20 km of Brussels

A few days ago, I ran the 20 km of Brussels for the second time in my life. After finishing with a time of 1:51:54 last year, I was keen to see how much better I could do after another year of running.

Due to some poor planning on my end, I only started adding the required distance late into my training. In the meantime, fate decided that the 28th of May would be a very hot day. Nonetheless, I got out of bed on time, ready to see if I would manage to finish the 20K in less than an hour and 40 minutes in spite of my poor planning and the grueling temperatures.

Training

Before I properly started training for the 20K, my training generally consisted of two 10 km runs per week at a fairly fast pace. By the end of April, I realized that I would seriously need to up my training if I was going to give the 20K a serious attempt. Therefore, I decided to switch to a schedule where I ran 10K twice a week, which I would combine with a third run that gradually worked towards a distance of 20K.

In the end, I followed the following schedule:

• Week 1: 10K, 10K, 10K
• Week 2: 10K, 10K, 16K
• Week 3: 10K, 10K, 18K
• Week 4: 10K, 10K, 18K
• Week 5: 20 km of Brussels

Needless to say, this training ramped up the kilometers very quickly. Fortunately I didn’t injure myself, partly due to the fact that I had already been working on increasing my distance over the preceding weeks.

Strategy

My strategy for the race itself would be fairly straightforward: try to maintain a pace of 5 minutes / kilometer for the first half of the race. Try to speed up when the course goes downhill. This would compensate for the speed that is lost when climbing the “tervurenlaan”: the notorious hill at the end of the course.

Furthermore, I decided in advance that I would allow myself to walk a few meters after encountering a supply point. Walking would give me less trouble than gulping water on the run, while it would also offer my legs a short break, this was important since I had not trained enough to run 20K without a few really short rests of some sort.

Race Day!

I woke up 3 hours before the race would start and ate a pretty big plate of premade pasta (thanks dad!) to stock up on some much needed carbohydrates without feeling full before the race. When this was done I took a short nap before I started to get ready to depart for the starting area, located at merode.

I snatched a bottle of water and headed out the door to see that it was raining; this was great news, as it hopefully meant that it would stay cool a bit longer. By the time I managed to navigate the enormous crowd (the organization could work on this a bit, I had to wait in line for 5 minutes to get through some chokepoints) the weather had cleared and the first wave was ready to depart. 5 minutes later it was my turn (I started in the second wave) I tossed my empty water bottle in the bin, lined up, and my 20K finally began for real.

The Race

The first few kilometers went by as you would expect them to in a race with such an enormous amounts of contestants: try to weave between other people until you find a spot where you can run at your preferred pace. I did not have a lot of difficulties navigating the crowd, but I did have to force myself to slow down quite a few times while climbing when I noticed my heart rate was already getting close to 180 BPM (from experience, I know that staying below 180 BPM seems to work out well for me).

km 1	4:46
km 2	4:48
km 3	4:53

After 3 fast kilometers, the first water supply point was near. The crowd was still very dense, so I decided that I shouldn’t walk at this point, instead, I drank a bit of water while I was running and decided to keep my water bottle with me for the tunnels that were coming up next.

After 2 kilometers of running in and out of tunnels (which is fun, but tiring) I noticed that the tunnels had ruined the accuracy of my pacing data, which made it rather hard to gauge if I was still close to my goal time. More importantly, I spotted my first fan alongside the course, who also managed to snap some great pictures (thanks Elke!). Spurred on by her encouragement I maintained a steady pace and headed towards terkameren bos.

On the way to the forest I also managed to grab an orange slice from a friendly lady who was handing them out to the thirsty/hungry runners, thanks lady!

km 4	No Data
km 5	No Data
km 6	4:54

The weather was getting pretty hot by the time I entered terkamerenbos, so I was very happy to run in the shade for a bit. After refueling at the water station (pouring most of the bottle over my face) I was pretty worried when I did not see the girlfriend at the point where she said she’d be. Unable to do anything about this I kept on going, only stopping for a very brief walk when I topped off my sugar levels with some energy drink.

km 7	5:33
km 8	4:48
km 9	4:53

I found my SO right before the halfway point; relieved to see her, I fumbled with my equipment belt which was soaked from all of the water I poured over my face earlier and handed it over to her, passing her so quickly that I forgot to exchange even the most basic of greetings, whoops! In spite of all that, getting rid of some useless weight really helped, and it’s always a huge encouragement to see a familiar face next to the road!

km 10

4:51

Over the course of the next few kilometers, the sun really came out, which made things a lot tougher. I originally intended to up my pace here, but the heat and the fatigue that was setting in kept my pace roughly on par with the first few kilometers in the race. In order to fight the fatigue, I decided to take another short walk after passing the two water stations that I encountered here. Besides this, I ran most of these kilometers on autopilot.

km 11	4:57
km 12	5:21
km 13	4:43
km 14	4:54
km 15	4:47
km 16	5:23
km 17	4:55

After kilometer 17, it was time to face the dreaded “tervurenlaan”, this road provides a rather steep climb over the course of a kilometer, which is a real killer at this point in the race. The fact that the sun felt like a deadly laser did not help either. My legs felt like they would fall off, so when I passed a water point I took the opportunity to walk a few meters.

At the second half of the tervurenlaan, the fire department provided the runners with sprinklers that sprayed out an impressive amount of cold, refreshing, delicious water! I don’t think everybody was happy about this, but I certainly appreciated it. Refreshed by the water I picked up the pace again and started the final two kilometers of the race.

km 18

5:46

When I reached Montgomery, I was greeted by two familiar faces! Elke and the girlfriend had taken public transit and met up at Montgomery to cheer me up for my final two kilometers. While they were at it, Elke also decided to snap a few more pictures.

Encouraged by my very small team of fans, I ignored the agony in my legs and set out at a fairly ambitious pace. I managed to stick to it until the final few meters before the finish line, after which I just had to convince myself to keep on running until I finally crossed the finish line!

km 19	4:45
km 20	4:46

Aftermath

After I finished, I grabbed my post-race snack, medal and big bottle of water. Once I found my friends, I struggled down some stairs (it seems I was not the only one struggling), and started to head back home.

On the way home, I was treated to my obligatory post-race beer, which tasted like something right out of a beer commercial.

Results and Thoughts

A few hours after I finished, I learned that I had finished in 1:41:37. I would have been happier with breaching my goal time of 1:40, but my post-race state made me feel like I could not have pushed myself a lot harder than I did. I do wonder if I would have been able to set a better time if I did not stop for short walks after certain water stations. On the other hand, it is a very real possibility that those short breaks are what got me through the race.

However, if I take the heat and the amount of training into account I can only be very happy with the time I eventually set. Now that the 20K is over, I can focus on (properly) training for my real goal this year, which is the completion of my first marathon!