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Minor triumphs: the Leiden 10k

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Towards the end of a month which had already seen three public holidays (with the accompanying childcare chaos and closures), some lousy weather which culminated in what seemed like a week of solid rain, three short bouts of single parenting, a really nasty case of nappy rash (in the toddler, not in me) needing two visits to the doctor in two different countries, changing teams at work, complex travel logistics and a short-notice family event, I figured that just the thing to do was to enter a 10k. We were visiting Leiden in the Netherlands so my other half could do the Leiden half-marathon, and as that event also included a 10k a few hours after she was likely to have finished the half I figured I’d have a go. This was particularly appealing as the Swiss definition of “a flat 10k” is anything with less than about 100m of vertical ascent while the Dutch definition of “hilly” is “passes over a humpback bridge”. On the day the weather in the afternoon was a bit windy – but overcast and not chilly, which gave me enough of an excuse to wear my sunglasses. Wearing sunglasses, a racing vest and my racing shoes made me assume that I was naturally going to explode at 7km, stagger in in 50 minutes and get laughed at for attempting to be a poser.

Racing in the Netherlands has one unexpected problem – Dutch people are, on the whole, tall. At the start I had no way of seeing what was going on or how far back I was, and once the race got going I got a couple of accidental elbows in the face. It also mean their legs are quite long, so on average people seem to be going a little slower than they actually are. It’s not at all surprising that the verb to lope comes from the Dutch lopen, to walk. Dutch being the fantastic language it is, running is hardlopen.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t fast enough to be in the front portion of the start reserved for hardlopers, but surprisingly this 10k had pacemakers right up to the 40 minute mark (sponsored by local running shop, De Hardloopwinkel. A winkel is a shop, to go shopping is winkelen, and you put your purchases in your winkelwagen. Did I mention I love Dutch?). I found myself sort of near the 45-minute pacers, which seemed like a tolerable place to be.

The race started 2 minutes early, which came as a surprise (Swiss races are, unsurprisingly, almost always precisely punctual in their start times). As soon as it did it was clear there were a lot of people to get past in order to find some clear road, so I started working my way through. As I did, an idiot in a pink T-shirt (with “Evil Knievel” on the back) attempting to do the same thing almost shoulder-barged me into the barriers, and then went on to do the same to several more people in front of me.

Right, you asshole, I thought, and from then on I had a mission – catch the idiot and deliver some firm words. A bit of jostling near the start of a huge race is not unexpected, but actually shoving people into the barriers is a bit off. Race etiquette dictates that while it’s your responsibility to make sure that faster runners wishing to pass you can do so, it’s also the responsibility of whoever’s doing the passing to make sure they can do so safely. I set off in pursuit of the pink-shirted muppet, who turned out to actually be quite quick and eventually vanished off ahead. I found myself 20 metres or so behind him later, but never saw him again and can’t find him on the results, so I guess he either finished a lot faster than me (beyond where I’ve looked on the finish videos) or I passed him in the final k’s and failed to notice the fact, thus denying myself the pleasure of being Correct.

Petty vendettas aside it turns out Leiden is a nice town to run around, as you’d expect from Holland’s flat, canally terrain. Plenty of bridges and water to look at, good support, the odd windmill, and so on. With the flatness, though, comes the wind. As is my way I’d gone off too fast, 4:0-something/km, but somehow managed to maintain it most of the way round. When the stiff north-westerly breeze hit me in the face on the way back into town this became something of a struggle of the soul, but the long haul wasn’t all that long and it was soon into the twisty turny uppy-downy final km, including a surprisingly steep yet short lifting bridge.

This race had something that I don’t like – those taunting “500m to go! 400m to go! 300m to go!” boards towards the end. I wanted them to go away quickly, and had also noticed that I was in with a chance of going sub-41 minutes if I toddled along, so buried myself for the finish and crossed the line at 40:59.2 by my watch. I got handed a medal and a bottle of some goopy sports drink, which I then quietly looked for a way to get rid of when a few metres later I found that along with the post-finish bananas and water there was a table handing out beer. An excellent move – every race should have a beer table at the finish. I approve.

In the end my official (chip) time was 40:59, which is technically sub-41, and my position was 49th of 3000-odd, which is technically top 50. As any Futurama fan knows, technically correct is the best kind of correct. This was a new PB by getting on for two minutes (my last one was 42:40, I believe), so I was pretty pleased. Unfortunately, the primary effect has been to get me thinking “Sub-41? Why not sub-40?”, so I guess I have a new target to aim for now. I like the 10k – it’s an accessible distance which doesn’t require too much preparation, but requires just enough pacing and tactics that it’s not a straight-up drag race like the 5k.

Official results here, and the scary finish video as well, where you can marvel at my utterly awful technique. What’s with those arms?

Leiden 10k race number


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