Hello all. Will catch up in a bit but just wanted to park my race report and then cruise around later: I'm still in post-flight/public transport chaos mode and haven't settled down yet.
So I was doing the Zevenheuvelenloop (Seven Hills Run) - 15k - in Nijmegen, Netherlands. It's about 1hr 45 on the train from Amsterdam and has previous attracted luminaries to the field as Gebreselassie and Dibaba. This year saw Leonard Komen unsuccessfully attempt to defend his title. Ex-MUFC goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar also ran too. As it was my first 15k a PB was guaranteed. Huge plus to begin with.
It was my first proper mass race; 26500 finishers. Was slightly trepidous about how well-run it was going to be as I needed to find the start number hut, get changed, stash my gear, and find which starting wave I was part of. Needn't have worried; the organisation was as smooth as silk, really can't fault it at all - everyone seemed super enthusiastic and helpful. Got my number and changed in a designated parking garage and threw my bag into the storage facility about 100m after the start-finish and set out to warm up on the backstreets.
Based on a predicted finish time of 1hr 04 I was in the 'gold' wave, which was third of eleven. It was cold and it had started to rain. The elites went off and the masses thronged toward the start. They had a 'pinching' barrier at the start to give runners more road space at the beginning, which worked wonders. Some six minutes after Komen et. al., I was off.
Pre-race I felt that I was going to try and pace evenly - 21 min for every 5k. The first 5k was the least eventful; a long straight road with huge crowds either side that began to gently wind up toward the first hill at 4k before flattening out. Through 5k in 21.20, though never felt like I pushed above second gear and was slicing through the field.
Immediately after 5k the road hooked left onto some narrower country lanes and I started to push on a bit. Took on an energy drink at the 6k station and hit the first stiff hill at 7k feeling great - like actually euphoric rather than contextually okay. Between 7 & 8 was downhill and I conserved ahead of what appeared to be an absolute monster of a climb. It was. Official photographers were snapping people coming over the crest at 9k, every one of them looking dreadful. However, I was feeling AMAZING.
(cont)
