T-shirtHere I am, by a wonderful sunny morning, standing in the starting area of the charities. As there are so many runners, there will be not less than 18 starting waves. The charities are luckily in the fifth wave, with "only" 7000 runners in front of us. The music is entertaining us, the atmosphere is great, everybody is happy and smiling. There are people running to support research for breast cancer, for leukaemia, diabetes, others run to help mistreated children and many other.

Starting gun

30 minutes after the elite runners, it is our turn to start. I stand just before the starting line, right in front, and I can feel the excitement coming up. Cees Pronk, organizer of the race and chairman of Lornah Kiplagat Foundation is there looking at me with a big smile on his face. I can feel the thrill in my spine, reminding me of the reason I'm here for: running for the foundation.

Finally, at 11:40, the sound of the gun releases all the tensions: RUN! It is the first time I start together with a group that does not run very fast and it is a strange feeling not to be overtaken right from the beginning. After only 2 km, we catch up with the group started 5 minutes before us. As from now, it will only be overtaking and zig-zagging in the happy and colorful crowd. The public along the road is very enthusiastic, cheering up every single runner, helping us keeping running.

dam tot dam 2007 In the flow

I am enjoying myself very much, trying to maintain the pace high enough to honor the promise I made to run in 70 min. Running a 10 miles is not a big challenge as such. What makes it difficult is to run it at your maximum speed. That is typically a distance you should be able to run at your lactic acid threshold. But it is very easy to get overwhelmed by the excitement and run just a little bit faster. That is what happened to me in the first 5 km and I had to slow down a little to avoid the complete burnout.

Just before km point 10, the wind starts to blow a bit stronger, the crowd of the runners is getting more dense, and it is very hard to maintain the pace. I am paying my fast first km and I have to relax and focus on my stride to keep on running.

Luckily, the public does a fantastic job. There are music bands along the route to motivate you and it makes you feel strong. Every time it is a bit difficult I think about the foundation, about all my sponsors and it gives me such a kick that I manage to continue.

Finish

The arrival is Zaandam is wonderful: thousands of spectators cheering up, music, sun shine...everything you would dream about for the end of a race. I cross the finish line in 69 min 31s, so just in time for the scheduled 70 min. You can find my complete results can be found on the Dam to Dam website, my starting number was 7621. I finished 231 over 19223 finishers, 33 / 1536 "charities" and 3rd women of the charities.

I enjoyed everything in this race. It was just great, everything was perfect: the weather, the atmosphere, the organization, the crowd, the public, the music. I would like to thank all my sponsors for having given me the opportunity to run this race and for supporting Lornah Kiplagat foundation.