The Lonliness of the Last Bit of Hattem...

Ok, first the 'bad' news.
2:12:27, when I'd 'hoped' I might be up to doing it inside 2 hours. However there were a good few mitigating factors. It was 24 degrees, which is at least 4 too hot for me. I hardly ever run in the heat, preferring early mornings or evenings whenever possible. Secondly, I was having a tsunami-like-period-day (I know, I know, too much information, but ach hardly anyone reads this, it's mainly for me to keep track of my progress) and running for so long on the heaviest day is never really a great idea. But having said that - ít was an interesting experience and I did see it more or less as a practise run for Amsterdam next month. Ok, let's see if I can remember enough numbers to crunch them... (warning to possible lurking readers - it's about to get even more boring than usual here, feel free to sneak off if you like.)

5km 28:??
7km 42:??
10k 1 hour exactly
14k (+ ca 50m?) 85:36
15k 94:??
20k 126(??)
Half-marathon (21k 97.5m - not 100% certain of this but it's pretty close) 2:12:27

So let's see where things went well and less well.
The course was laid out in 3 circuits. The first one exactly 7k and the 2 following ones slightly more to make up the last ca. 100m.
At 5k I was on target to finish inside 2 hours.
By 7k I'd slipped back as I should have been inside 40 minutes.
Up to 10k I was still doing a km in 6 minutes.
Then took more than 25 minutes for the next 4.

At about this point in the 2nd circuit a few really fast runners came racing past now and then - people who were on their last few kilometers. I wonder if it was this that made me slow down - the realisation that I'll never be this fast?? Whereas I enjoyed seeing them go and even tried to increase my own pace a little, inspired by their example. (Didn't work apparantly! ;-o)

The race was organised so that people who didn't get through the first 2 circuits in 85 minutes didn't get to go on to do the last one so I thought I was going to have to stop but when I passed the finish for the 2nd time I heard the commentator say it was 10 past 6 and no-one stopped me although the clock indicated that I was 36 seconds over time. A few more were let through and off we went for the last circuit. I wasn't sure whether to be pleased or appalled that I was allowed to continue...

The last circuit was a bit weird really. Not another runner in sight for some of the way so in some of the bits through the woods and quieter lanes it felt like just another training run. Did manage to overtake one runner who was a bit ahead of me so that gave me something to aim for but a lot of the time it was just keeping going. Had a small bunch of delicious home-grown grapes some wee girls had been handing out at one point and worked out that if I took one every 6 minutes they would last me to the 20k point. It was nice to award myself these treats at roughly 1km intervals. Ok, it's not Rotterdam with hordes of cheering people lining the route but it was nice to have the occasional passing cyclists or people in their gardens shouting encouragement along the way.

I enjoyed the day really, despite the mildly 'disappointing' time. It was a good run, nice atmosphere and at least I have a more accurate idea of what I'm capable of now and can see if I can improve on the time next month. The route in Amsterdam probably has less inclines (I won't dignify them with the word 'hills' but it definitely wasn't completely flat all the time) too, which should help.