Utrecht Marathon 2015

Since Chicago Marathon back in October, I haven't found the peace and the time to keep up with my blog. After Chicago marathon I had a pneumonia and I was not feeling fit until the begining of this year.
Starting this year with the goal to run Rotterdam marathon on April 12th under the sub 3 hours. I knew that was a very ambitious goal, Between cold winter, work, family and kids, it left me with too little energy to focus seriously on that goal. At the begining of the Year I had such a hard time to step out of the door to go on a run after I have layed my kids in bed. With a little bit of disipline I still made it oud there but I could feel that it is no more fun especially when it comes to Intervals training. /
I sat down with my trainer and decided to exclude those short intervals from my training...At that moment I started enjoying running again. It is true you don't get faster without Interval training and hard work but you have to keep your eyes on what is the most important for you, is it running fast without pleasure or enjoying every run and speed will eventually come?
I chose to go for the 2nd option, sub3 for Rotterdam is not my goal anymore, I am far from that level but eventually one day this goal will be reached.



Part of my " Road to Rotterdam" is to run Utrecht Marathon in my hometown as a long training run 3 weeks before Rotterdam.The idea was crazy to run a marathon as a training for another marathon but after all we are "Team Vroem" and that is bunch of crazy runners on the Vroeeeeemmmmm 
The plan is to run with my running mate @RubenRent .My coach sent this us this email the night before.

Ha Ruben en Nesrine,

Ik koppel jullie voor morgen aan elkaar. 

Het is voor mij niet helemaal zeker of een tempo van 4'20"/k haalbaar gaat zijn.

Daarom wil ik voorstellen om vooral ook de HF in de gaten te houden.

Bij 21km - 160 bpm @ 4'30"/k

Bij 25km - 165 bpm @ 4'25"/k

Bij 30km - 170 bpm @ 4'20"/k

Bij 35km - 173 bpm @ 4'20"/k

Dat zijn pittige HF, maar dit moet kunnen. De HF is belangrijker dan het tempo. Dus goed daar op letten.

Ook met tegenwind e.d.

Uiteindelijke tijd is niet belangrijk. De afstand en opbouw zijn belangrijk.

Jullie kunnen het.

Vriendelijke groet en tot morgen.

Henny

Basically the purpose of the marathon is to run at 160bpm till 21 km and then Increase my heart rate every 5km

Race day:
Start was not until 12:15 this means a relaxed Sunday morning at the Leene's Residence. At 10:00 my hubby drops me at the sport hall in Utrecht. I met with my running mates and before we know it it was time to head to the start. We took our sweet time and we didn't fight to start up in front.
Few minutes after the shot gun went off we started moving forward toward the start line.

We started together with the half marathoners on an easy pace. First HM we were running with a big group. I followed the coach suggestion, I wrote on my hand the heart rates which I need to stay on but unfortunately I didn't understand anything because my heart Rate after the first few kms was showing 180bpm!  After few kms I was a little in Panic mode because I love following my training plan as written and I get upset when the mission is not accomplished the way it is supposed to be! My coach was running the HM and he suggested to run on pace and not on heart rate anymore!
The second HM which was a second round of the first one, I found myself with Marco, Maarten and Ruben. We run the 4 of us side by side, I was listening to them talking and laughing...A perfect entertainment  and that is when I somehow heard that I was the 4th lady. Oh no! I didn't anticipate on that!! Knowing me that was a bad idea to know because now I won't rest until I end up on the podium!!! I was supposed to just follow these guys since they are faster than me  but I saw myself leading at times and pushing forward looking if the next lady is somewhere insight.  So typical me :)

Last part of the marathon was a little hard because of the wind but I stayed behind the guys and from 4th lady I moved down to 2nd lady!! How exciting !! what a great feeling! Still wondering how far the first lady was from me!
Before we knew it the finish line was down the street! Last few hundred meters to go.
My coach, our friends and families were standing along the road cheering for us!

Ruben, Maarten, Marco surrounding me :)

                                       Running with these fast guys was so much fun!

Finish time was 3:15:14

Finished second lady but my Netto time was faster than the first lady !!
A Big First LOOSER !!!! :)

Lesson Learned: Start always up front in a race!

Spectacular finish with these fast guys!! 

thank you all for this beautiful marathon!