Netherlands Mass Race Classic - Dam tot Damloop, September 17, 2017

Disclaimer: Automatically translated from Russian

Dam tot Damloop is truly one of the most massive races in the Netherlands. This year, about 50 thousand people were registered in all categories. Since last year all the slots were sold out in just 20 minutes, this year I decided not to take risks and registered at the first opportunity - to the team from the organization. The distance was chosen, of course, 10 miles (16 km).

Preliminarily talked with colleagues in the stadium. One faster comrade said that he had already tried several times to run out of an hour, but it didn’t work out - a lot of people. In general, he set himself two goals - from an hour (dreaming is not harmful, right?), Well, at worst show the best average pace, than was last year at the 15 km race Zevenheuvelenloop, that is, faster than 3:53 min / km. Later, fears were confirmed - our wave started somewhere in the middle of the crowd, although the interval between the waves was about 5 minutes. Well, oh well, the war plan will show.

It was lucky with the weather - it rained all week, and on the eve of the event it was immediately prettier - dry and warm, about 15 degrees. An additional reason for joy was that our corporate t-shirts did not have time to deliver in time and could have fled in a T-shirt. The track was quite flat, on the asphalt. As shoes, I chose the second pair of Adidas Adizero Boston Boost 6 yellow, which I work for the upcoming marathon. On the road I took one gel and a Salomon bottle of water so as not to waste time at food outlets. Although he could well do without it, and without another - he trained over the summer. Start in Amsterdam from the central station, finish somewhere in Zaandama.

At the appointed time I arrived at the station:

Gathered with the people, changed clothes, surrendered things, took a couple of joint photos:

There was a ritual queue, a kilometer ran for the heating of systems, we are building. A wave starts in front of us. We are moving towards the start. It is possible to squeeze to the starting line. Shot, ran. The first kilometer I run ahead, dive into the tunnel, I understand that we need to slow down, right now, otherwise at a pace of 3:20 I will not run far. On the third kilometer we catch up with the tail of the previous wave. I sit down at some dude in a green T-shirt and miracles begin on the turns: in some places the people press to the right and there is space for overtaking, somewhere they have to overtake the asphalt / grass, well, or even cut through the passage and push:

Unpleasant, of course, some girls run, communicate, enjoy, and then a couple of dudes sweeps between them, not in a gentlemanly way scattering them to the sides. Well, what can I do. In general, they ran such a macar - then I will go ahead, then dude. Something very crowded became the seventh kilometer, the dude leaked forward at some point, and I lost sight of him.

In general, it ran quite comfortably - pace 3: 52-3: 54, there is no wind, there are special lifts too.

At the 11th kilometer I decided that it was time to eat. And just during the meal he suddenly caught up with a green dude - something was somehow not very good for him. He hoped that he would catch on the tug ( it was not for nothing that he would scatter people for me ), but something after 100 meters he was gone.

Okay, I’m running on. Although, in fact, there is nothing more to tell. A kilometer and a half to the finish line, it became clear that I was no longer running out of an hour, so I just continued to run at the same pace. Then the rain began to drip. True, 400 meters to the finish line to his left, he heard a stomp and saw a green T-shirt going over. I decided that you can’t give up and you have to go to a sprint. The t-shirt is behind. Only still it was another T-shirt. My combat comrade finished only 55 seconds later.

I get a medal (now I always especially rejoice when they give a medal at the finish line, even if clay, not towel):

I’m going to look for my clothes, otherwise it’s getting colder. I find no problem - the truck with bags was just unloaded - the logistics worked perfectly:

I change clothes, wait for the finish line of other members of our corporate team ( the next one came running after 8 minutes ) and go for a small after party with beer, music, a big screen and grass riding on food trays:

Half an hour later, it starts to rain again and I hastily ( well and here everything was super with logistics - take a couple of tens of thousands of people out of place at the start site? yes no problem ) evacuating.

The next day I already went on a recovery and dark run - the limbs were in perfect order. Does that mean that? That’s right - I didn’t finish it.

Result:

The 26th of 16511 in the recreational business runners ( category was still a competitive category of business runners ). The average pace is 3:51 min / km, and therefore at least one of the goals has been achieved.

Strava Link . Link to video.

PS: And the next day our t-shirts finally came: