Green madness

Green is the color of love. No, I'm not color-blind, don't confuse anything. Love for walking is a Rotterdam green affair. And we're not monogamous at all, it's much more enjoyable in a group. Even at 30 km…

Last week I ran a little bit better. The first 7 km became 10 and then another 10. This weekend I wanted to carefully try a 16 km, maybe even a half marathon to see if 7 April would be possible after all. But fate decided otherwise. First, there was a nasty job waiting for me.

That job should actually have been a party: picking up the new green shirt of the Rotterdam Marathon Participants. However, since the chance of a Rotterdam Marathon was (is) very small, I had a dilemma. A shirt from a non-run is not an option. I cannot do that to myself. And neither can the army of green runners, the running family so to speak. That is why I had already decided to have the name and palmares removed so someone else could wear it after the marathon. But now I had to collect it.

Anyway, on a drizzly Saturday afternoon at Runner’s World my shirt was nowhere to be found. Fortunately, I remembered that I was supposed to pick it up at the famous Road Through Rotterdam, the last long run of the group. Which I was fed up with, because my registration was cancelled by Marco because I could not run and there was a waiting list. So I emailed Marco… And yes, he had the shirt. And I had a nefarious plan.

Runners and self-control

So there was the entrance to make my test run somewhat fun and dispel the grumpy mood of last months 🙂 Halfway, that's about at metro Slinge, or a bit earlier, but Rotterdam has enough public transport options to always be able to get home. Even if you can't walk 10 steps yet.

So I sat shivering on Sunday morning in the top sports centre. If you get out halfway, you have to fit all your stuff in that little backpack to get home. The nerves were also responsible for the trembling: how would my system cope after a long time of hardly or no running?

The reunion with all my running friends was great. To keep myself in check, I had told everyone in advance of my plan to get out halfway through. Yes, I know myself.

Confidence again

Once underway with IJsselmonde, the 9km/h group that I had planned anyway, things went better than expected. Frank Dorenbos showed us all new parts of Rotterdam. The island of Brienenoord. The Maastunnel, where you first go down with a very steep old (1942 completed) escalator. We even went through the shopping mall, where the Suunto lost the navigation a bit. One way or another, the thing wants to run right through the shops; it does explain my high mileage at last year's marathon.

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By walking together and talking every now and then, it went almost like that. I did feel my ankle a little and heard the uneven gait, but there was no pain. I also consciously bent my right knee outwards the whole trip. Once at Slinge, I felt so strong that I decided to walk the minimum of the run: 30 km (32.44 according to Suunto). I dragged Ramona, who was having a harder time, along to prevent her from breaking down by running too far. Hopefully she'll block me out on D-Day, to prevent me from shooting off at 4-5 minutes/km. Then suddenly the finish line seems achievable…

It's that I can't hopping, but a lot sunnier after this experience. Now carefully on my way to the 7th of April. Oh yeah, and to the hairdresser. Can't see a thing with this wind :p

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