Tag Archives: Race Recap

The Last Race of the Year

Posted on by Renée
5

Was Fabulous :)

Seriously I thought it was going to very cold or very rainy or very icy but it wasn’t so bad at all.

Unfortunately my family was not able this time to come out to Rotterdam due to the timing of the race. It was a kind of sad revelation on the Friday evening beforehand that I was going alone. On Sunday morning, I got myself up, fed and dressed and hubs took me to the train station to head out. It was raining at the time and I had on plenty of layers, plus I had my brand new camelbak that I bought not only in case I needed to carry my belongings (there were lockers but I wasn’t sure I would get one as it was limited), but also for my up and coming Half Marathon training, so I figured I might get wet but I would be ok. I ended up putting my valuables in a locker and carrying nothing but my telephone.

I tried to do the warm up but it seemed like a bit of a clusterfuck, so I just did some warming up on the sidelines where others were jumping and skipping. Soon it was time to get in my starting corral – the last one as per usual – and with only 7000 runners we were off only 7 minutes after the official starting time (not like the 7HL which was almost 1 hour after our own starting time!).

I ran naked. That is… I forgot my iPod! I used to think that I could never run without music, certainly not a distance like 15KM! It would be excruciating! I would never finish! In reality, it was fine. I run more and more often these days without music – if it’s dark and I’m alone I don’t use it, if I’m just running 5K or so I don’t use it, if I’m with the hubs or someone else I don’t use it. It’s getting easier to run without it. And, you know what I noticed? I run faster without it!

On this particular Sunday it was no different. I felt good, I was very ok without the music, I was in one of my favourite cities in the Netherlands how could it go wrong? My favourite bridge in NL is the Erasmus bridge, hence why you see me smiling in the above photo running across it.

Before the bridge though, would you know it, I ran into Joanna! We wanted to meet before the race but alas, it was not meant to be. Being that she is a small Filipina woman with a long black ponytail I knew I couldn’t be wrong (in a sea of tall blond Dutch people!) so when I ran up next to her I just said her name and she shouted and smiled and gave me a hug! We were determined to keep our paces though so one short encounter gave enough energy to keep going.

One thing I noticed about this race – no one was stopping. Every time I thought “I’ll just walk 100 meters” I noticed that no one around me was stopping. This was really good motivation to keep going.

Though we had 5 bridges in total, the van Brienenoord was the big one.

photo from http://www.rotterdam.nl/tekst:van_brienenoordbrug

The Van Brienenoordbrug is one of the longest bridges in the Netherlands (though I couldn’t find the distance quickly online) – and I have to say I’m really glad I ran over the Sacharov here in Arnhem a few times because that was probably the hardest part of the race, and that with still 5KM to go.

I loved running in Rotterdam and I knew based on my time that I was going to come in earlier than my planned 1:40 time. Very happy to report in that my arrival was at 1:37:05. 2 minutes and 15 seconds faster than the 7HL in November!



Best of all, cutest race bling EVER.

So, SO happy my dear friend Yvonne was able to come and see me finish and have a drink and bite with me afterwards!!

It’s been a GREAT running year, I’m so grateful I was able to start running again in January. I have no idea what 2013 will be like, but I do know that the possibilities are endless. Can’t wait to share my training and plans with you all soon!

Seven Hills and that Pesky Little Problem I have

Posted on by Renée
Reply

Some of you may remember when I did this race two years ago…

I desperately wanted to do it the next year but I had that little knee problem and was out of commission for this event in 2011.

So as soon as I could run again (when was that, back in November or December last year?) I knew that the Zevenheuvelenloop would be done in 2012! Oh yes!!

I mentioned a few times this summer that I was training more hilly terrain and to be honest, I’m really glad I did. That, in combination with the stuff I did with the physio and then later at the gym (and at home) really helped me this time around in Nijmegen.

Unfortunately hubs’ was not able to run with me. Though he has tried, he just has too many problems with his hips. We are really not sure what to do – we thought maybe new and proper fitting shoes would help, and it did a little but not enough. We also discovered that he absolutely has to run his own pace to run a minimum of 5KM without pain. Running with me (ie slower) makes the pain come faster. So we knew at some point that a 15KM was definitely not in the cards for him.

