Damloop Veteran

Ladies and gentleman, I did it!
Last saturday I ran the Dam tot Damloop, whilst being hopelessly undertrained. I didn't go running for about a month beforehand; I only went to the gym once in awhile. Thankfully, my lifestyle is active because I cycle everywhere I can (I avoid public transport whenever possible), so my endurance level is pretty decent. This saved me during the run. But let's start from the beginning!

I signed up for the Damloop because an acquaintance of mine, Erik, persuaded me after the Batavierenrace that took place in April earlier this year. At the time, I was still ecstatic from running my race it seemed like a cool idea to run 10 mile. So I signed up, naïvely thinking I would really follow a training-schedule. This all didn't happen of course and the dreaded day of September 19th came closer. I'd glance at my calendar every once in awhile, as if 19 September would magically disappear (I also still keep hoping that my period skips a month..i'm a fantasising fool). The week before the race I spent trying to NOT think about it at all, and I must say it worked! Only on 18 september I began to worry about it. The enveloppe with practical details about the organisation, my start number and whatnot was still lying on the table, untouched. The package also contained a free special t-shirt. I had ordered size M, thinking that it would be safer to order a size bigger than I normally wear. The shirt was so big that it was almost a dress. I put it on and I felt like a little kid again, trying on my mothers clothes or something. I drowned in the thing!

Meanwhile, my three fellow Damloop-heroes had already e-mailed about the time we would leave for Amsterdam, so it was only a matter of buying the necessary food-stuffs and drinks. Saturday, the big day, I spent the morning in bed, idling around with my laptop. In the afternoon, Christiaan and I went shopping for a last light meal. At 5 pm we took the train to Amsterdam, because Chris already had to start running at 18:40. Erik and Christiaan would start at 19:35, I would start at 19:45. The train was packed with people in purple t-shirts. No wonder, considering 25,000 people were running this night! Outside the station, the purple was even more prevalent. Several tourists and random passers-by were trying to find their way through the mass, looking utterly bewildered. I'd be scared too, if I'd unexpectedly cross 25,000 purple folks. Chris handed in his bag (all bags were labeled and driven to the finish) and got ready for take-off. We cheered for him as he and the 2,449 other people ran past us, looking like a big herd of sheep.

With an hour to kill, Erik, Christiaan and I strolled around. We went for a last toilet-break, handed in our bags, drank some sports drink and I ate a banana for some last minute energy. It was time to go to our start groups. I was really getting excited now! At length, it was time for my group to go to the start. Really bad trance music accompanied us as we were getting off. It was a really weird experience to run in such a big mass. I hoped that it would spread out after awhile, but it didn't. I immediately felt I would be able to run the whole race. My breath was steady, and in a natural rhythm. This is the most important part for me while I am running. I have trainings when I can't stop panting. I almost felt like whistling, but after 8 km my legs started to feel a little tired. The running experience was good distraction though. Lots of people were watching, almost everywhere you could hear music and the 'by night' aspect was provided by the many lights and campfires on route. It was a little annoying to run in a big mass every once in awhile. It was very hard to run past people, because not every slow runner kept to the right side of the road. I haven't felt more like a sheep in my life as during this Damloop. You couldn't escape the big running mass even if you wanted to. It was like being part of a huge unstoppable moving organism. Quite the experience!

At last, the large purple organism of which I was part, ran past the 13km sign. My legs were really starting to go on strike now. "Please walk!" I tried to push on, ignoring my sore muscles as much as I could. Most of the time I was overtaking people, now others were overtaking me! I felt like my grandma could beat me in a sprint now. This thought sparked a last drive in me to continue the last kilometres on a decent speed. As we neared the finish line, the public grew larger. All the more reason not to succumb to walking! The photo moment 800m before the finish fooled me yet again. Thinking it was the finish I sprinted past a few others, trying to look heroic, only to discover that it was another 800m to the finish. At that moment you really start to swear to yourself. All sorts of nasty words flashed through my mind as I figuratively lashed my body to run the last meters. I was never more glad to pass a finish line than I was passing this one. In a delirium, I walked through, got a drink and some food. I didn't even feel proud yet, but was more worried that I couldn't find my friends in the crowd of 25,000 people. Luckily, my friends were smart enough to wait me up at the bag retrieval point. Then, I really felt the joy of completing the run. Sadly, we had to walk another hour to reach the train station (because we walked the wrong way) and that really killed the little strenght I had left in my legs. Being able to sit down in the train was almost orgasmic. An hour and a half later I finally reached my home, and the shower. I was so glad to wash myself and then to lay down in bed! Sadly, I had a really bad headache. I guess I didn't drink enough. Three aspirines later, the headache was still there but I finally fell asleep.

The next day I didn't do anything at all. The headache was gone, and I felt really proud about myself. I didn't think I could run 16km, certainly not with while being so undertrained. But I managed it, and I'll never forget the whole experience! It took me 1 hour and 51 minutes (8,6 km/h), but hell, I did it!