From Paris with Love

This weekend, on Saturday 26 March 2011, we accomplished one of the major training goals on our way to the Transalpine Run 2011: the 83KMs of the Ecotrail de Paris. This beautiful trail finishes at the first floor of the Eiffel tower. 




On Friday afternoon we (Jacomina, Chantal and good friends Marjolein and Marcel) departed from Utrecht and arrived at Paris at 22:30h. First we took some pictures of the Eiffel tower in the dark and then we went to the camping, to put up the tent and get some sleep. Nervous as we were, we didn’t get much sleep though! The next morning we had to pick up our race numbers and sign the ethical charter on the Quai Branly, opposite the Eiffel tower. 


C: I became slightly nervous at the sight of the Eiffel tower in broad daylight , as I’m afraid of heights and the Eiffel Tower and its stairs looked quite…. high! 


We went by train and bus to the start at Saint-Quentin en Yvelines. The weather was very nice and it was quite warm. The nice thing about trail running to me is the fact that the participants are generally very relaxed; while we were waiting for the start, most of us were enjoying the sun and everybody was chilling! At 12:30h the fourth edition of the 80 km trail de Paris started. There were 1891 participants (of which 149 were female), so it was kind of busy on the track at the beginning, but it was a nice view to see so many runners, exited and on their way to Paris!

J: Just 200m out of the start I already lost sight of Chantal and Marcel. And really, everybody was flying by at high speeds - not my stuff. So I concentrated on my own speed and let everybody pass by. I know I see many of these runners back in the coming KMs.

C: After 2:04:57 I arrived at the first nourishment/aid station at Buc (22KM). As the next aid station was situated at 56KM at Chaville – Parc Mare Adam, I took some time to fill my camel bag and eat. My legs felt fine so: On y va! Cheers and nice vibes from many supporters made the trail even more enjoyable. 

J: Only 9 minutes after Chantal and Marcel, I arrived at the first stop. I thought that I started slow, but that was quite fast for me as a diesel!

The trail led us through beautiful country sites such as the Etang the Saint-Quentin – a very large lake. On the way from Chaville we were treated to a great view at Paris from the "Observatoire de Meudon" (unfortunately Jacomina's head is right in front of the Eiffel Tower...).

C: At Chaville (5:51:30) my legs still felt ok, so after a quick stop I went on to Domaine national St-Cloud. After a while it was getting dark and we did have to find our way through the woods using our headlights. This was quite tiring, because I couldn’t see the uneven road properly.

J: The 34KMs between stop number 2 and 3 went surprisingly fast. Although I was tricked a few times by people giving me wrong information - or is my French that bad..? But I felt good and my legs were going at steady pace. At Chaville (6:39:03) I refilled my Camel Bag and changed clothes. We had some rain on the way and it was getting colder.  From here on I had to use my head light. I noticed that in comparison with the other runners I did not have much light - so I changed batteries. And well, it turned out that it didn't help! So I tried to run as much in the light of others. This didn't work quite well, cause everybody was slowing down except me!

C: The 9KMs from St Clouds (73KM, 7:51:40) to the Eiffel tower, felt like 20 kilometers!  During these last kilometers I was accompanied by a French Runner (I think his name was Claude). At 21:28h, after 8:58:12h I finally arrived at the Eiffel tower. Luckily it was dark so I didn’t notice the height on the stairs up… After 9:01:53h I finished (hand in hand with Claude!) at the first floor of the Eiffel Tower!! What a great way to get to know Paris! 

J: At St Clouds I refilled my Camel Bag for the last time with my own energy powders and water. After all these hours running, I was looking forward to see the Eiffel tower. My homie Anneke was in town as well, so I text her that I went for the last 10KMs. On our track we sometimes had a view on the Eiffel tower - it was still so far away. But suddenly it was there, the last bit.. just one stairs to get to the bottom of the tower. And there I heard somebody shouted: "He Jacomina - it's you... you're so fast, please wave for the photo!" Now only 54m in heights separated me from the finish line (10:05:45)... Other runners were climbing up the stairs in the pace of a snail, so I had to ask if I could please pass them - I wanted to sit down, I wanted a beer, I wanted to lift my feet, I desperately wanted to finish!! I got there at 10:10:06 and I was so happy!

The results:

Chantal: 9^th woman overall, 5^th in SE F

Jacomina: 26^th woman overall, 13^th in SE F

And now recuperation with a massage from Velofit this evening (Monday)!!

Preparations for EcoTrail de Paris

On March the 26th we both will (try to) run the Eco-Trail de Paris - 80KMs discovering paths in the Ile de France region with a finish located on the first level off the Eiffel Tower! Some preparation for this run is necessary, so Chantal went for a run and Jacomina went for a clinic of Chi-Running.