I asked my running hero, Marcellus, if he wanted to take hubs’ place and he accepted :) This is a fairly big deal because while I don’t mind going all over the country to do races, most people I know stick to their own area. He’s Dutch, and pretty much lived here his whole life (except for one year in the US) and had never been to Nijmegen! (though this is typical; I, as a foreigner, have been to more places than most Dutch people have been in their own country). Marcellus is the one who encouraged me to keep going through my C25K program and convinced me to skip right over a 5K (and a 10K) for my first race to join the company running team to participate in a 12K. So, yeah, I was pretty excited to have him at least start with me at this race.

we’re actually smiling because it finally stopped raining

Unfortunately it had been raining all morning the day of the race, though this is not something we are not used to, and to be honest I always seem to have my best times when it’s raining so off we went from Arnhem to Nijmegen (a 20 minute train ride). We met M and another colleague at Starbucks before we headed off to our starting corral. It was cold and we weren’t due to start out until about 13:45 (we were in the last corral) but that time came and went with no sign of starting any time soon. Since we arrived around 13:00 I already questioned myself if I should try to use the loo again (I’d been about a 1000 times already) but I thought no, I’ll be fine, we are going to start soon anyway.

Two o’clock also came and went. Oh my God. Is this rain going to let up? Should I go to the toilet? I think I have to go to the toilet! What if I go and we start? Ugh!

I think it must have been about 14:30, somehow the rain stopped and clouds parted and suddenly the sun was shining! It was glorious! And finally… we were off! But now… I really had to use the loo…

photo courtesy of Loop voor het Leven (http://www.loopvoorleven.nl/loop-voor-leven/)

What I really wanted to accomplish was just beating my original time in 2010 of 1:39:26 and to be honest it was looking pretty good, BUT…

I really needed the loo.

And every time it seemed like I could go, the loos were locked up.

Finally around 9.5KM there was a portapotty that was open. Finally some relief!!

The bad news? I lost about 3 minutes in that damn thing! I did my best to make up some time and had a good couple of KM’s, but it wasn’t going to be my day to break any records. Oh, wait, but I did. My time? 1:39:20. Six seconds faster! Ha!

I seriously need to do something about my bladder!!

WNL:: (was not last!) Westervoort Midzomer Run

Posted on by Renée
Reply

Yes another race!

And another PR! This time I shaved 16 seconds off of my fastest race in Hilversum just two months ago. Last year I had to skip this race as it was again right after the Ladies Run and I was not allowed to run. I was exceptionally bummed because Westervoort is about 1.5KM from my flat and I run out there all the time so I know the course very well.

This year I not only got to participate but the Hubs ran with me (well, way ahead of me, but you know what I mean)! His first ever 10K and his first race in a really long time with the exception of the relay he just participated in last week at work (each runner did 1.7KM).

It was, of course raining like hell, what more could I expect from weather in the Netherlands? It turns out that rain is quite good for me though – I ran much, much better, stronger and faster than in Rotterdam just two weeks ago.

The funniest part is, this was the smallest race I ever participated in! Seriously there 150 runners in the 10K leg of the race. When I started out I was at the back. I don’t care too much about where I am located at the start of a race because there are like thousands of runners around me. This time though it was pretty obvious I started at the back and I STAYED there. Most of us kept up the same pace as well. There were two people behind me and I managed to get ahead of three others. There was one older lady that was thisclose but ahead of me and I couldn’t seem to get a gain on her. Even through the wind and the rain that lady kept up her pace (and trust me, she was much older than me, so I kind of wanted to just let it be, you know?). At around 500 meters to go I just hoofed it and passed her, coming in at the finish line at 1:04:06.

As I was getting water and taking off my time chip, she came up to me and shook my hand and we congratulated each other on a great race. That may have been my favourite part :) There were in total only 26 women running in the 10K and of those 26 I was 19/22 in my category (women under 60). There were only 4 ladies in the 60+ category, my “friend” coming in 13 seconds after me.

Hubs ran 72/80 in his category, time 0:54:54. I’m super proud of him!!!

Photos will be up on the website this week, hopefully there will be a few I can choose from that won’t be me with my tongue hanging out of my mouth looking desperate (who am I kidding? I see a camera and I’m ready for a photo op!!).

