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The Marathon day 135km in the legs!
Almere Island Race 2009

What a day... Because Femke's Vito van is in the garage I needed to cycle by bike from Rotterdam to my mothers place about 25km south worth to pick up my Chevy van which is parked there. I got there in one hour and then I had to pack my windsurf stuff really quick to go to the Almere Island race wich is approx 1 hour driving. Almere has a really nice windsurf clubhouse with a sandy beach and many friendly locals. Every year they organize a long distance race which takes 2,5 hours non stop.

When I finally got there the wind was already there(between 8 - 18 knots), but I also saw that it was very gusty and shifty. I didn't had much time left so I rigged my 12.0 TR-4xt since my TR5 is still at the repair shop because the sail ripped apart during the event at Scheveningen earlier this month. During rigging I also saw our national top sailors already prepared for racing so we knew that the racing would be thight because the level was high. Lloyd(the race director) who's a fanatic local sailor and fantastic motivator for the next generation windsurfers, prepared a nice course with three marks which you can see below.

The course scheme was: Start - 1 - 2 - 3 - 1 - 2 - 3 and so on for 2.5 hours until you see a red flag on a boat at the upwind mark 2, then you had to go to mark 3 and then finish right in front of the club house.

One round would be arround 10km each, but with all the shifts and gusts it could be longer or shorter every round. Anyway at 1300 hours the start was planned so we all got out there. While test sailing a little bit I already found out that there were a lot of weed spots but hey, that's for everyone the same! So the starting procedure was next and both port-/starboard tack start options were good starts. I decided to start starboard tack because then the other group had to keep clear. Only this time Rene(NED123) didn't saw me coming so I had to bail out and go underneath(had a big laugh with Rene afterwards!). Luck for the guy's above Rene because I would have made it in front of them but I didn't want to crash so it was much better to avoid a collision. The race takes very long so there would be time enough to fight back. At the first mark Dirk(NED51) was in first place followed by Pieter(NED113), but Pieter forgot to round the first mark so he had to go back and round the mark. I rounded close behind, and then I followed Dirk to the upwind mark all the way over starboard tack. Dirk shows of better skills every event we do and he just kept leading until the third round. I was able to use a good shift over port-tack and unfortunate for Dirk he got a bad shift which he couldn't repair any more. Soon I got a nice lead and didn't give it away until the finish. In the end it took me 2 hours and 40 minutes to finish the marathon with 8 rounds. Only Dirk also made 8 rounds which putted him in second and number three Pieter who battled all race long did 7 rounds. But this race is not about who's first or who's last it's about everyone own personal battle against the time. It's great to see that everyone had fun on the water and that there was one general goal: "make as many rounds as possible"!
Dirk and I took our GPS with us so we could see what distance we did and this was 85 km! Underneath you can see our tracks in google maps.

Every competitor went home with a nice price since there was organized a packed tombola during price giving. Many participants stayed for a delivery pizza. This pizza guy came by car with 20 pizza's, really funny to see that! It proves that the Almere Centraal Windsurf Club is a very active and enthusiastic club, so by this way I'd like to say thanks! Unfortunate I couldn't stay for the pizza's because I had to drive back to my mom's place and then jump on the bike again and cycle for another 25km back to Rotterdam... Pff so 135km in the pocket!

After all we had a really nice race and a good test for the rest of the season. The international events are coming soon now and personally I get more and more motivated and get tuned up.

News results per-page: 5 | 10 | 20 | 50 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | next Published: Thursday, 25 June ´09 The Marathon day 135km in the legs! 25km cycling + 85km windsurf marathon + 25km cycling = 135km Published: Thursday, 4 June ´09 Nice competition at the Northsea Regatta We did 7 races in very challenging conditions, with sunshine we could only dream of! Published: Tuesday, 5 May ´09 Dutch tourstop (1 out of 4) After a very cold winter we are finally on the waters again, and the temperture is more confi! Last weekend we had the first Dutch National tourstop at the Grevelingen in the south of Holland. Published: Friday, 31 October ´08 My Chevy 1978 ride is pimped! Tonight(31 october 22:35) you can see the end result of my Chevy Van 1978 at the 'De grote beurt'(Dutch version of Pimp my ride) on Dutch national television Veronica! Published: Saturday, 25 October ´08 Season is over with the 4th dutch title in the pocket! In the weekend of 18-19 october we had our last Dutch championship of the year in Monnickendam. This is very close to a famous village called Volendam... | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | next