With Briain I have agreed a number of times to run and at the same time talk. We both needed some impuls to before fitter and more healthy but to really get from dream to result we agreed to do a race. The massive streetraces such as the Dam-to-Dam Run or other large events did not appeal to me like that. It was also for me to do a bit of inner peace and to be out of the city.
It had become the end of March and Emma also wanted to participate in our plan. We found the Wezep Trailrun https://trailrun-wezep.nl/ with a nice distance of 10K on the 12th May. A suitable target to work towards.
Before signing up we checked a 10K training schedule, especcially whether we could work it out well in terms of planning. This schedule consisted of three training sessions per week: a short duration course, an interval training session and a long duration course. The distances I trained during that time were between 5 and 11 km. The training schedule fit in with the planning and we have registered the three of us for the Wezep Trailrun 10K. As an extra goal I had myself set the 10K under 55 minutes, or maybe even under 50 minutes.
I knew that a trailrun could be a bit heavier than a street race. With our group we ran through nature a few times and looked for unpaved paths. And then the real event!
I think we were all pretty nervous. The week before I had already cycled through the area and saw that there was a lot of sand. The distance, surface and temperature were quite ambitious for us. Before the game we could leave our stuff in the nearby sports club and refuel water.
I had a hipbelt and two bottles of water. My neighbour is an experienced runner and I thought this might be a good kit. For the rest I was wearing mainly shorts and sleeveless t-shirt because of the temperature.
I looked it up again, it was warm that day. Temperature was between 18 ° C and 24 ° C. On the sandy slopes in the sun it could get pretty hot. The start was in the forest and a time measurement was done. The start was fairly busy and from a wide path it soon became a narrower path that crept towards the Witte Berg.
Special and for me only to dream about there were also people who ran 21K or longer (42K !!). I knew that level was too high for me, but somewhere I knew that this should also be possible for me.
At 4km and 6km close to the Staatsbosbeheer work shed there was an Aid Station where I could refill my water and grab a treat. The route was incredibly beautiful and I recognized a number of points that I had explored by bike some days earlier. There was a very nice piece that ran between two walls. Enervating to sprint through the branches and trees! I wanted a lot more of this and the small scale of such a competition attracted me enormously.
In the end I had a finish time of 49min and 11 seconds. And that felt good, because I had immediately finished the run under 50 minutes! Briain and Emma also nailed it. To me it gave a huge kick to train together and achieve a goal!
