That 4th km...(and racing alone didnt help either)

I raced another race yesterday, so it’s time for a new blog! A lot has happened since the last time I wrote. After school ended I had an amazing two weeks of running, relaxing, and fun with friends in Portland. Just over a week ago I got back to the Netherlands, and yesterday I raced my third 5km of the season.

After my 16:15.05 at Stanford, I went back to the same place a month later, in the hope to run just a little faster and get that standard. Unfortunately, preparation wasn’t perfect since the race organizers didn’t let me in until the Wednesday before my race. It also didn’t help that the pacers ran a 71’ first lap, instead of the 77’ they told us they were going to run. I have learned my lesson for the rest of my life: never start a 5km too fast, because it’s gonna come back at you later! I died pretty hard in the second half of the race, and finished in 16:30. I was very disappointed with my performance. At least I got some inspiration from seeing some other Dutch athletes completely crush their races, with 4 qualifiers for the World Championships this summer!

Yesterday, I raced a 5km in the Netherlands, in Nijmegen. This was supposed to be one of the best 5km races that we have in the country. Well…. We had 3, THREE, athletes showing up at the starting-line. I don’t know if everyone else was injured, if they don’t dare to run 12,5 laps on the track, or if we just don’t have many more good fast 5km-runners, but it was quite sad. I won the race, but lost a lot of time in the 4th km (As happened in both my earlier 5kms as well.), and once again came short on the qualifiertime of 16:10, with a 16:23 finish. Nevertheless, it wasn’t a bad race, considering that my legs hadn’t felt good for 6 days after the flight, and since I had to run most of the race by myself, all alone.

For now, I am going to prepare for the National Championships for Teams next week. For the first time in history, my track club Olympus’70 qualified for this meet. The task is simple: every club puts its best athletes in each event, and tries to score as many points as possible. I am entered in the 1500 and the 3km. Its gonna be an exciting double! I have a week to figure out my tactics...
A week later, I am racing the 1500m, which I am superexcited about. It will be nice to do a shorter distance, and I really think I can improve quite a bit on my 4:22 from the Oregon Relays.