Holcici zavod

Sedime takhle loni na podzim s kamoskou L u pivka kafe a probirame se nejtrapnejsima zazitkama z posledni doby. Na mysl se vkrada muj zatim posledni zavod, 25 km trail pred dvema lety. Se smichem vypravim, jak silene ch*alo, takze nebyly videt moje slzy beznadeje, kdyz me V vykopla z auta a ostatni zavodnici mi pak utekli tesne po startu, aby me v kopcich prohaneli uz jen nordicti walkeri, co startovali deset minut po nas. Jak si me s nima poradatele pletli. Jak moje posledni misto nakonec stejne bylo medailovy pac ctyricetilety holky sme tam byly jenom tri…

No a za par dnu otviram email od L s nadpisem: “Happy Birthday to you…” a kdyz kliknu na prilohu, malem zkamenim. Zavodni registrace. Jako – co je spatnyho na karafiatu a bonboniere? Sem pani v letech! Cervicek se ale zavrtal a vytistena A4ka mi pres zimu visela nad obrazovkou compu a sem tam sem se preci jen zastydela a vybehla. Taky sme hodne lyzovaly, zacla jsem vic koketovat s kolobezkou a samozrejme kazdodenne skacu – kolem deti.

Jenze: V prosinci ulehnu se zanetem dutin, v lednu mrazy jak na Kamcatce a tak teda misto behani radsi hrabu snih v kulichu. Pak chyti chripku deti, po nich V (ty sem este na brusleni stihla zlomit ruku) a nakonec ja. Celej brezen a pulku dubna kaslu… no super.

Zimni treninkove podminky

Cas poklidne plyne a v kvetnu radsi whatsappuju na vsechny strany, ze to nedam. Ze tech 16 km a 800 vertikalnich metru proste nezvladnu. Odpovedi sou samozrejme naposto jednoznacny: nedelej Zagorku a za par dnu sraz na startu!

Moc casu na vymluvy stejne uz nezbejva, ke vsemu v baraku mame zrovna ubytovanejch dvacet skyrunneru, co si takovej minivybeh davaj s prstem v nose jako rozcvicku a tak jako obvykle je nejjednodussi zabalit batoh a zjistit, kdy mi jede lokalka do Zell.

Jednou denne i na paru…

Dvacatyho rano u jezera samy zensky – co se divim, je to prece Women’s Trail a hlavni sponzor je vyrbce podprsenek. Opatrne rekognoskuju teren a zmocnuje se me trudomyslnost. Slachovity, opaleny a namakany tela, zadky ani prsa veskery zadny. Vedle me se na uplnej konec koridoru stavi L a za nama uz jenom laskujou organizatorky. Najizdim pohledem na jedinou trochu oplacanejsi bezkyni prede mnou a v duchu si zacinam opakovat mantru pro dnesni den: Nezrakvi se a urvi tuhle holku!

Women’s Trail Zell am See – Kaprun

V deset startujem. Tempo je v prvnim kilometru celkem ok, prevyseni veskery zadny. Do kopce stoupame az od druhyho… celkem vytrvale tak do sestyho. Cestu nahoru k jezirku znam, s detma a kocarkama sme ji valily x-krat. Vzdycky ale po castech a se zastavkama. To dneska nehrozi.

Kupodivu to nahoru celkem jde. Prvnich 6 km ubehne raz dva a u jezirka je pohoda – a obcerstvovacka. Chleba se salamem mi vyslovene zveda naladu. L je sice nekde daleko prede mnou, ale jde/bezi se mi dobre a ta oplacana je daleko za mnou. Teda spis pode mnou.

Chleba se salamem

Z jezirka pres Schmidolinovu cestu na Areit – za normalnich okolnosti pohoda jazz, ale mne zacinaj tuhnout nohy. Porad to este ale neni zadna tragedie a sem tak nekde ve druhy tretine asi stoclennyho startovniho pole.

Na Areitu veskery stoupani na par dalsich kilometru konci a zacina sebeh. Ten dobre znam: loni sem se v nem natahla pres koren tak, ze mi zacala tryskat krev z kolene. Zachranila to usmudlana Pamperska zapomenuta v batohu, kterou ja snad budu brat jako individualni povinnou vybavu. Sedla mi na ten krvavej flek tehdy tak dobre, ze mi to pochvalil i vlekar pod lanovkou.

Tak tentokrat bez padu, valim si to dolu jak snek bez domecku a uz je za mnou 10 kilaku. No vazne to neni tak hrozny, jak se zdalo!

