'Back in Black' or 'An Unofficial Duathlon'

[Disclaimer: I'm not trying to excuse anything, but I've been whining about this before...Lack of motivation and severe lack of training. - All self-inflicted though. Boo. I started running 'more seriously' again last August and prepared really well for my first 1/2 marathon in Amsterdam in October 2007. Tempo-runs, tons of long runs over 12 miles, even -gasp!- some speedwork (Well, "attempted speedwork"...Haha.). Ran the half, had a good time, thought I had my inherent slacker and overeating nature beat. Well, sometime around Christmas, for reasons unknown (Or maybe I just don't want to open up a can of emotional worms, who knows?), I completely lost my motivation. Managed to pack on weight, hardly ran, mostly biked. I managed to run the 1/2 in Austin alright, even though I was slower than during my first half. - I blamed the hills and not my expanding butt or lack of training. Well, 2008 so far was really low in running miles (200 or so) and my longest run was actually the Austin-Half in February. I think I ran 7.5 miles once after that. Sheesh.]

OK, so I spent last Saturday being uncharacteristically nervous and I hardly moved all day; in a feeble attempt to have 'fresh legs' on Sunday.

Sunday AM, I had the choice between tram + train + free shuttle or my bike. The bike won.
Biked 13 miles to Leiden (beautiful college town).
The race in Leiden is really well organized, but everybody seemed so professional. Somewhat intimidating, I thought. It was a beautiful day. Perfect running conditions, really.
After the Dutch National Anthem was played, the gun went off at 10:30AM.



Well, not much to say about the race, except that it seemed very, very long. Also, the water stations were set up every 5K, which for some reason seemed like a long stretch between drinks...I was so looking forward to the water/sports-drink. I walked through all of the water stations and once or twice otherwise, just to give me a break. Definitely my lamest 1/2 so far, hehe.

Good crowd support, too, and a nice course. Parts of it went through the city of Leiden, but there were quite a few stretches along the canals and fields. Pretty.

I must have been delusional at the 7K-marker already, because I thought "Uh, cool, more than half-way already." Haha, yea, not 7 miles, dumbo...

Three old, lecherous men commented on my running skirt and on how they were enjoying the 'scenery'. Sheesh. Men. But maybe they were delusional, too. Harhar.

I wouldn't say I struggled through the thing, I just took it easy and my goal was just to get to the finish line alive and without my knees acting up (Which worked...).

I did have some kick left at the end apparently, because I passed three people just before the finish line (No, they were not hugely overweight, old, or limping...).

All in all it was a fun race, even though I cursed every cookie, pizza and pint of ice cream I had downed since December...

Biked home, took a shower, collapsed on the couch...

Moral of the story:
It's more fun to run a race well-prepared and at a lower weight. (Surprise!)
A full marathon still seems overwhelming and very, very long. (But 4 1/2 is enough time to prepare, I hope.)
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Uh, and 'Back in Black', because I wore all black. Skirt, shirt, hat, sunglasses. Very cool and very much incognito...