WE DID IT ! ! !

Official times, more pictures and reports will follow. For now, we did it, are happy and will sign up for next year's half marathon.

Our final report.

It's raining. Laura's family must have arrived by now. I'm having a cold. We lost three of our team already, one to a chess competition, the other two to leg and back injuries. I'm getting nervous while my dad is giving me last instructions. May god be with us...

Die Spannung steigt.

Today our start numbers and the MyLaps ChampionChips have arrived. You can see my chip on the picture just underneath the 'M' in my name. Fancy stuff. The chip automatically registers our time at kilometers 5, 10 and 15. The little circle next to our numbers mean that we will start in the violet group. Everyone in this group must have estimated to run the whole thing in about 90 minutes. I wonder how much variance they allow in these groups and whether our group includes runners from 70-90 min or 90-110 min. The latter would be nicer, then we can take over and not the other way around :)

We will start from Fransestraat at 13:30. Given that we have the brown, red and pink groups starting in front of us, I don't think that we will cross the start line before 14:00. Though, that doesn't matter because of our fancy chips which will take the time only when we crossed this line.

So, the final practice runs will take place. If I keep my pace from today's morning run, I could make it in 93 minutes...promising :)

1 month to go

It's getting closer and closer and we're preparing, well, semi-optimal. Laura hurt her foot and I dislike running on my own after work when it's dark outside.
However, I managed my first 15k (wahoo!) and we are well prepared for the first 5k on the real track  by now. But running the whole thing will be a damn hard job. People may say that the Netherlands are as flat as it can be, but at least my legs notice every rise when running, whether it's slow and steady or short and sharp. And the Seven Hills Run will have both of it, several times:

Keep your fingers crossed for us. And let's hope that Laura's foot will recover soon!

I'm in pain!!

I'm in pain! However it was worth it. Because I did my first serious practice on the zevenheuvelen parcours and I managed to run 11.62 km in 1.08.26h!! That's an average speed of 10.2km per hour, which means I might actually be able to achieve our goal of running the zevenheuvelenloop in less than 90min. in November :)

Another very nice development is that more and more people are joining Manu and me for the Zevenheuvelenloop, which is very cool! :) Not only is my family from Hamburg joining us, but Manu's father and her boyfriend as well! So, who's next to sign up?!

94 days of training - 74 days to go

I saw that last year's Zevenheuvelenloop was won by none other than Haile Gebrselassie in a time that sounds insane: 42:44. And this is not even his best time on this track, in 2001 he made it in 41:38. That means, he ran 1k in 2.75! I don't think, I could keep up the pace even on the bike.

However, don't compare yourself to the best others can do, but to the best you can do.

So, what did we do meanwhile? 

Laura and me went for a run and noticed a huge difference in my performance compared to our first run together. Remember the first blog entry: "Manu managed to run 3.75k in 26 min and then slowly died on a bench while Laura ran another round with an end result of 7.5k in 46 min." This time we made 6.3k in 41min and no dying whatsoever! Twice as long in distance but in less than twice as long in time - yeah.

Also, Elliot and me went for a run again. While we made 5.4k in 41min last month, we made 6.4k in the same time now! We improved by an entire kilometre - wahoo.

Don't think that Laura didn't improve as well - she's probably just held back by me when we go together. When she went on her own yesterday, she ran 12.49k - the first kilometres of the actual Zevenheuvelenloop! And it took her 66.51, which is an amazing pace of 5.32! Ladies and Gentlemen, that means that Laura just needs to keep this pace to really reach the goal of 15k in less than 90min!

And as promised in the first blog post, a beautiful picture of beautiful blisters. Enjoy :)

Another personal record

After a Babysit-and-Party-Weekend, what would be the best thing to do on a Sunday evening? Exactly: Jogging. After Laura's threat of running 10k together on Monday, I begged my dad to play my personal trainer again. He did and joined me on his bike, giving advice on my running style, pointing out dangerous roots on the path and guiding me through the forest. The wonderful result: 9k in 59min ! This is the longest I have ever run in my life. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

But, ehm, Laura, maybe we go running together on Tuesday? I still haven't moved away from where I sat down after the run - which was 4 hours ago. My legs feel like stone.