Vysoky Taury jako na dlani

A pak se najednou prede mnou cesticka narovna a celkem prudce zvedne. Jako jak do kopce? Tady uz sou prece jenom cesty dolu, k jezeru?
Nasledujici kilak je cirym utrpenim pro nohy i hlavu. Chce se mi brecet (neprsi = nemuzu) a este vic se mi chce zastavit. Jenze co se mnou, tady v kopci? Stejne budu muset do cile pro batoh.

A tak teda du co noha nohu mine. Nadavam v duchu a predbiha me jedna lanka za druhou. Kdyz se ten desne strmej kopec placatej brdek konecne zlomi, mam stehna tak vytuhly, ze ze sebeh meni na ciry utrpeni. Zbejvaj uz jenom asi dva kilaky, ale ty sou teda nekonecny. Rikam si, ze uz sem urcite beznadejne posledni, dyt se tu hrabu jako mrzak uz takovou dobu. Kobyla ale prece jenom ucejti staj a tak do cile nejak doklusu. L me radostne vita, uz tu asi 25 minut okouni :-).

L v cili

Ohlidnu se a za mnou nikdo. Jasny. Zase posledni. Du svliknout mokry hadry a kousu do vokoraly babovky, co tu este zbyla na takovy exoty jako ja… a kdyz uz mam pobaleny kramy a loucim se, najednou se z tlampace ozve, ze cekame jeste na par zavodnic, ktery budou za chvili dobihat…. Projdeme s L k cilovymu koridoru a vyhlizime je. Jo, je tam ta voplacana. A to teda cumim – je tam i jedna hubena. Diky, holky, ze ste nevzdaly: NEJSEM POSLEDNI!

Miluju ruzovou 😦

P.S. Mise splnena. Z iTB me teda pro letosek pro neucast na zavodech snad nevyhodi. Pristi rok ale teda zas radsi nejakej normalni darek…

Klubove heslo

Instead of racing…

I was supposed to be in Plasy today. My 2014 ‘racing season’ would culminate by the trail 1/2M, a race that many of my fellow bloggers were attending… which promised some serious beer drinking and a proper after party. As we all know, with two little children there is no way to stick to any plan…

Since I still wanted to run today, I forced myself out of bed at 6.20 – my usual get up time on week days – and gathered my running gear. I have been fighting with myself lately – somehow I cannot find the proper motivation for longer runs. My usual midweek 7-8 k’s are fine but whenever the run should become longer, somehow it does not feel the way it used to. No idea why is that as my body does not send any negative signals, quite the contrary – no muscle ache nor any other pain at all. Is this laziness? Or am I getting too old?

To my credit, I overcame my laziness and poured fresh water into my camelbag, grabbed some fruit sugar and within 5 minutes I was outside the door and moving. My plan was anything above 12 k, ideally around 20. It was a lazy morning with mist in the valley and I felt like the only person alive. As usually, the first 3-4 k were a sheer torture but little by little my face lightened up and after half an hour of dreaming about my warm and soft bed I realised that I was actually enjoying the run. At about 8 k mark I picked some fresh mint for the tea and turned back to run home. Nice and easy 16 k but still, the joy wasn’t quite there. No idea what to do about it.

Oh, and one more thing, especially for Leona: as I was looking for banana’s in our local supermarket, this is what I bumped into (the tiny letters read: “Power seeds for the ascetic runner”) – and yes, I admit, I couldn’t resist to buy one package to experience the magic myself.

Dam tot Damloop

I have heard about this race many years ago: the biggest Dutch running event with thousands of runners and even more supporters along the way, great atmosphere and interesting  10 mile course… No wonder that the start numbers were sold out 12 minutes after the online registration opened. Luckily we managed to ‘sneak in’ by combining pleasant and useful and joined a small charity project to run (and collect funds) for them.

This was all long before I got pregnant…

Saturday night: Here I am, the night before the race, feeding myself with spaghetti like crazy, feeling quite good but sadly realizing I have to do this on my own as V caught some stomach bug and looks like she will be spending the whole weekend hanging above the toilet.

Sunday 8 am: I am dressed in my (summer) running gear, drinking my coffee, eating cereals, watching the mercury in the outside thermometer – it keeps shrinking around 8 Celsius. It looks like it will start raining soon, too. The last quick look to the website of Dutch railways does not fill me with optimism either – the shortest railroad between Leiden and Amsterdam (where I have to be at the start) is closed for rail works all day today. I decided to take my bike to the station, just in case I need to quickly get to another station for an alternative route.

10 am: Finally I am in the train. It is packed with runners (recognizable by white plastic bags with numbered stickers that match their start number and running shoes hiding under the winter gear) and tourists (recognizable by huge question marks in their faces with: ‘People, where the hell are you all going??”), so finding a seat is out of the question but at least the train moves in the right direction.

