Yet another medal in your newsfeed!
It’s high time for running, so it seems: I’ve recently completed the Ijsselsteinloop and now, two weeks later, a half marathon in Amersfoort. It’s been my second time on this event.
The weather forecast predicted an extremely hot (for the local climate) day with 30 °C (86 °F) in the shade, and it proved true.
Shorter distances (up to 10 km) would start early in the morning, when it was cooler, and the half and the whole marathon at 10:30 AM.
Our run was starting traditionally at the Eemplein, next to the quay of the Eem river.
As the time approached the start moment, the air temperature climbed higher and higher. At ten o’clock it was some 25 degrees Celsius.
On the bright side, the organisation was excellent, as always. Girls were handing out bottled water and Campina yoghurt (the company was sponsoring the event).
A stage was erected on the square, and the participants were warming up to the loud sounds of music (although I’d actually prefer cooling down).
The warming up was directed by a lady one could hardly call sporty.
The start line. Time to rock!
We all started at once: 140 marathon runners (42.2 km) and 1138 half marathon runners (21.1 km), plus 38 relay marathon runners, a total of 1316 souls:
The difficult part was that the route mostly went via open areas without shade:
The sky was clear and bright. I’d really appreciate that if I hadn’t had to run.
It was quite bearable in the beginning, but as my body got dehydrated, each kilometre of asphalt and bricks was getting more and more challenging.
The toughest bit was the last couple of kilometres, when the sun was the highest. Luckily, this stretch of the run went through the old city where I had enough shade. Anyway, I made it to the finish line and collected the deserved medal!
I’m quite happy about my result of 1:48:13, which is only 19 seconds more than my record time. Considering the weather, I deem it a big personal achievement.
At the start I was standing right in the front row, so my gross and net times are the same.
The outcome: the 224th place of 1138 overall, 208th place among men. My relative position is much better this time, which I think my ability to stand the heat accounts for.
Offtopic: this is my first post written entirely in vim. ■
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