Adrenaline is a hell of a drug. The big race was finally here, time to run the 20K of Brussels. Every single time I told someone I was running it, all they would tell me is "the last 3 KM are straight uphill." Hearing that over and over and over again, I was only expecting the worst. The race didn't start until 3 PM and I arrived at our pre-race area around noon 30 to make sure I knew where I was going, could guarantee a parking spot and could get checked in with plenty of time. The weather was not looking good at all. It was chilly, cloudy, and drizzling sideways with strong gusts of wind, but I just kept telling myself it is May 30th, at least it's not 85 degrees out. We walked up to the start / finish line which was the best thing I could do for my confidence - because we needed to walk up the finishing hill and I realized how bad it really was. Yes, it was uphill for quite a long way, but was pretty gradual, only ~ 1.5 KM long, and the last 1.5 KM to the finish was flat so I was feeling way better about the finish! However, the weather was worsening the longer we walked and it was so cold and I did not want to wear anything long-sleeved because I knew I would be way too hot, so I manned up... just wish I had gloves on as the elements were prime for clown fingers!
By the time the race started the weather began to improve as the rain was weakening. The first KM was very slow because of all of the people and it prevented me from starting too fast which was nice. There were a couple tunnels we ran through in the first 5 KM and besides the sauna like humidity, they were pretty fun to run through. You can only see the entire tunnel full of people and some were singing songs and doing rhythmic claps and everything echoed. The first 10K went well and the course took us through a couple really neat parks in Brussels that I did not even knew existed. At the 15K mark I started feeling it a little bit in my legs but knew that only 5K remained + that hill. When I reached the hill most people were walking but I refused and just kept on pushing and when I got to the top I could see the chariot statue on top of the monument we ran under for the start and finish and knew I had made it. Since I was in all reality pretty untrained (ran 10K 4 times and 15K once...) my goal was to break 2 hours and 15 minutes and my official time was 2:07! I actually felt really good when I finished too! Definitely felt that I still had a couple miles in me which means I could have pushed it a bit harder but I knew I still had to drive a stick-shift home and I would have only been able to shave off a few minutes anyway. After all, the race slogan is "30,000 Participants, 30,000 winners!"
For the whole race I wore a couple pieces of tape that said: "HAPPY B-DAY MOM!"
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