Marikenloop 2012

Posted on by Renée
Reply

Wow, I can’t beleive it’s already been a week ago that I was able to participate in the 10th annual Marikenloop in Nijmegen! This is a Ladies Only race and has really grown in participant numbers over the last several years. The first year they had a little less than 1500 ladies running through park Brakkenstein. The course has changed over the years but there’s always the opportunity to do a 5 or 10K at this race.

This year there were over 12,000 participants! It’s an extremely popular race in the Netherlands for the ladies. I loved being able to participate this year, since it’s in Nijmegen, which is only about 20KM from where I live (to compare with where I do many races, somewhere around 100 – 130 KM from home). I was also extremely happy that one of my friends was also participating. I don’t know Niki that well, but what I do know I like, so it was great that she had also signed up.

The race itself is a charity event, sponsoring PLAN: Girls First; in a nutshell PLAN is helping girls in developing countries have a better life and better opportunities.

The Netherlands finally started having “normal” spring weather some time last week. That meant that the chances of it being warm on Sunday were high. Well, I would definitely say it was WARM on Sunday. Like, very. Even when I woke up in the morning it was already warm, no jackets or sweatshirts were needed. I debated wearing a short sleeve shirt or a no sleeve, then regretted choosing the short sleeve (but hey, it matched my nails!) later.

I woke up after a good 8 hours of sleep, had my breakfast and got ready. Most of my stuff was already prepped from the night before, so no rushing around searching for things like I do in some cases. We left on time (hubby came to support), in fact early because I like to be early… got the train and arrived at Nijmegen to find a bazillion people waiting to go to one stop further, so we ended up missing one train and waiting 20 minutes for the next.

As I said, it was warm. QUITE warm. We must have arrived around 12:45 and I went to pick up my shirt to wear AFTER the race (never wear a race shirt before I’ve run it!), we walked around, I ate my (paleo) snacks and had my picture taken as if I were on the cover of Runner’s World Magazine :)

Around 1:30pm Niki texted me that she had arrived with her posse and we were able to find each other pretty easily in the crowd. Niki’s ankle is a bit messed up and she had been taped just prior by her physical therapist who actually joined her at the race. Around 2pm we went to our starting area to do the warm up and then eventually get in the queue to start.

Well we must have been in the “slowest of the whole bunch” group because the race officially started at 2:15 yet we were unable to even reach the starting line until 2:40! Niki and I both decided we were just going to keep at each other’s pace and see how her ankle held up. Sadly, just after 3KM Niki signaled to me to go on, that she needed to stop. I felt bad leaving her behind but was hoping she just needed to slow down a bit and would catch up later.

I ran up until about 5K and then decided to walk a bit. It was now officially HOT. I needed to slow down my heart rate some and I was incredibly thirsty. Not only that, but because I was hydrating before the race, and did the necessary couple of trips to the ladies’ I still at this point needed to “go” because of the delay with the start. At 43 you don’t challenge your bladder as much as a 23 year old would, if you know what I mean. Anyway, I hit the drinks station just before 6K and there was a little scouting hut there so I went around to see if there was a loo I could use. YES! There was! I did my thing, then went and splashed cold water on my face, went back out to the drinks station, had another sports drink, took a deep breath and carried on. I lost about 5 minutes during this whole process.

I think I may have walked about 350 meters again around the 8K mark and after that just decided it was time to run through. Most of the run was through the woods, but at 9K we were out on the city streets again. As I was running up to the finish I saw only Niki’s fiance, but my Hubs was next to him apparently (I have bad eyes), so I waved, sped up and crossed the line.

Finish: 1:14:39

Not my fastest 10K, I take 5 min off for my break at the scouting hut, which would leave me around 1:09. Not bad considering the heat and the walking. Poor Niki never made it. She had to be medically escorted back.

My friend Alli also came to have an ICE COLD BEER (ahhhhhh… carbs I will make exception for, especially after a race!), so once Niki’s crew headed off to meet her where she was, hubs, Alli and I had a couple of cold ones before we had to head back. Getting back was a slight challenge since there were so many people, but eventually we made it. Once back in Arnhem neither one of us felt like cooking anything so we had something to eat in town.

It was a nice race, a beautiful course and a great day. Some not so nice things happened, namely that I didn’t get to finish with Niki, not even close, even though we were kind of hoping to do that together(ish), I didn’t like that I started 25 min after the actual start time, and the heat was a bit much. I would definitely do this race again, and hopefully I’ll have a chance next year to have a better time as well.

