Sunday, June 2, 2013

Drie Dorpenloop 2013 : Running 'Home'

Driedorpenloop

Finally, I was able to participate in the Drie Dorpenloop (literally Three Village Run) after missing it 2 years in a row! I've ran many parts of the Netherlands, went abroad to Germany and France, but  never managed to run our own village run. Well, that is a big check on my list of 'race, I would like to run'!

all race participants (7/12/21 km distance) run through the start twice (kilometer 2 of 7K race for me), that their supporters may get a second look! I like this idea!
big smile for P and his friend Kees, who we met spontaneously at the start and was there to support his friends as well

happy to greet them and feeling good even though I felt my legs were made of led!

Thanks to Pascal Maat, proprietor of Banden Maat I was able to run under "Team BandenMaat".  His company is one of the sponsors of this year's race.




We met via +Loopmaatjes @Twitter, during our preparation for our first Berlin Marathon. I did not realise until later, that we were practically neighbours, and that his business is located on the road that I pass with my bike almost everyday, on the way to bringing our girls to school.

Pascal shared a picture on Facebook of an article written about him and his running friend in a local newspaper, which I recognized while reading our own local newspaper.

an article from Triangle, October 2012 related Pascal's and his friend Alex's Berlin Marathon running goal for a good cause

Running world is very small indeed - specially, when you share your running passion in social media. :)

Liefste P, together with Littlest, joined me to meet up with Pascal, and the rest of "Team BandenMaat" at the Sporthal De Fuik.  There, we met his wife Wendy, who will be running the last 2 + km of the Luxembourg Marathon with Pascal (Pieter will be doing the same for me!).

Sporthal de Fuik
Littlest waiting for the 1K Kid's Run to commence
Below is a montage of images to capture the energy of the Driedorpenloop; I took them minutes before the Kid's Run begun and also, at the finish line with the first children, who succesfully ran their 1K.















I was pretty nervous because it is the first time that I ran a race in my "home ground".  Before the race, I was greeted everywhere by acquaintances  (mostly from the people we knew from the girl's school), and while running I faintly heard shouts, "Dat is de moeder van Littlest!" (That is the mommy of Littlest!).  Littlest being pretty popular in the school for being very social and engaging. She always come to everyone, and say, "Hi! I'm Littlest, what's your name?"

Now, baby steps for a short and sweet recap:

Driedorpenloop 2013 7K race course

The course
was very familiar - I could've run it blindfolded! - because I've run it a lot during my first year of running, a definite advantage for someone, who stayed up way too late before a race,, and came to the race pretty much stressing unnecessarily.

I did worry,  that I might sink into a black hole of depression, if I did not go out and run this event.  This was a great motivation to not skip it, plus I did not want to disappoint Pieter, who is very proud of what I do, and my running friend Pascal, who graciously invited friends to be a part of this fun event.

If you are interested to see the course (for the 7/12/21 km) of Driedorpenloop in photo montages, I'll be dedicating a special blog series for this. Watch out!




The race pace was YAY! Average pace: 5:59 according to my Nike+ stats and 5:58 according to the official list of results! This is the first time I ever had that i.e. hold a 'fast pace'. I know, I know, nothing to rock the boat of more experienced and fast runners. But for me: weeeeeeeeee! :D

In June 2013 . . .(results of my 1st Driedorpenloop below, via Uitslagen.NL)
2013 - Average Pace: 10.05 km/hr 5:58 min/km
In August, 2011 . . .(results of my 1st race - first 5K! - ever, after 20 days or training)
2011 - Average Pace: 6.67 km/hr 8:59 min/km
The verdict - I'll run this event again next year, and it would be for the half-marathon, that I can enjoy the experience longer. This race is highly recommended to runners, who enjoy running in the country side, and a good event to set a PR. It was well organized, and much awaited event in the region.

Image courtesy of Kees Poppes
A good day. :)

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If I can run, so can you: big dreams are reached with baby steps!