zondag 6 april 2014

Rokjesdag

9.88k
Start 15.15
According to my Garmin the 10k wasn't quite.  But better it under- rather than over-estimates the distance I suppose.
 

 Rokjesdag is a word invented by a much-missed Dutch journalist to denote the day when all the women in the city spontaneously decide that the time has come when you can wear a skirt with bare legs. His column on this phenomenon is legendary. A sort of ode to Woman Power. Since his death a few years ago the Rokjesdag Run has come into being and every year attracts more and more entrants. This year 1200 women took part (split between the 5 and 10k events). Most of them wearing weird and wonderful skirts/tutus. (I had a particularly daft pink&black&frilly example I bought on the market for 1€ during Carnaval.) 

Weather was perfect for the runners, though possibly less so for the cafés who were hoping to have hordes of folk outside swigging prosseco in the sunshine. 14 degrees and cloudy but not quite getting as far as drizzle. 
 

It was 2 circuits of 5k, I deliberately didn't look at my Garmin, just kept going as fast as I could and pressed the lap button after passing the start the first time. Netto time was 56:45, and since I'd put in an estimated finish of 57 min I was well chuffed with this. My average speed was 6 seconds per k faster in the first lap than on the second lap. So no negative split but not as big a difference between first and second half as in the 15k last month. (Anyone fallen asleep yet?) 

Funnily enough I felt as if the first half was harder than the second half. (Garmin says no...) At one point I remember trying to channel my inner Catwummin (she's the fastest runner in my online running group) - singing (silently) along to Skunk Anansie - 'I can dream, I can dream, I can dream that I'm Cat-wo-man' (instead of 'someone else'). 

Anyway, good day. I always feel... cleaner inside after a race than after a normal run. Like a diesel car that's had its filter blown clean by a good fast motorway run instead of the normal plootering about town and traffic jams. 

Hopefully this link should show my finish - I'm behind the woman with the orange t-shirt - pause at about 9 seconds gives the best view of my seriously arse-expanding pink frills ;-) 
edit: hmm, link only takes you to the site - you then have to type in 900 at 'startnummer' and then click on 'zoek' (search) and then click on my name to start the video. Sorry about that. 

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