Last week-end, Karim and I went to
Amsterdam to visit and to run the marathon.
The city:
Amsterdam is quite ... special. It could be a kind of romantic
city, with its lovely canals and small bridges everywhere. But it
seems that nobody really cares about that and most the banks are
not particularly attractive.
Beside that, of course there's Red Lights District, where our
hostel was located. It's a quarter of rather explicit sex shops, a
quarter of coffee shops that perfume all the streets with hemp, a
quarter of restaurants, and surprisingly a quarter of typical
British/Irish pubs. With Sky Sport, of course, no English would
miss Chelsea vs Bolton because of a week-end trip to Amsterdam.
Beside that, there are of course the prostitutes behind their
windows and the drug dealers everywhere.
The race:
As the title suggests, the marathon attemp was awfull due to my
dodgy stomach. The first 15km were painful, as if I had a big ball
in my tummy. Then I threw up a couple of times and things got
better for a short while, although I couldn't really drink or eat.
I guess none of my breakfast neither the water I got at the food
points stayed with me. Hypoglycemia and dehydratation started
logically. Somehow I managed to run another 10km, eyes closed half
of time, not really conscious any more, starting to walk more and
more often. Then I sat down on the grass at km 27 and "
Het
Nederlandse Rode Kruis" picked me up...
Dank u wel ! End
of the story.
That's really sad, because everything was really nice. The
organisation was very good: the pastas at the pasta party were
excellent, the route was rather scenic (canals, windmills), and
they even provided nipples protections
The
weather was good too and the people much more friendly than in
other marathons. Anyway...
A funny bit was the return to the hostel with my tiny short.
Everybody was stairing at my parts, without hiding themselves at
all... I had also to take the train to the airport and to check-in
like that before I could find a shower
...
What is this stomach problem ?
So what causes this stomach problem I got in Belfast and Amsterdam
? Here are some info about the distances over a marathon I've
run:
| run |
distance |
breakfast
at "home" |
pace |
stress |
over
feeding |
| Paris 2003 |
42.195 |
yes |
slow |
+++ |
+ |
| Paris 2004 |
42.195 |
yes |
average |
++ |
+ |
| Belfast 2005 |
43.375... |
no |
a bit fast |
+ |
+++ |
| Lakes training |
50 (trail) |
n/a |
slow |
- |
- |
| UTMB 2005 |
158 (trail) |
n/a |
slow |
+++ |
+ |
| Amsterdam 2005 |
42.195 |
no |
a bit fast |
- |
- |
My guess would be an unusual breakfast that my stomach doesn't
appreciate, combined maybe with a fast start. Next time I take my
cereals with me ! Any more idea ?
Note: although I got some minor stomach problems during the UTMB,
it was something completely different, that disapeared
quickly.
