It was my first time I took part at this event. Some colleagues of me asked to join the Newtec team and so I did. I thought it would be a good idea because I’m more or less forced to work on my condition.
Anyhow, I never ran for 20 km until then. The longest run I ever did in my training was 13km (2 rounds at the Watersportbaan plus an extra round at the Blaarmeersen in Ghent).
Also, I didn’t know until a week from the start that we’d have to run into the tunnels and the Tervurenlaan, which has a 3 percent slope for 3 kilometers!
When you first sign in to this running contest, you have to start at the last position. This actually doesn’t infect your running time, because we have a sort of RF id which has to be tightened on your shoes, and it saves time at every cross point (after 500m of the start so that the mass of people is more divided, at 10km and at the finish of course).
At the 13th kilometer I’ve had to stop because of my low sugar balance. It was probably a good idea to take some candy with me, but I forgot. I was feeling dizzy and had to drink some Gatorade, which they provided at the 13th kilometer (now isn’t that coincidence).
At the 14th kilometer I’ve resumed running until the finish. My round trip time was 2h22m31s, which isn’t bad for a first time.
Actually I finished earlier, there was a lot of people at the finish and I’ve had to wait for 5 minutes until the sensor could register my time.
I’ve bought myself a heart pulse watch, and I’m training now to take part in the 2008 edition. My aim is to finish in 2 hours!