So, I had been planning to take part in this year's PatentRun, and at one point I'd even had ambitious plans of improving on my time from last year. But it wasn't to be. Instead, I took along the camera and photographed the event, getting soaking wet in the process.
When I arrived in Amsterdam this afternoon for Choral Evensong, I somehow expected to already see signs of the evening's run. Actually, everything looked remarkably normal, aside from the big signs, which had been there last night, warning of the event.
By the time evensong was over, though, it was a different story. The whole station area was filled with people wearing matching Dam tot Dam t-shirts (a prerequisite for running this evening), and there were umpteen trucks, ready and waiting to take our clothes to the end point in Zaandam.
I'd been wondering how I was going to fill the time between the end of the service, round 6pm, and my start time, of 7.45pm. As it happened, a member of our sister choir, the Capella Nicolai, who I've known for sometime on Facebook, but never met in the flesh, was also running, so we met up and hung around together, and then found my other running friend Emmy.
Organizing such an event, with 25,000 participants, must have been quite a challenge. The first runners set off at 6pm, and by the time we started, nearly 2 hours later, many of the runners had already reached the Finish, 16km away. We were organized into starting groups of 2000 runners, according to our predicted finish times, and herded into starting pens. Josie and Emmy were starting in the group before me, so we split up, and hoped we would be able to find each other again in Zaandam at the other end. Finally, 10 minutes after the official start time my group was lead to the starting line by a marching band, we hung around another minute or two watching the clock, and then we were off!
Shortly after the start we entered the IJTunnel, a 1682m tunnel under the river IJ. When we entered the tunnel, to the sound of 
drum bands, it was still daylight, by the time I exited, it was already dark. The first stretch of the race was along the highway and was rather dull. After a few kilometres, though, the route veered off through a succession of small villages, the streets lined with people and lit with candles and torches. In addition to the official drink stations, many of the children along the route were also offering beakers of water, and holding out their hands to us as we passed.
Having woken up with the beginnings of a cold this morning, I wasn't sure if I should run or not. Of course, pride won out, and I was determined to at least attempt the run, even if I didn't manage to complete the course, or come in within the time limit. All in all, then, it wasn't really surprising that after the first couple kilometres I could feel my lungs tightening up. Despite the fact that I ran the rest of the race with frequent Ventolin stops, and an eye on the location of each First Aider, I managed to continue, but never truly believed that I was going to complete the race. After all, even on a good day, I knew that the time limit was going to be tight for me. At 10km I checked the clock, and realised that if I just kept going at that pace I should be able to make it. Coming up to the 13km I spotted the dreaded car with the clock on its roof and swore at it. I was sure at that point that I was still inside the limit, but that dratted car just kept pacing me, and I was sure it was going to pull me out of the race nonetheless. Finally, it pulled off the road and lay in wait for the unlucky runners behind me.
With only a few kilometres to go, Zaandam was almost in sight. As I slowed to a walk for another hit of Ventolin, I realized that the only way that I was going to keep going was to keep on running, as my left knee buckled beneath me. Two policemen came up beside me on bicycles and observed my rather unimpressive wheezing, limping figure. "Are you going to make it?" they asked. "You bet" I gasped, and they pedaled off into the distance.
Finally we entered the town, with an unpleasant uphill section, and then through the shopping streets of Zaandam, still lined with crowds despite the late hour. On and on I plodded, each time I rounded a corner expecting to see the finish line ahead of me. Thanks to the big sign reminding us of the cameras, I remembered to look up and wave before putting my head down for the last section. Eventually, I crossed the finish line, at 2:02, 2 minutes over the official limit. After collecting my medal, book and drink, I limped up the road, and found Emmy waiting for me.
Race over, the only thing that remained was to find our bags, and then get ourselves to the train station. This turned out to be a less easy task than we expected, and in the end, I think we covered about another 5km walking round in circles. Eventually, at 11.30 we arrived at a very crowded Zaandam station, and looking at the queues for the ticket machines, were quite smug with our forward planning at having bought our train tickets home earlier. Alas, when we pulled the tickets out the pockets of our running trousers, we realised that after being subjected to 2 hours worth of sweat, the tickets were worthless.
As warm up for next week's 16K Damloop, Emmy and I decided to run the 10K in Rotterdam today. Joined by fellow runner, Emily, and photographer/pack carrier/cook for the day, Loek, we braved the cold, drizzle and wind as we ran along the Maas river and back.
Emmy and Emily both finished under an hour. My attempt was rather less convincing, at 1:10 being 4 minutes slower than my previous 10K a year ago (and 32nd from last!). I was left feeling that the 16K ought to be possible, but it certainly isn't going to be very comfortable, especially if the blisters I now have don't heal before Saturday.