Egmond aan Zee: 2012 Edition

Posted on by Renée
4

What a great race! I really was so happy to run again after being “off” for five months. Looking back I’m kind of glad now that I was forced to take a break because I am really appreciating the ability to run so much more now. Last year it was becoming such a chore. I HAD to train. I HAD to make up the missed sessions. I HAD to complete the damn Half Marathon I signed up for which I clearly wasn’t prepared. Running should be a WANT not a MUST. It should be fun. It certainly wasn’t fun for a period of time, not with the pain or the pressure. I feel like a new girl, like I’m starting fresh :)

Last Sunday was the Egmond aan Zee Quarter and Half Marathon. Last year I ran this race and really enjoyed it! It was cold, but lovely out. I felt really pleased finishing it. This time was no different :)

But to go back a bit; I don’t normally drink much alcohol a few days before a race. I guess I just want to really focus on being healthy and not having a lot of extra toxins floating around so I really keep it to a minimum. For example, the night before a race I will have pasta for dinner (I know it’s silly – especially if I’m “only” doing a 10K, it’s not truly necessary to carb load, but whatever) and usually 2 glasses of red wine. I don’t usually drink alcohol during the week at all, so that means also not the Friday, So literally I’ll have had 2 units of alcohol the whole week before a race (in general I have around 6 or 7 units of alcohol a week. It may seem like a lot, but actually it was probably anywhere from 12-20 a couple of years ago. The “recommendation” for ladies is around 7 units a week or one glass a day. No I’m not justifying, I swear and I don’t need AA so please don’t do an intervention on me!). It’s just one of those rituals I have, like we all have, before a race – I like it and I don’t see the harm in it.

The Friday before the race I decided to go out with several colleagues for a New Year’s Drink for “just the one” and then I would be off home being responsible and preparing my body for the race. Well. That didn’t happen. I had the one. Then another. Then another. Then another. Then, I went home. Oh and I had some yummy Dutch fried snacks as well because no proper night out is complete without fried food *sigh*. I arrived home and I had another. Then I had another. Then I thought I was being completely ridiculous and I went to bed.

I suppose I don’t really need to tell you that I regretted it afterwards. I definitely did. I didn’t feel well, I was tired and very thirsty the next day. But I sucked it up, drank loads and loads of water, took some ibuprofen and eventually I felt better. I prepped my clothes and my bag for Sunday. Hubs made pasta and I had one glass of wine (drinking it very slowly) and then went to bed at 10pm. I needed to be sure to get enough sleep.

I woke up Sunday morning and started my race day routine. Get dressed. Get hair tamed and in a ponytail. Make and eat oatmeal. One cup of coffee. Last minute checks. iPod. Phone. Safety pins. Yep, everything. We got in the car and took off.

But I didn’t feel that well. My stomach was quite rumbly and I felt a little bit burpy. I wondered if this was going to be the race day that I would be ill and not able to run. Or I’d be like those marathon runners who finish will all kinds of stuff running down their leg. At some point we HAD to take a potty break. I won’t give you details, but I will say I felt better afterwards. In fact, quite normal. Phew, that was close!

I had already made arrangements to meet with Alinda and hopefully Donna and quite possibly Natasha; Alinda was at that point the only one of which I had a solid plan. We arrived in Heiloo probably 2 minutes before her train arrived! How exciting to meet the Sugar Runner in person!!

We recognized each other right away, both in pink skirts :) and chatted all the way on the bus until we arrived by bus at Egmond. Then we chatted all the way (with the Hubs chatting as well) up to the start – I was late, it was overcrowded and I was nervous!! Eventually we just said goodbye and they wished me luck. We were off!!!

It was an absolutely gorgeous morning! The sun was shining (I had to borrow Alinda’s sunglasses!), it was cold but not so bad once we started. Running through town was going really well, though I felt a bit too fast. After 1K I literally ran into Donna! We run-hugged but we were both at a different pace so I hoped to catch her at the end. After another 1K I literally ran into Natasha! Again a little run-hug and quick chat but soon I was picking it up again. I knew I’d be slower on the beach so I wanted to be sure to make good time.

And there we were. At the beach. The tricky part is going down, the sand is soft and there are lots of imprints in the sand from the other runners. Once we were by the sea though it was fine – the sand was hard and it was just 3KM of running straight through up until we hit the dunes. Going up again, soft sand – that was a killer on the thighs. I found it slightly hysterical if not annoying that people were trying to run up the dune, flinging sand in other runners faces. Sand-which anyone??

