Next Sunday is the 20km race from Brussels. That’s a big event as it gathers 30 000 runners among which many of my colleagues. The company uses it as motivation to get people to start to run with programs like “get ready for the 20km of Brussels in 2 months”.
This means that as of Feb-March people are training. You see beginners and experts running over lunch or after work. Teams are forming and supporting each other. Huge momentum for the runners on site.
I don’t run. I used to but stopped because of my back. Alice stopped as well because of her knees. Each year, we see our friends getting ready and watch them running.
Last week over lunch Fabrice mentioned to us that you can actually walk the 20K. There is a maximum time to complete the distance and whether you run, run and walk or simply walk. I checked and indeed there is a maximum time of 4 hours.
4 hours, 20 km, that’s 12 min per km max. Knowing we walk 6 km/h in the gym, we should cover the 20 km in 3.5 hours. Easy!
We joked about it for a week. We committed to start training so next year we can walk the 20K in 3 hours. Wolfram teasing us about doing it this year.
Sunday Alice asked Kathy for the contact. Monday I sent an email highlighting that we know we’re last minute and that there is a waiting list. But sometimes miracles happen.
And it did! 2 hours later I received an email back telling us that a miracle did happen. We’re in!
I called Alice right away. We did laugh a lot and then there was silence. We have 5 days to be ready to walk 20K in less than 4 hours.
How on earth did we get to this? Simply because the very improbable occurred and now there are 2 girls who will proudly walk 20K on Sunday with only one target. Finish it before the end of race car reaches us.
Smartly, we’re now claiming that this year is practice to assess the race and next year, we will really train to finish in 3 hours.
Well, assuming we can still walk afterwards.
This means that as of Feb-March people are training. You see beginners and experts running over lunch or after work. Teams are forming and supporting each other. Huge momentum for the runners on site.
I don’t run. I used to but stopped because of my back. Alice stopped as well because of her knees. Each year, we see our friends getting ready and watch them running.
Last week over lunch Fabrice mentioned to us that you can actually walk the 20K. There is a maximum time to complete the distance and whether you run, run and walk or simply walk. I checked and indeed there is a maximum time of 4 hours.
4 hours, 20 km, that’s 12 min per km max. Knowing we walk 6 km/h in the gym, we should cover the 20 km in 3.5 hours. Easy!
We joked about it for a week. We committed to start training so next year we can walk the 20K in 3 hours. Wolfram teasing us about doing it this year.
Sunday Alice asked Kathy for the contact. Monday I sent an email highlighting that we know we’re last minute and that there is a waiting list. But sometimes miracles happen.
And it did! 2 hours later I received an email back telling us that a miracle did happen. We’re in!
I called Alice right away. We did laugh a lot and then there was silence. We have 5 days to be ready to walk 20K in less than 4 hours.
How on earth did we get to this? Simply because the very improbable occurred and now there are 2 girls who will proudly walk 20K on Sunday with only one target. Finish it before the end of race car reaches us.
Smartly, we’re now claiming that this year is practice to assess the race and next year, we will really train to finish in 3 hours.
Well, assuming we can still walk afterwards.
2 comments:
Tatjana just finished a 24 hour walk to raise money for cancer research. She and her team did a great job and they were very happy doing it.
They raised together $1000 to donate to Relay For Life.
Her legs were very sore afterwards, though. But she was very proud of her accomplishment and so were we! She was awesome!
Wow! That's an achievment!
Congratulations Tatjana!
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