Run on seven hills - Zevenheuvelenloop, November 20, 2016
Disclaimer: Automatically translated from Russian
Zevenheuvelenloop is one of the largest mass races in the Netherlands, which has been held in Nijmegen since 1984 and which must have been tried. The 15-kilometer asphalt track is certified by the IAAF and despite being through several hills (Zeven heuvelen loop can be translated as “ seven hill run ”), is very fast. In 2009, the Tirunesh Dibaba Ethiopian set a world record for women here - 46:29 (currently improved), and in 2010, the Kenyans Leonard Patrick Komon set a world record for men here - 41:13, which still holds. In general, the race attracts a large number of faster athletes and every year the inhabitants of the Netherlands hope that local athletes will fall on the podium. What finally happened this year - Susan Krumins (Kuijken) took first place, and the second is Jip Vastenburg, who this year was not very lucky at the Olympics in Rio. It is also noteworthy that it was in this race in 1994 that for the first time in history they applied the automatic time fixing system developed here in the city of Nijmegen.
In general, I do not think that there are people who refuse to participate in this:
Despite the fact that I promised myself to take a break after marathon, I did not keep my promise and a week later I began a new training plan. The weather allows you to train regularly, so by the time of the start I came up in a completely normal physical form. The goal was set on the book - 59:30, which corresponds to a rate of 3:58 min / km. I figured that the task is quite lifting, the main thing is that with the weather is lucky - a lot depends on the wind, rain and the amount of clothes that will need to be pulled. Well, no - so no. The weather was promised normal: + 8- + 12, rain all day and wind 35 km / h. But since on the eve of the event in Harlem, for example, there was a city snow, it was impossible to strongly believe forecasts. In general, as usual, he took all available running equipment - from short shorts to a jacket with a hat and gloves. But ideally, of course, I wanted to run somehow like this:
This time we managed to find a like-minded person, so the road of 130 km flew by imperceptibly (and without traffic jams). We arrived 4 hours before the start, parked, went on the expo and then took a little walk around the neighborhood:
Found start-up zones (due to the large number of participants there were two on different streets, in each zone there were 4-5 segments and the start was with a difference of 30 (and in fact 60) minutes came out):
The weather was not hot, periodically dripping and blowing. But in the end I decided that I would run in shorts and a T-shirt - to run, good, short, the pace was supposed to be fast, and I would not freeze.
Started in the second segment, immediately behind the elite:
After the first half-kilometer, it reached an even pace of 3: 45-3: 55 min / km in direct areas and descents and up to 4:30 min / km when ingested on the hills. There was no crowd, everyone ran fast:
Even in water areas, there was no shock, although they were distributed on both sides, and the track was rather narrow. Although those who started later had to push around:
I did not stop at water stations - there was a bottle with me. As always, gel on the ninth kilometer helped a lot. There was no rain, warm. I even regretted that I didn’t put on a shirt instead of a T-shirt and shorts would be shorter. On the windy section itself, a little dulo from the back, so it helped rather than interfered, in other areas the barrel was not particularly strong compared to Halve van de haar and Egmond halve marathon, although then he came across complaints from people about a strong wind, so everything is individual here.
I looked at the clock periodically - it seemed to fit into the limits, so I didn’t have to switch to the mode of increased patience and persuasion. According to rumors, the last 3-4 km should have been from the hill, but from 3.5 to 2 km I did not dare to accelerate - I thought, that maybe somewhere in front there was still a couple of slides ( in their idea there should have been 7, but I did not think, and it was not clear what is considered to be hills ). As a result, ( began to accelerate until 3:35 min / km ) only on the last 2.5 kilometers, when it became clear that there would be no more mountains for today. Before the finish line, he tried to overtake a couple of people:
The limit met with a margin of one minute - 58:31. A dozen ran 13 seconds faster than their current record ( even taking into account the fact that up to the tenth kilometer there were more lifts than ). In general, the result is satisfied. It ran straight, heavy, but not so much that the legs do not walk and need to be restored. The result in groups:
Профиль трассы:
After the finish, he changed his clothes, went to the finish zone to wait for a friend. After 3 hours they set off on the return journey.
Such things.