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NYCRuns Haunted Island 10K

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Op de laatste dag in New York stond de NYCRuns Haunted Island 10K op het programma, een Halloween-run op Governors Island. Met bijna 2000 hardlopers gingen Eva en ik na een flinke rij ‘s morgens vroeg de ferry op. De wedstrijd was veel groter en drukker dan ik verwachtte, maar het was vooral schitterend met een route langs de randen van het eiland en uitzicht op het Vrijheidsbeeld.

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Ik had me voorgenomen vooral daarvan te genieten en een tempo rond de 3:40 te lopen; een goede prikkel na het herstel van Berlijn, maar niet te gek. Ik ging iets sneller en klokte 35:05 (!), maar ik kwam er te laat achter dat een sub-35 er wel in zat. Ik ben wel wat huiverig dit een PR te noemen, want het parcours was volgens Garmin zo’n 300 meter te kort, al verzekerde de organisatie alle lopers dat het parcours klopte en er zaten inderdaad ook wel veel scherpe bochten, hellingen en keerpunten in.

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Wat ik niet had verwacht, was dat ik als 2e overall finishte. Later bleek ik niet 2e, maar 6e van alle 929 10K-lopers te zijn. Omdat er problemen met de ferry waren, zijn er nog 10K-lopers later gestart en vier daarvan finishten blijkbaar sneller. Jammer, maar geen probleem natuurlijk en ik bleek nog steeds 2e in de categorie 30-39 te zijn geworden.

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We moesten de prijsuitreiking aan ons voorbij laten gaan, omdat we al snel weer de ferry terug moesten halen. De prijs wordt nagestuurd, maar de grootste prijs heb ik al ontvangen: samen met Eva, die een heel mooi PR op de 5K liep (23:58), een schitterende ervaring opdoen in New York, veel leuke andere hardlopers ontmoeten, en allerlei Halloween-zoetigheid eten na de wedstrijd!

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10K, race #5

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Today, I ran the final race of the training schedule I made. It was a local 10K and turned out to be a lot of fun.

enter image description here Part of race was on an off-road path

The race

I ran a 10K race in Delft, the Bertusloop, organized by DIJC Bertus, which is small and local, but does attract a healthy amount of runners from Delft, Rotterdam and places around that area.

This race was on my schedule as the final race, with the last race, two weeks ago, as a tune-up that, if it went well, would be the end of the training program. However, as my footpod was apparently keeping track of distance instead of my GPS, I ran a good race, but paced based on the wrong information. So the 3:29 per km was in fact around 3:37. So, my watch registered a race that was too long, the course was too long, and in the end, I just don't know how I did. So, this was kind of a chance to try again.

I started the first K too fast, at 3:23, but quickly got back to 3:30. That was my goal pace, and I knew it would be hard. It was hard and I couldn't keep it up, so I 'dropped' to splits around 3:36. Not what I was hoping for, but still, I managed to run my own race, which was really important here, because there was one runner in front of me, who kind of collapsed after 5K. I knew the first part of the race that I shouldn't keep his pace, because it just felt too fast for a 10K for me, so, in hindsight, I'm really glad I kept my own pace. At 5.5K, I overtook him without speeding up and I was able to finish the race first by more than a minute.

So, what's my finish time, you ask? Well, 36:03. Four lousy second short of sub-36, which was my goal. I ran behind the cyclist who navigated and he blocked my view on the official time. My watch was set up to show lap time, distance, pace and cadence, so when I saw 35:50 on the clock, I knew it was probably too late for a final end sprint to catch up. I did sprint, but to no avail. So, that really sucks. Besides that, I am pleased with my time, as last year, I set my PB at 36:26, and I shaved more than 20 seconds off. I'm really pleased with that, although, of course, I was hoping for more.

enter image description here The race was a lot of fun – local and well organized

Conclusions

The weather was great, so nothing to complain about in that department. I do think not having two sharp turn-arounds, which I really suck at, and some really slippery, uneven paths would have gotten me a sub-36 10K, but still, that's all part of the course and something I can't control. What can I do better next time?

enter image description here Post-race coffee

First, I think I should not be working in the garden and definitely shouldn't be carrying very heavy window frames on our small steps into the basement the day before a race. What was I thinking? I felt it directly the first kilometer. On the other hand, I have only the weekends to do that kind of stuff and I can't sit around doing nothing the whole weekend of a race.

Second, I think I'll just have to admit that pacing a 10K at 3:30 is too ambitious right now. Next season, I'll try again.

Third, doing hard strides the day before – I don't know. I see it in a lot of training plans, but maybe I should experiment doing them two days before a race and doing no running at all the day before.

Race data and results

If you want to see the race, check it out on Garmin or on Strava. The official results can be found on the DIJC Bertus website.

10K, tune-up race #3

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Today, a third tune-up race, a 6K in Schoonhoven.

The race

The race was a 6K on the dyke in Schoonhoven which means catching a lot of wind if there's wind. And wind there was...

enter image description here Athletics Club Avantri

Afterwards

Avantri turned out to be a very nice club. The weather, however, wasn't really. There was a lot of wind, even to 49km/h in the region of the race. As the race was on a dyke, this was really tough.

I was planning to do this race as a test on pace 3:25, but I had to abandon that plan after a kilometer with full headwind and I dropped to 3:35. I managed to complete the race around that pace, finishing first in 21:30, but I feel the test has failed. I must be realistic though, as all times this year were much lower than last year due to the wind. (Some tips for running with wind can be found here.)

One other thing that didn't help was doing a 12K run yesterday, as I could definitely feel my upper legs were tired. And another thing that bugs me still is I still feel something in a tendon in my right foot. It seems to be less problematic than yesterday, though.

Maybe I should just be happy having run and won the the race...

enter image description here Together with Julien and Jeffrey at the Avantri track

Afterwards, I ran 10K to cool down and get some miles in, because I feel 6K (and 3K warming-up) aren't much for a distance runner.

Race data and results

If you want to see the race, check it out on Garmin or on Strava. The official results can be found on Uitslagen.nl.