platform is the broad collection of routes. Each of them offers a simple reason to step outside and start running.
For me, paradoxically, FKTs are less about comparison and more about curiosity: discovering new routes, setting a clear goal, and engaging with my own capabilities.
If sharing these runs encourages someone else to lace up their shoes and head out onto a trail, then that alone makes it worthwhile.
La Boucle Noire - GR412 - is not characterized by scenic beauty, but by context. According to the original GPX, the loop measures 20.17 km with about 209 m of elevation gain, though my recording came out longer with additional elevation. The route consists largely of paved roads and wide paths, interspersed with a few trail sections. It is mostly straightforward to run, with occasional short, steep climbs that briefly interrupt the rhythm. Some of the trail segments were muddy, particularly in shaded or low-lying areas.
I completed the route unsupported in 1:42:41.
I parked near the main station in Charloi, from where the start of the loop is close and easy to reach on foot. Navigation was done using the GPX track throughout. Waymarking on the ground is only moderately visible and easy to miss at times, especially at junctions and during road crossings, of which there are several. With the GPX, orientation is uncomplicated and allows the focus to remain on maintaining a steady effort rather than searching for markings.
Conditions were unusual for December: sunny and unseasonably warm, with temperatures well above 10 °C. The dry weather made the long road sections predictable, while the trail parts remained manageable despite some mud.
What defines La Boucle Noire is its role as a reminder of the industrial past of the region around Charleroi. The loop passes through landscapes shaped by coal mining and later steel production - industries that brought prosperity for a time and left long-lasting environmental damage behind. This is not a place where nature has fully reclaimed what was taken. Instead, the route moves through altered terrain, silent infrastructure, and fragmented green spaces that function more as scars than as signs of recovery.
Running here is therefore a different kind of experience. The movement contrasts sharply with the stillness of a landscape marked by extraction and decline. La Boucle Noire is less an escape into nature than a sober passage through the physical remnants of industrial history - quiet, heavy, and reflective.