Today I, Chantal, went for a run of 60 KM. My preparation was perfect thanks to Joyce and Maarten, friends who invited me for dinner last night and made me a delicious fresh homemade pasta-diner and even made a chocolate pasta for dessert! It didn't only taste very nice but also looked very nice, so I had to make a picture of it! (Recipe available on request).

Today the weather wasn’t as sunny as yesterday, but on the other hand also not as rainy as was expected (80 percent chance of rain!). I had arranged for a friend to accompany me on her mountainbike. The trail was set out in the vicinity of Apeldoorn, another part of the beautiful Veluwe, famous for it’s unspoiled and to Dutch standards, rough nature. Even though my energy level was somehow a little bit low (too much work, too little sleep), I was very glad to succeed in running  the whole trail uninterupted. I also used this training day to break in my new trailshoes (the Innov8’s). After 60K I can honestly say they are all I could wish for: I had to look very carefully to find one small blister!   

The trail took us past ‘radio Kootwijk’ which does not seize to amaze me! Radio Kootwijk is the very impressive Art Deco Building, which was home to the radio station in connection with the Dutch Indies in the beginning of the 20th century. It’s massive structure suddenly appears in the middle of the ‘Dutch heathland’... It also goes under the name ’the cathedral’. I can see why...

And I, Jacomina, went to a Chi Running clinic from David van der Linden at Run2Day in Amsterdam. In short, Chi Running is a very efficient way of running with minimal impact on your legs, muscles, bones etc. But... there is a lot to learn before I can run in that way. Although with running on my Nike Frees with landing on my mid foot, I already have an advantage in comparison with those runners who land completely on their heels. 

But interesting to get to learn some more on a different running technique. And for our downhills in the Alps, I think we can learn some good tricks from the Chi technique. Of course we tried some Chi Running ourselves - but first exercises  to get the 'feeling'.

And of course, to get some KMs in my legs, I went running home. Just 40KMs but more than enough for me. So I really wonder how I'll survive twice the distance and a lot more climbing in Paris, in only two weeks time...

New shoes for Chantal - oldies for Jacomina

New Shoes!
Today the mailman brougth me, Chantal, a package: new Salomonshoes! The Salomon whisper (in Orange). I bought them from B-outlet, the Salomon-discount in Bataviastad for only 60 euros. I’ve never ran on Salomons before, but I can’t wait to test them! So…. to be continued!

New Shoes Part II!

Last week I, Chantal, got myself a new pair of Inov8's. Better start running! ;-)

Old shoes!

And I, Jacomina, still haven't found time to search&buy new shoes. So for the coming weeks, I'll be running on my Adidas Kanadia TR2. Bought last year (see my blog) and took me over the hills during the Mega Ardennen Trail in Belgium. Good-to-go for the moment - but I must admit, new shoes wouldn't be a bad idea.

Curious what we're gonna do?

The follow movie will give you an impression of our adventure in September.
The official trailer for the Transalpine Run 2011:

More on the officiale site of TAR: http://www.transalpine-run.com/alpen_cross_clips.htm

Rainy weekend for Chantal

It’s not always sunny in the life of an ultrarunner, litterally speaking. If you ask me, it started raining on Friday night and it was raining cats en dogs ever since. For Sunday I had planned an endurance run of 50 km. Because Jacomina couldn't make it due to circumstances, Hanke joint me on the atb. Saturday we went already to Velp and spend the night in a nice B&B. Sunday we got up very early and left before sunset for our planned run on the Veluwezoom. The Veluwezoom is one of the largest nature areas of the Netherlands and is property of Natuurmonumenten (The Dutch association for the preservation of nature) and it’s splendid! It contains an atb-route of 50 km. 

When you leave early there are allmost no atb-ers on the route and it’s great to run there. The parcours is quite technical and heavy because of the elevation gain! The rain of the previous days did not help either and at some points it was a real mud bath!

I stopped twice to tie my laces firmly because I was afraid I would loose them in the mud! It was hard work, climbing and sliding through the mud and within an hour my legs felt as if I had already run a whole marathon! It also took us some time before we did find out how the atb-route-system worked, but it was a great run! 

Only after more then 2,5 hours it became more busy on the route and at one moment I got almost run over by an atb-cyclist which made me fall. Grmbl@#!! *#!! Fortunately I fell on my hands (ow!). Eventually I did run for about 5 hours and felt tired but satisfied afterwards. As a reward for all our efforts we went to eat some poffertjes (Dutch treat!) at the Bezoekerscentrum.