Attention from media

In the media there was quite some attention for the first prize of Chantal at the 60KM at Texel (Dutch only):
De hardloopkrant: Aan de kop maakten vooral twee loopsters van Hellas Triathlon uit Utrecht er een boeiende en verrassende wedstrijd van. Chantal van der Geest liep voortdurend aan de leiding, maar werd op korte afstand gevolgd door enkele andere loopsters. Na 37 km liep Marjolein Bil op iets minder dan vijf minuten...
Ultraplatform.nl: Bij de dameswedstrijd was het Chantal van der Geest die de wedstrijd naar haar hand zette. Ze was als outsider getipt. Trailloopsters als Chantal van der Geest en Martine Hofstede bleken de hitte op het strand goed te weerstaan...


Links to personal articles about the 60/120KM in general:
Runtodream weblog
Giventofly.nl
Running Nu

Pictures from this hot edition on Texel:
Flickr from Runoutofhell
Arco de Graaf from the organisation
Milo from the last 200m
Teaserset from Erik

60KM from Chantal

This eastern weekend was one great Hellas-party! On Monday the 25^th six Hellas-members participated in the ‘60KM’s of Texel’ ultra run: Ingrid, Marjolein, Marcel, Kees, Edwin and me. 

And last but not least: there were 2 Hellas relay teams!

At the start I felt quite relaxed and I planned to take it easy because it was hot and I had been told that the race was hard. Honestly I thought: “What could happen to me? I did finish the Ecotrail de Paris, so I can do this as well.” Half an hour later, as I got to the beach,  I learned that that was a mistake; the 12KM on the beach were so hard! I had to reduce speed dramatically and after 6KM I already had a huge blister on my left foot. My feet were wet, my shoes were full of sand and it was very hot. One moment I even considered to give up and quit. And then I remembered Marcel quoting J.F. Kennedy: “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” which gave me a new energy-boost!

After a while I did find my rhythm and my legs started feeling better.  While running on the beach some supporters told me that I was the third woman. After 25KM I was accompanied by a cyclist because I was the first woman (?!?). At first I thought the cyclist had made a mistake. But after 28KM Hanke joined me (on bicycle) and told me that I really was! At that moment I decided to give it my very best shot unto the finish line. And even though the last 30KM were still hard and  so hot, I managed to keep up the speed.  After 5:33:39 hours I finished and ran into Marcels arms, who finished after 5:32:55 hours! (Marjolein 5:44:40, 2^nd, Ingrid 7:00:33). At work today (the day after) one of my colleagues at the coffee corner mentioned:  “60KM? Tssk, it’s getting shorter every day, isn’t it?”

  http://www.dezestigvantexel.nl/

Chantal wins 60KM of Texel!

Hot from the press and in hot circumstances - today the 60KM of Texel (an ultra on one of the islands) was won by Chantal in 5:35hrs. High temps and no wind made it a tough race. A personal update will follow soon!
Btw Jacomina is veryBericht publiceren proud of this great result of her team member.

Proud to present our second sponsor: de WorkOut

De WorkOut is a gym in Utrecht, they are our second sponsor. In the coming period of preparations for the TAR we can use their facilities for free. Because next to our runs we will work on our strenght, core stability and of course some recovery sessions. These workouts will make us stronger and reduce the risk of injuries.

Activities in the weekend

In our preparations we do not always run together - actually we hardly run together... Yesterday Chantal ran the marathon in Rotterdam. It was quite hot but she had a great result with a finish time around the 3:35.

Sundaymorning and the sun is shining! A great day to run the ABN AMRO Marathon of Rotterdam.  Around  8.30 h we (Martine, Edwin, Gerrit, Elke and I) met at Central Station in Utrecht and went by train to Rotterdam. 

The ABN AMRO Marathon is one of the biggest running- events of the Netherlands. More than 22,000 participants stood at the start, among whom the absolute top of world athletes. Besides the participants there were hundreds of thousands spectators along the course. Martine and I did try to get in the same starting-box, so we could run together, but  “they” wouldn’t allow us, so we both went to our own starting box. It was so extremely busy!

After a short performance of Lee Towers (world-famous in Holland):  “You never walk alone!” (never more true) the start shot sounded. More than 22,000 people started running at the same time. Fair is fair: it made a pretty picture, all these people at the Erasmusbridge, but there were so many people and there was so little space, that it was almost impossible to run… and after all, that was the thing I came for.

After a while I decided to let go of speed and expected times and to enjoy all the spectators and all the DJ’s, bands and other musicians along the course. It was quite a party! And then, after 17 kilometers I could eventually run the way I wanted, at my own speed and running even started to feel good! My legs felt fine and I decide to forget about my watch and to enjoy the rest of the race. It was sunny (perhaps a little too hot), but there were lots of refreshment-posts. Before I knew it, there was the 40 km-sign! Only 2 kilometers to go! Ten minutes later I finished in 3:35:35h. Not bad after all… Martine, Gerrit, Elke and Edwin ran all very well (the heroes!).

The only bummer  finishing  this sunny happy marathon was the fact that my (and Martines) time-registration-tag hadn’t worked, so our times weren’t registrated. Oh well… 

And I (Jacomina) went for a run in her backyard - the 'voetstappenpad', a path around Hilversum. Unfortunately after two hours my knee protested (a recovery problem from Paris) - so I had to walk for quite a bit before I arrived at a bus stop. But hey, the weather was beautiful and the bus driver was very friendly. So recovery for both of us in the next week.

Article on Shesports.nl

Last month we gave our first interview - read the article (in Dutch) on shesports.nl:
http://shesports.nl/artikel/437/op-weg-naar-de-transalpine-run.html

Sold out!

We got the news that the TAR is sold out...

Hi TRANSALPINE-RUNNER!

We are happy to announce that the 7th GORE-TEX TRANSALPINE-RUN is sold out!!!! :-)

And - very early in the year!!!

For a better and enthusiastic training the final months please find enclosed the official Transalpine-Run-Song!

So keep on running and see you in September!!

warmest regards

Uta

The statistics: a total of 308 teams, of which 20 women teams with 9 nationalities!!

Recuperation from Paris

Jacomina is still smiling

Those 82KMs from last week in Paris - Ecotrail de Paris -  were quite, well what to say... Let's put it this way - our muscles were a bit sore the days after (understatement). But therefore we asked Velofit to sponsor us with free sport massages. So we went for our first official massage to Lotte and Marlien (trainee). We warned them that our legs were sore - but during the massage they couldn't believe us when we told them to handle our legs even softer...

Jacomina in the hands of Lotte and Marlien

Chantal is trying to relax

Chantal on the bench