Hi all,
Today I had the pleasure to run an event called COAST MARATHON NATIONAAL PARK HOLLANDSE DUINEN - which is a trail marathon covering a beautiful part of the Dutch coastline.
The route was mostly on the beach, but also on sandy dunes and a little through a beautiful forest.
The picture of the route below gives an impression
As I never did a trail event before and I have the NN Marathon Rotterdam planned in april - I decided to aim for a pace that allows me to resume my trainingsblock coming week! I aimed to finish just shy of 4 hours.
The start
With only 146 participants we could all start at once which was different from all my earlier experiences (with city marathons)
As you can see we started right on the beach for about 6km. This was easier than I expected as the tide was low so running close to the water gave you some stability. After 3km the fast runners (+/- 15) seperated from the others , I felt in between ranking 20th for the first part - this meant there was hardly anyone in sight in either direction. Which felt great - I could rely on my own rithym.
After that we went towards the dunes and that was when it became heavier. It was climbing and declining on loose sand for a few kilometer in a row, with in between a little swamp.
I didn’t have trailrun shoes, so i gave my trustworthy worn out new balance shoes a go. For the sand these shoes were fine, but in the swamp my socks were soaked. Making it worse when I tried to jump over the remainig part of the swamp only to fall on my knee in the mud 😂
After the dunes we head back to the start over the beach as our first aid station was there at 14km. The tide was already turning.
14-25km was all beach - but there was now high(er) tide forcing you to run at loose sand. Which was forcing you to focus on where to place your feet and distracting you from the distance.
We went back to the dunes, some with loose sand but some with something that resembled an actual path. So it felt like interval training there.
Around km 32 we went into the forest - which was by far the most gentle part of the run. And finished with again some loose sand dunes. Around km 37-40 we zigzagged on the dunes which caused the gpx to glitch - recording less km at a slower pace than I was seeing on my watch when i was running.
My highlight of the run! Close to the finish my familie was waiting and my oldest daughter joined me for the last 200m and over the finish line.
strava time (including the gpx glitch)
Official time was a little faster (as I started recording just before the start).
Verdict and Aftermath:
I ran multiple city marathons before , but this was something different. Beautiful landscapes and a challanging route. Props to #bearsports for the amazing organisation. Would love to do this event in another year again!
The day after a marathon I always do an injury check - by doing a slow recovery run. Seeing if the ancles and knees are doing well. I was surprised to see that I hardly have any blisters. So for now I am very optimistic on continueing my trainingsblock coming week!
Happy running