This eastern weekend was one great Hellas-party! On Monday the 25th 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, 2nd, 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?”
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