Rotterdam Ladies Run
After doing the Cooper Test a couple weeks ago, I was quite fired up to try and set myself a new personal best at the Rotterdam Ladies Run today. Life’s little ironies – I came away with a brand new shiny personal worst! It wasn’t entirely my own fault – the course through the Zuiderpark in Rotterdam, whilst attractive, took place on rather narrow paths which occasionally took us over small bridges. Every time the road narrowed down or we went over a bridge, the pack ground to a bit of a halt. Because the roads were narrow, the pack never thinned out – a very strange experience for me, as I’m used to ending up with plenty of space around me, so I could never really keep to my own pace, and for once often found myself going a little slower than I might otherwise have done.
To top it all off, the course was two times around a 2.5km loop. Being at the back of the pack (where I well and truly belong) we crossed the finish line at the end of our first loop just seconds before the winner came through at the end of her second. The result was that we were pushed over to one side by the officials, and everything came to a bit of a standstill. It was pretty cool to actually be at the finish line of a race at the same time as the winner, mind you!
It was a bitterly cold day, considering that it’s the middle of June, and I ended up layering a long sleeved top, the bright pink race shirt and then my running jacket. Combined with a bit of rain along the way, I never really got all that hot, and I was very grateful not to be hanging around in short sleeves before the start.
Despite the weather, the day was fun, and made all the more so by the fact that I ended up meeting another runner as I got off the train in Rotterdam, and we travelled down the rest of the way and hung around the expo together killing time before the start. We’d never met before, but we’ve now linked up on Daily Mile, so I guess we may well find each other again at a race someday. Ironically, I was actually planning to meet up with an existing Daily Mile friend who was running the 10km, but we never managed to find each other in the crowds. Maybe next time.
Final time: 36:00. Oh, and I came away with a girlie pink goodie bag, and a medal on a girlie pink ribbon.
Looks fun! Hah! I love/hate how everything geared toward women has to be pink and girly. The other example being that other women’s run you did whith the picture of the woman running in a skirt. Hah.
I know… what I forgot to mention is that the expo was full of jewellry stalls and had a place where you can get your nails done. Seriously.