Afsluitdijk Af

205 min
Start 16.00
Preparation for the run was, em, fairly negligible but it all went remarkably well, considering. Luckily I had taken the trouble to look at the weather forecast in the morning. The prevailing wind here is SW so I'd been assuming I'd be running from Den Oever towards Friesland but yesterday it was NE5 so the plan changed and I ran in the opposite direction instead. Turned out this was much easier from a practical point of view as the cycle path is on the Waddenzee side so it was easier for Klaas to meet me at various points along the way.







We'd driven over the dijk first from Den Oever and at first glance I'd started thinking that it perhaps wasn't such a great idea after all. The cycle path was at the bottom of the dijk and right next to the motorway so I didn't really think it was going to be much fun to run on.

But luckily I could run on the grass at the top of the dijk, with a view over the sea and the wind behind me - perfect conditions really.

Took Sproet along for the first 5k and the last 7. In between he stayed in the car - I didn't think it wise to make him run the full distance (just under 32k) as I can drink from the bottles on my belt whilst running but there was nowhere for him to get any water along the way. As I was up on the top of the dijk most of the time it was safe to let him run off the lead. At the few places where we were on the cycle path at the beginning and end of his stages I clipped him on the line round my waist.

Running went fine - with the wind behind me I was fair flying along.


The old stone kilometer markers at 100m intervals were handy too as I could measure my speed roughly as I went along. Had my heartmeter band on but wasn't really paying it that much attention. Stayed around the 140+ mark most of the time I think, nothing too strenuous. Klaas parked the car at 3 stopping points along the way and I could refill my bottles and take a banana to eat. If I'd had a belt with 4 bottles I could probably have done it without support as it wasn't warm enough for me to need to drink a lot but it was good to break the distance up like this. Also had 2 carb-gels with me and took them at the 1.5 and 2.5 hours points.
Stopped to take tourist photos at the monument that is about 6k from the end. The one Klaas took of my tying Sproet to the stone-layer's leg looks a bit dubious. This is engineer Lely staring out in the direction of the town which bears his name.








Weather was perfect for running for me. Bit cold with the NE wind but after the first 5k I could do without my gloves and at the second stopping point I took off my neck warmer. Decided to keep my long-sleeved shirt on as I wasn't really going fast enough to get seriously warm. Really enjoyed the run, after thinking at first that I may well abandon it halfway as I didn't like the look of the cycle path squashed in between the dijk and the motorway. Actually it would be a great (small) competition course. You wouldn't want thousands of runners but it would be easy enough to organise for a few hundred people. No need to close any roads, no traffic, drink posts every 5 k or so. One of the few places in the Netherlands where you can run on grass for 30+k and no need to set out a complicated route through wood and heathlands.