Notes
Post mortem:
I had some really (really!) bad runs in the last week where I felt very sluggish. I couldn't get any speed in the tempo training on Wednesday and the easy training on Saturday was far too slow (but invaluable! no soreness on Sunday!) I had pretty much given up on getting a decent time before the start and was going to go for 1:20:00 or something similar. I was wrong.
Because I was late at the start (again) I started way up in place 5000 or so. When the race got going quickly I figured I'd try to keep up and pass as many as I could before the Kaaien - always the place where there's a lot of people and only little space. That worked out well: a lot of the fast starters felt flat at the ramp up to the Kennedy tunnel where there's a lot of extra space to overtake. I managed to keep passing people all the way until the Waaslaandtunnel where I was more or less at the right place and could follow the others until the finish.
I did take a rest at the Meir after the frenzy in the Kateleinevest and before the hardest part of the race: the Waaslandtunnel. Probably would have been completely wasted if I hadn't so even though it cost me some time pretty glad about that assessment.
Was a bit tired at the finish but not exhausted - pretty good timing I feel. The many 16k's beforehand must have helped.
Overall the race went much, much better than expected. New PR: 1:15:51!