Run: Grachtenloop Haarlem

My essentials!

Date: Friday, June 27th
Location: Haarlem
Distance: 10 km
Running buddy: Laura, her boyfriend and 3 of her colleagues.

After a days work I went home in a hurry, to get ready for the Grachtenloop (canal run) in Haarlem. I wasn't feeling well for a few days, a lot of coughing and I had a sore throat, but I was looking forward to it anyway.  After a small dinner (pasta!) I packed my things and headed to the station, where I met up with Laura and her boyfriend, Niels. We arrived in Haarlem pretty early, which was good, because we couldn't find the changing rooms, luckily there were a lot of people walking around to help us find it!

When we walked to the start we found 3 colleagues of Laura. I had to make a photo of course! Finally we were ready to start. The first 2 kilometers were very crowded and there wasn't much room to pass people, but after those 2 kilometers it got better and we had enough space to run next to each other. We started pretty fast and we tried to keep up the pace. After the first 5 kilometers we were back where we started, so we began our second round. This time I knew where we were going. I was getting a bit tired from the fast pace, but we kept going and finally finished with a pretty good time and a PR for Laura: 50:31. I was really happy with this time. Especially because I wasn't feeling well. But my throat didn't bother me the entire run and I started coughing again after we finished.

My stats.

Action shots at the finish!

After the run, everybody went for a drink, but I went home so I could rest and quickly get better! It was a fun run and Haarlem is a beautiful city. When I got home I had this delicious bowl of oats with a Smart Bar from Body & Fitshop.