20km de Bruxelles 2007

1:43:50

Yesterday (Sunday 27th May) was the Brussels 20k. I've run this 3 years in succession and each year I've run it faster - I am 7 minutes faster than I was last year.

I am once again stunned and amazed.

There was a huge number of participants this year - 30,000 and as a result the course was continuously crowded and it was very difficult to get a good long striding pace going. For the first time there was a time check at the 10km mark, so I've got a split time of 54 minutes for the first 10km and just under 51 minutes for the second - not bad, especially considering 2km of the last 10km is up hill.

The new technology has allowed a film to be published - see if you can see me at the 10km mark (on the left, gauche) after about 30 seconds and at the end of the race after about 10 seconds by clicking on www.runnersweb.nl/runnerstv

There is also a couple of photos of me this year on www.interfot-sports.be but you have to know my race number was 6802 to see them. When they get around to selling the downloadable image I will post them for all to see. By the way, my running mate Eric B is on the left of the first picture.

The event was not without its problems this year. A lot of people fell because of the crowding and when I reached the finish there was a crowd just over the line. Twenty minutes later the crowding got so bad that it took some runners 5 minutes from arriving within 100 metres of the line to actually cross it. This seems to have been caused by two things. Firstly they were handing out the medals just 5 metres over the line and secondly a lot of people stopped and started taking the chips off their shoes just the other side of the line.

Despite all that I had a great time and it was made even better by the Brussels Manneke Piss Hash House Harriers (BMPH3) party after the event where we celebrated the efforts of all our runners (16 of us) in traditional style with masses of beer, wine and pasta.

If you want to know any more about the "20km de Bruxelles" then have a look at the official website www.20kmdebruxelles.be/20km