Running up and down the hills in the dunes again was tough on the thighs, but I kept going – a lot of people were walking around 7 – 8 KM but honestly I didn’t want to stop, I knew I could keep going and that any “message” to stop was coming from my head and not my body. I had a very tiny “break” when I picked up a warm sports drink, but it was *maybe* all of 45 seconds that I walked.

At KM marker 9 I tried to pick up the pace again a little bit, got through the dunes and we started to go through the town again. The awesome part of this race? The last 500 metres is going ever so slightly downhill so I just completely cruised towards the finish line. My time: 1:15:35. Pretty much the same as last year, only 57 seconds faster. That’s WITH 5 MONTHS OFF!!

The worst part of the race? They ran out of medals!! Apparently many Halfers switched to the quarter marathon, something I find a little bit unfair if you ask me – all of those people still performed “better” (ugh for lack of a better word) than the ones who truly knew they could only do a 10.5K, so they got our medals. We should receive our medal by mail sometime in February.

So great day all in all, in fact a total success. Running, sunshine, beach, and having friends with you who support you. What more do you want from a race? Oh, yeah, the Bling!! Ha! Still was worth it :)

Part I:: What to do when you can’t do what you do

Posted on by Renée
4

Shhhh. Did you hear that?

Wait, there it is again!

Crickets! That’s right, crickets!

It’s been awfully quiet around here. I didn’t mean for it to be like this but the truth is a lot has been going on, and sometimes nothing has been going on and well other things were taking the focus.

The last time I posted was June 5th. June 5th! It’s now July 13th. I started writing a post a few weeks ago and never completed it. While I know this is my blog and it should be for me blah blah blah it’s kind of disheartening to know that this little place on the interwebz is never really going to be that awesome sort of little place that people like to visit and interact. So, there, I said it. It’s fine. Moving right along.

After my semi-pathetic Half Marathon in April (yes I know, “get over it”) I really was having a lot of problems with my left knee. In fact before the Half; every time I would train for more than an hour it would really hurt and hurt for days afterwards. I didn’t train well for the Half and there were two main reasons for that 1) time and 2) my knee. I learned valuable lessons from the experience so I wouldn’t trade it or not do it if I could do it all over again (I would do it differently of course).

Once that was over and I was trying to get over the result, I started cycling a bit more. Mostly commuting but occasionally I’d go further or longer or purposely set out on a specific route – something to do that was physical, enjoyable and not hard on my knees. I had a few races planned; one I dropped out of (the Zuidas) and one I participated in on June 19th, the Adidas Ladies Run.

A few days before the run I had a running group (work team) session with our trainer – my knee was killing me. In fact I was talking to my trainer and the combination of my knee, her asking me about the Half, and the upcoming race had me in tears. She was so sweet – she sent me a pep talk email a day later and told me most importantly to stop being so hard on myself.

On the 19th, I had my regular race day routine, got ready, ate, and so forth and drove to Rotterdam with my support crew (Hubs and M), but I was feeling a bit nervous. Not for the 10K. Not for the race itself. Mostly about my knee.

To cut a long story short, the race was good. I felt good for 90%. My knee hurt from the start all the way to the finish. I probably shouldn’t have run on it but I did. It was raining but it didn’t bother me, I felt like I was running a good race. When I finally crossed the line, I wanted to burst out into tears – my knee hurt so bad, yet I just ran just less than 1 minute faster than my fastest 10K in February at Groet aan Schoorl. I knew that 10K was really going to be my distance, something I could really work towards getting faster, stronger. I couldn’t WAIT to do my next 10K and start training for the 16K in September (Dam to Damloop) and the 15K in November, maybe even find one or two more for before the end of the year.

Reality is that after that race I had to go to the physiotherapist. The pain was just too much. After checking me out and doing a few physical tests the verdict was in: No Running for 3 – 6 months.

Running is my therapy. It’s what clears my mind. It makes me feel like I can actually accomplish something (this is pretty all-encompassing when you are a person who can be happy and accept their life 90% of the time, there is still 10% that feels like there is a lot of failure), It makes me feel strong, confident. If I can’t run, what CAN I do?

Stay tuned for Part II.