Often, I go home from a race with that happy feeling of something like a" runner's high" and being proud to have pushed mysef, knowing that many people worked hard … MORE
Often, I go home from a race with that happy feeling of something like a” runner’s high” and being proud to have pushed mysef, knowing that many people worked hard for the race to be enjoyable. And I see that the Dutch organiser of Hardloop Event worked hard. Many things of the race were enjoyably but others were not and in the end I have mixed feelings about that experience.
The Spa-Francorchamps Run on the Formula One Track offers 4 distances- 7, 14, 21 and 42km. One round on the track is 7 km (approx 4.4 miles), so the half and full marathoners have to add a little extra distance to their three / six rounds. Entrance fees were relatively low. The full marathon was 35 Euro and included a medal and drinks/ bananas, cake on course as well as hot tea and broth for after the race. the When I signed up, there were different starting times listed to the different distances- so I made according travel plans. A week ahead of the race I was informed that “due to unforeseen circumstances” the starts would be postponed (in my case from 11am to 2 pm) which kinda messed up with all my travel arrangements. The Circuit is not really well connected to public transportation in the off season so I had to take a cab to get there. The bib hand out was an easy process, you could store clothes/ lugguage for one Euro per piece (I think that should be included).
The start at 2pm was delayed by about 10minutes. The day before the race it started to snow and we had a bout 10cm (4 inches) of snow- I dont know if that played a role in that delay or not. The different distances lined up: 7k first, than 14k, half marathoners and full marathoners- the spread covered 195m to make the full marathon distance from where the marathoners started to the starting line of the 7k people. There where about 45 marathoners and more runners in the other distances (about 650 in total). The track was not free of snow but the snow was melting so your shoes got soaked fastly. I had a lot of vaseline on my feet and didnt experience any shaving or blistering luckily. when I though of a formula one track – and I didnt know it better) I thought of a flat fast course but dang- that race had hills…. cumulative about 1100m of ups (and downs); equalling about 3600 feet. It was an experience running by the tribunes, the pit stop area, seeing the finish line from narrow bends and being brought further out again… Safety cars were constantely driving around making sure all runners were safe. There were two stops for drinks/ food and toilet. I struggled a bit with the hills and a bit of tiredness in my legs after PR-ing on the marathon distance just 6 days ago in Malta. I was happy with my time of 3:53h and rank 9 in the overall placement.
update: i downgraded the overall rating after haven gotten a unfriendly and snippish email from the organisers. After my race I sent a friendly emaily trying to give some suggestions for improvement and the reply to my proposals was that they said that they cannot control the weather (as if i was complaining about that…) Not running with HaardloopEvents again!
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Mixed feelings
Often, I go home from a race with that happy feeling of something like a" runner's high" and being proud to have pushed mysef, knowing that many people worked hard … MORE
Often, I go home from a race with that happy feeling of something like a” runner’s high” and being proud to have pushed mysef, knowing that many people worked hard for the race to be enjoyable. And I see that the Dutch organiser of Hardloop Event worked hard. Many things of the race were enjoyably but others were not and in the end I have mixed feelings about that experience.
The Spa-Francorchamps Run on the Formula One Track offers 4 distances- 7, 14, 21 and 42km. One round on the track is 7 km (approx 4.4 miles), so the half and full marathoners have to add a little extra distance to their three / six rounds. Entrance fees were relatively low. The full marathon was 35 Euro and included a medal and drinks/ bananas, cake on course as well as hot tea and broth for after the race. the When I signed up, there were different starting times listed to the different distances- so I made according travel plans. A week ahead of the race I was informed that “due to unforeseen circumstances” the starts would be postponed (in my case from 11am to 2 pm) which kinda messed up with all my travel arrangements. The Circuit is not really well connected to public transportation in the off season so I had to take a cab to get there. The bib hand out was an easy process, you could store clothes/ lugguage for one Euro per piece (I think that should be included).
The start at 2pm was delayed by about 10minutes. The day before the race it started to snow and we had a bout 10cm (4 inches) of snow- I dont know if that played a role in that delay or not. The different distances lined up: 7k first, than 14k, half marathoners and full marathoners- the spread covered 195m to make the full marathon distance from where the marathoners started to the starting line of the 7k people. There where about 45 marathoners and more runners in the other distances (about 650 in total). The track was not free of snow but the snow was melting so your shoes got soaked fastly. I had a lot of vaseline on my feet and didnt experience any shaving or blistering luckily. when I though of a formula one track – and I didnt know it better) I thought of a flat fast course but dang- that race had hills…. cumulative about 1100m of ups (and downs); equalling about 3600 feet. It was an experience running by the tribunes, the pit stop area, seeing the finish line from narrow bends and being brought further out again… Safety cars were constantely driving around making sure all runners were safe. There were two stops for drinks/ food and toilet. I struggled a bit with the hills and a bit of tiredness in my legs after PR-ing on the marathon distance just 6 days ago in Malta. I was happy with my time of 3:53h and rank 9 in the overall placement.
update: i downgraded the overall rating after haven gotten a unfriendly and snippish email from the organisers. After my race I sent a friendly emaily trying to give some suggestions for improvement and the reply to my proposals was that they said that they cannot control the weather (as if i was complaining about that…) Not running with HaardloopEvents again!