After the race, it was back to Loek and Emily's for a fantastic 6-course dinner, and some relaxation in front of a real live television (hey, it has novelty value for me, if for no-one else!) with their cats.
... to mention the most exciting thing about my training run last night. I saw an owl and a bat along the way! Also a police dog being trained.
It's only 3 weeks now until the 16K run from Amsterdam to Zaandam, and I must admit that I'm feeling a little dubious whether I'm going to make it. After a month with no running, thanks to travelling and general exhaustion, I've managed to get going again, but my pace has pretty much ground to a halt.
Despite legs which felt like lead from the very first step this evening, though, I did manage to go out for an 11K run - auspicious for two reasons - the first, this is the longest distance I have ever run (by 1 km!) . Ever, in my whole life, that is. The second, is that thanks to the embarrassingly low speed I managed to sustain, it took me the grand total of 1h 30 mins. Which is a full 25 minutes longer than I have ever run before. Unfortunately, if I don't manage to speed up at least a little bit before the Damloop, they will pull me off the course before I ever manage to complete the 16km.
Just back from a two day visit to Munich with a couple of colleagues. The purpose of the trip was twofold - to inform other departments about my new project, and also to close the last project I worked on.
Unfortunately, we had to leave the unusually good Dutch weather behind, and replace it with rain. The barbecue that a Munich colleague had offered was unfortunately a no-go, and instead we visited a very nice Italian restaurant near our hotel. Despite the weather, I was determined not to get behind with my training, and managed a 4km lunchtime run around the Wiesen (where the Oktoberfest is held) with Klaas, the aforementioned BBQ offering colleague.
After 7 years in the office, I finally took part in the annual PatentRun, a 6km loop through the nearby Elsenberger Bos. I left the decision to sign up until the last moment, as I wanted to wait and see how the Rotterdam Ladies Run went. In the end, I don't think it would have mattered, as Emily (friend and running guru) was determined that we should both take part, and dragged me to the sign up desk before we went for a spinning class on Monday.
Unlike every other race I've run in so far, today we actually had good weather. A mixed blessing, as I'm not at all used to running in the heat, and was surprised how much more tiring it was when compared to Sunday's rainy run.
The other difference to my race experience so far was the inclusion of a hill in the course (by Dutch standards, a mountain!) which defeated me somewhat, especially as we had to tackle it twice, from two different approached. Much as I'd hoped to run the whole course, I did have to resort to walking up part of the hill.
There were a few familiar faces along the course - colleagues who were helping out as race marshalls and cheerleaders. The African percussion group were also out in force to encourage us as we left and returned to the EPO.
By the time I had covered 5 kilometers I was feeling the strain, and was very relieved when I finally had the EPO back in my sights. Having entered the EPO premises, there was one final hurdle - a ramp up to the garden and the finish line. 
I wasn't quite sure how I was going to find the energy to make it up, but the cheers of some of my team members spurred me on, and filled me with a burst of enery. Onto the final stretch and I caught sight of the clock, which was showing 37 minutes, and spurred on by the fact that I'd managed a time under 40 minutes, I produced a sprint to take me over the finish line.
Well, I was very proud of myself. Whilst for many of the participants, 6km is a stroll in the park, this was the first time in about 15 months that I had run this far. And whilst I might have been somewhere in the last 10 runners, my time was definitely faster than I'd managed in Sunday's 5K. Or so I thought...
Alas, it turned out that for some reason (some say a mistake, some say a deliberate choice because of the heat), the course was cut short by about 500m. On calculation, it turns out that my average pace was the same as I ran in Rotterdam... very disappointing indeed.
(thanks to Loek and Jules for the photos)
As I mentioned in Rotterdam LadiesRun 5K, I was very pleased with the time I had recorded on my watch - 32:42. Unfortunately, when I got home and checked the official race time, I discovered that in fact my recorded chip time was rather slower - 33:41, a mere 13 seconds faster than my Leiden time. (My bruto time was 36:45, which just goes to show what a difference it makes when you are at the back of the pack). Looking more closely at the tracks from the watch, it appears to have only recorded 4.8km, which seems to correlate with the improved time - not sure what happened, but I can only imagine that I accidently paused it at some point.
In the meantime, the official photos are now in. Despite my best efforts to smile as I reached the finish, they're pretty dreadful. Still, the background is nice, and I like that you can see that there were people who were slower than me!
I had some challenges figuring out my position in the race this time. The official results base everything on bruto times, which are more or less useless, given that it took 3-4 minutes to get everyone over the starting line, and that I was somewhere near the end. Eventually I figured out that not only were the full results were available on www.uitslagen.nl, but that they were conveniently downloadable in Excel format.
The graph shows the distribution of times for all participants in my race, and also the distribution from everyone in my category (women under 35). The darker green bar is where my time fell. I had hoped to put the two into a single chart, but Excel told me that it was too complicated. Quite why, I have no idea. It seemed straightforward to me.
