Half marathon race in Nijmegen - Stevensloop, March 17, 2019

Disclaimer: Automatically translated from Russian

I have long wanted to participate in this race and registered last October, intending to carefully prepare and run to PB. After that, however, he became interested in autumn crosses smoothly flowing into winter crosses, so that the planned preparation did not work. More precisely, by the time of the start, it was far from the best shape. Shortly before the start, he canceled his participation in the Enschede marathon and there were thoughts to even cancel the registration for this race, because the car was under repair at that time, and it was necessary to go to the other end of the country, but in the end I decided that the half marathon will not kill me, the well-being run, who knows, a miracle can happen, I can keep the average pace faster than 4:00 min / km and improve my PB ( 1:24:16 ). On that and decided. The training volumes on the eve of the start were as follows:

I arranged a vacation for myself on a pre-launch week - I did only stadium work, and on the rest of the days I rested from running. Although I had to go to work and cycling. In the morning before the start, Strava showed fitness / fatigue / form 26/22/4 (running forward, I’ll say that some kind of fatigue in the legs was still felt and the cherished value of the form in 9 would be better), and there were 74 kg on the scales (running forward, I will say that it was necessary to eat less).

Battle lining (I decided not to take the water - not summer, not dry):

Nijmegen Bus Case:

While getting to Haarlem Station through and through the open rain, so he tried to dry all the way to his destination and at the same time keep warm - it turned out so-so because the air conditioners worked.

Arrived at the destination, changed clothes and went to inspect the place of start and finish:

The hallmark of the city is the church, in the area of which the start-finish zone was located. Moreover, the corals pulled off the side streets:

There were quite a few participants (child race, 5 km, 10 km, half marathon), so it was a bit crowded. I watched the start by 10 km (he was given by the burgomaster of the city). Then he ran to finally change clothes and take things.

I was not familiar with the track. Visually represented the route, but had no idea about the vertical drops. He only knew that she was not fast. Last year in the area last team triathlon race, in which I participated. Cryed. Well, I was glad that you do not need to jump into cold water.

Our race was started by some unknown woman who, taking possession of the gun, began to send him to the crowd and (not specifically) waving him in all directions. At first he stood not far from her, but then he left - I did not want to get DNS after such a long road. Finally, the woman fired in the right direction and we ran.

The air temperature was + 8, without rain. There were several large towing bridges along the route, plus the terrain itself is not very smooth. In some areas there was a very strong wind. In general, everything went smoothly - the pace from 3:47 to 3:55, on the ascents and windy areas fell in 4:00 +. Kilometers of 13 and 14 were especially difficult due to wind and open areas, and by 16 km I was tired, but I had to endure everything, and besides it turned out to be a little overtaking. Finished with his standard expression on a face full of happiness and bliss from a job well done, immediately after the second lady:

My first official finish time was recognized by parents watching the race on the Internet:

The official result is 1:23:31 5th of 136 in category M35 33rd of 1655 in the overall standings Strava Link

The result is very pleased. Ideally, I wanted to see an average pace of 3:55 min / km, but the wind made its own adjustments. In general, the distance seemed rather short, and there was some kind of calm - it played something that was not specially prepared for the race, that is, there was no this winding in my head, fear of draining the time spent on preparation. I also started quite evenly and did not drive much (in fact, I was simply afraid of cramps from the habit - henceforth I should always be afraid). Peel at all points, ate 1 gel at the 15th kilometer.

Video race available here. At around 2:59:30, my finish even hit the lens.

The winner’s time is 1:08:41 (he returned from Kenya just the day before). Following him is 1:11:01. The gap is pretty serious.

In general, it’s good that I didn’t cancel participation - PB is improved by 45 seconds. With good preparation and a faster track, you can get a little closer to 80 minutes.