Various ‘firsts’ today. But first (what else!) things first.
Less than two weeks after the Antwerp marathon, I did a great race. I improved by over 1 minute on last year. It was a well-attended race, and the narrow start made it difficult to run at a good pace for the first kilometre or so. This was probably useful, as I didn’t expend too much energy in the beginning. I ran at a steady to strong pace, overtaking one rival after another for most of the two loops, doing particularly well in the steep uphill part in the Groenendaal wood. At 2 km to go, the next rivals ahead were close to 100 metres in front. Would I manage to catch up with them? I set myself to the task, but in the meantime there was someone breathing down my neck. I disregarded this breathing someone, and concentrated on catching the two black-clad athletes in front. Success! At the final sprint as we entered the Hoeilaart sports centre I reached and passed my double target.
7 miles in 0h48:13. Less than 7 minutes per mile. I either did a fantastic run, or the distance is wrong. Both options are probably true.
After the run, a stranger patted me on the shoulder, and asked me whether I’m francophone or neerlandophone. In Belgium, asking a stranger their language of preference is the ultimate gesture of politeness. Most people here plunge headlong into their native language. He was the person who for the last one or two km was breathing down my neck. He thanked me for being his point of reference. I must certainly have unwittingly helped him overtake a good number of rivals. In the last bit he went one further and overtook me too. He had one more reason to be happy when he found out that he’s 5 years older than me. Well done, I told him. I prefer to be 5 years younger than 5 seconds faster, but I didn’t mention that 
.
.So, what happened for the first time today?
Two blog entries (I’m not 100% sure it’s a first, but it’s certainly pretty unusual). A personal best. OK, there’s only one other with which to compare, but today’s time was much faster, there has to be a best time for a repeated run – and this was it. Another rather important first: I’ve repeated a race in Belgium. This looks like becoming a regular for me. So… I look forward to the 2009 edition of the Felix Sohieloop 11,2km, held each beginning of May in Hoeilaart, my adopted home town.
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