So, ladies and gentlemen, I did another race a while ago. I am a bit behind on blogging about my life, because the vacation posts took so much time to make. It was a fun trip down memory lane though!
A few weeks ago I did the Bridge to Bridge run in my home town. As the name of the race says, you run across two bridges during your run. My distance, 5k was the shortest and the course was basically, go over bridge 1, run across a dyke towards bridge 2, cross bridge 2, do a victory lap across downtown and finish.
Feeling all excited before the race. That is bridge 1 in the background:
Here’s how it really went: Go to bridge 1, while trying not to get run over by other competitors. The start and first k were so busy that we were all tripping over each other. I almost ran into a motor bike that was parked somewhere. In all sharp corners everybody would get stuck and forced to walk. Not so good, that organization. Here’s the start:
We were way in the back and the whole crowd just took off into narrow streets. But okay, I wasn’t running it to set a PR (ok, I was, but my main goal was to finish in 1 piece without the injuries I had been feeling coming up). Then we crossed bridge 1. It was pretty doable and I finally got into some sort of rhythm while I was jumping back and forth to pass people who decided walking would be much nicer. Nothing against walking during a race, but please move to the side if you do so!
When we ran across the dyke, things got better and I was feeling ok. After 3k it was time to go up bridge 2. They made a little hairpin curve before going uphill which completely took me out of my pace because the crowdedness forced me to walk. But, I didn’t let that bother me and kept going. It was a real struggle! Bridge 2 is much taller than bridge 1! Finally coming off bridge 2 after 4k:
From here it was all downhill, literally and metaphorically speaking. I was feeling really tired but was hoping to push through to the finish, 1k to go! Until this point the three of us had run together. But Leonie decided to turn her pace up a notch from there, go Leonie! Jolanda and I struggled along until I got sharp stitched in my stomach. Those evil stitched gave me hard time standing up right, let alone run. So I took a 30sec walking break. The last 400m I started running again.
On my way towards the finish. My stitches were still there but I felt ok enough to squeeze out a print-like running.
The finish was actually almost 100m further than I thought it was. I was feeling só out breath I thought I was going to die! I didn’t cross the finish with a smile but with a groan, hahaha
Right after the finish, I felt awful and could barely stand:
After catching my breath, I felt much better:
Bahaha! I was totally exhausted, but whatever. I had fun and managed to run the race pain-free (aside from the stitches). My time was 30.18 min. So no PR for me, sadly. Jolanda did set a PR AND finished under 30 minutes. Which means that if I didn’t have those annoying stitches, I would have run a sub 30min race! She was in much better shape than I was at the finish line:
I am just going to have to try again. Maybe next time I will reach my goal. I already did another race which I will talk to you about soon. It was my longest race ever.
What is the toughest part of a race for you?
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