11 am: Amsterdam Central Station, the first obstacle of the trip is behind me.  Now digging a map from my plastic bag and trying to find the spot where our charity meets. Since the principal color of our logo is purple, I am happy to fix purple balloons with my right eye and walk towards them. Ehm, wrong charity (at this point, there are 4.000 charity runners around). Several minutes later I am on the spot, right on time for the group picture.

11.30: It is still dry and actually even sunny, the temperature raised to rather comfortable 13 degrees so I am undressing (wearing the charity T-shirt today rather than my own Team AprilRuns), stuffing my plastic bag and throwing it to a truck number 8 (they say I will find it later on 10 miles further, in Zaandam…). The queue in front of the toilets makes me want to pee again and again and again. Luckily I am not too shy to use the facilities of 2 pubs nearby.

11.45: I am quickly calling V to tell her we are moving towards the start corridor. She says “don’t rush, the fastest Kenyan guy has already finished”. The official race started at 10.59 and I will only find out later that there are 50.000 runners today starting practically continuously between 11 am and 3 pm (out of 20 start corridors)! Leonard Komon (‘the Kenyan guy’) finished at 44:48, highly disappointed as he stayed some 20 seconds behind Haile Gebrselassie’s world record.

11:50: Our charity group hears the gun shot from Ronald de Boer, a Dutch iconic ex soccer prof. Little do I care, I am pre-programmed to run so I run. The sun is shining, the crowd along the route is huge (later I hear it counts 250.000 people!), I hear music, drums, people clapping their hands and I feel good.    

1^st km: The first bit along the city centre (Prins Hendrikkade) quickly turns down to the Ij tunnel, about 1 km long tunnel under the river Ij. This is the biggest descend and ascend of the race (about 25 meters). The crowd speeds down to the dark mouth of the tunnel accompanied by African drummers who unpacked their huge drums in the middle. Half way through the tunnel some runners already stop running and walk. I keep my pace around 6 minutes per kilometer, smiling, enjoying, singing along. As we climb out of the tunnel (yes, in Holland the 25 m are qualified as climbing), I am happy with my pace. As of now, my GPS dependent Garmin is only useful for the time, not for the distance. Tunnels don’t do him good.

2^nd km:  Luckily there are markers on the road each kilometer. We are running through Amsterdam North now – many locals around the path, kids, music groups, BBQ parties, beer… oh no wait, I am here to race.

5^th km: 30:48. As planned, I make a quick pause to drink and ‘feel’ my body and let it speak. I feel surprisingly good even though on paper, the first third of the race was too fast for me. I decide to keep the current pace till km 8 and see how it goes from there.

8^th km: 49:19. There is a fruit station here. I grab 2 halves of a banana, walk for 10 seconds and still feel really good. Suddenly my Racing Me comes up with an idea: back in spring (while registering) I set a goal of running this race under 1:40, under 100 minutes. If I keep my current pace I could actually still make it. Hmmm, once the little worm of an idea crawls in my head, I am not to be stopped anymore.

10^th km: (second 5 km bit ran in 30:58) I have to pee. Well – I ALWAYS have to pee when running so lets neglect the urge and plod on. I am checking my pace by singing along with the street musicians and/or with my mp3 player. All still going good, keeping my pace right around 6 min per km.

11^th km: The weather is changing, it is getting colder and windier but what the hell – it is just 3 more miles to go. I will be warm in half an hour!

14^th km: I have to admit, the last mile is getting longer. Luckily we are entering the city of Zaandam, the last bit will lead us through the city centre with yet another amazing crowd (although the picture does not show that many people).

16^th km: I do not have any ambition to speed up, my legs would not allow me and even though I am racing, I am still very aware of the fact that I am carrying a little passenger with me. My breath is easy and regular, and yet I manage the third 5 km piece in 31 minutes. The cobble stones are okay today, my knee is holding excellent. We have to pass 2 bridges and then turn to the finish line on Peperstraat. I quickly check the time board. My mind is unable to do the maths but I have good hope I actually managed to stay within my time limit.

Finish: Happy and tired but not breathless or exhausted. It was a good race, I ran very flat splits (you hear me talking as if I were a professional, haha) and this all is rewarded by my Garmin showing 1:39:41. Later on, this very time will be confirmed online as well. I am halfway the 18^th week of pregnancy and I just ran 10 miles under 100 minutes. And – the charity has collected some EUR 5.700 so far!

3 pm: Sitting in the train home, chewing on a banana, smiling and every now and then reaching towards the medal to check it is still hanging around my neck.

4 pm: Home sweet home, hugging V and finishing the bowl of pasta (I love leftovers from the fridge) and doing absolutely nothing for the rest of the day.