Yet another race day has dawned with the unmistakable sound of rain. Today was the LadiesRun in Rotterdam, an event which is held in aid of Pink Ribbon, a breast cancer charity.
The official starting point of the race was near the middle of the Erasmusbrug. 
A good reason, it turned out, to make sure you were near the front, as those of us near the back had to start with the hard slog uphill, before we even crossed the starting line. After that of course, we did at least have the pleasure of running downhill before a flat stretch to the Willemsbrug. Despite the bridges, the first 3K were fairly easy running, and I even found myself overtaking people. There were various water stops along the way, which proved annoying as I kept getting stuck behind people who slowed down, or even stopped, to take a drink.
During the fourth kilometer I could feel myself tiring, and my pace slowed a little. This section was through a residential area with paved streets - less comfortable for running than the main road. Soon enough though, I reached the 4K marker and knew that the end was in sight. Approaching the finish line, the noise level increased as the sound of clapping and cheering, competed with the music system. Sprinting over the finish line, I managed to press the stop button on my Forerunner, and was elated to see that I'd done the race in 32:42, over a minute faster than Leiden.
After a quick post-race conflab with Emmy, it was time for her to run in the 10K. 
Like me, she ended up at the back of the pack, and had a bit of a slow start before the back of the race were able to start running. After the start, I went back to the Cruise Terminal to collect my medal and goodie bag, and then went back to see if I could spot her. The 10K route was simple - two laps of the 5K route, meaning that the runners had to cross the Erasmusbrug at the 5K point. I found myself a good spot on a block at the side of the road, and waited for her to come through. Spotting her, one pink t-shirt amongst many, was a bit of a problem, but I did see her, although I wasn't quick enough to take a photo.
I waited until the rest of the runners came through, cheering along those at the end, 
with whom I had a lot of sympathy, and then went to find a spot on the finish line. Being small, it's always a challenge to be able to see in a crowd, so I quickly gave up on the idea of taking photos, and just watched as the first runners streamed through. After cheering Emmy through the finish line, I fought my way back out of the crowd, and went to meet her. We collected her medal, and then posed for a finisher's photo. Unfortunately, we took the photo under the shadow of the cruise terminal, and then in all the excitement, dropped the camera before we had the chance to take a better photo... this one will just have to do!
Garmin Forerunner 405 with Heart Rate Monitor. Saw Emmy's in Leiden on Sunday, ordered it yesterday, and tried it out on the bike ride home from work today.
Playback the route on Garmin Connect.
I've been obsessively watching the weather forecasts leading up to the Leiden Marathon today. After a couple days of downpours, I woke up to more of the same this morning... not too promising. Nervous Facebook checking confirmed that fellow runners Emmy (Leiden half marathon, and the person who got me running again - thanks Emmy!) and Josie (10K in Nijmegen), also had nothing but running and weather on their minds!
I headed off for Leiden early, so that I could collect my start number and watch Emmy at the finish of the 21.1km. She was looking in impressively good shape, as Jamie's photo (taken a little earlier) shows, and finished with a time of 2:04:47. Despite the crowds we managed to meet up at the end and killed some time before my race started an hour or so later.
So, then it was my turn. My expectations weren't too high - I haven't run seriously in over a year (since I ran the 10K last Spring) and I haven't managed enough training since I decided to sign up for the 5K. Still, I was determined to give it a good attempt, and hoped I wasn't going to come in last.
Standing on the start line was exciting, but nerve wracking. Never mind that you have nothing to lost, and nothing really to prove, standing on that start line gives you butterflies. After 5 or 10 minutes jiggling impatiently before the start, the runners joined in the final 10 seconds countdown, and we were off!
The course took us through the centre of Leiden and through some residential areas. It was fairly easy running, aside from one cobbled area and the four or five bridges we had to cross. The lowest point in the race for me was a fall, somewhere around the 1.5km point - I turned my ankle and fell flat on my face (or more accurately, my left knee). The resultant stinging took my mind off muscle ache, but also broke my pace. Still, I was up on my feet pretty quickly, and didn't pause to catch breath before starting running again. Although it took me a little time to find my balance back, the fall left me doubly determined to complete the course.
At the 4.5km mark, the encouragement of spectators along the way spurred me on, and I managed a final sprint to the finishing line, getting in just under 34 minutes (33:54). My final position was 778 out of 922 - less than half as fast as the fastest runner, but about twice as fast as the slowest! For interest, I've produced a rough graph showing the distribution of the times.
As I hoped, the experience has fuelled my enthusiasm for running again, despite the impressive colour of my knee. I've signed up for the Rotterdam Ladies Run in June (5K again, don't think I'm ready to tackle the 10K just yet), and now, of course, I have the incentive of beating my time from this race.
