The World Police Fire games took place in Rotterdam just over a week ago now and I still feel like I’m recovering from them. I competed in 5 events over the 10 days and was happy with my results after never making it to the top of the podium in my 2 previous games. On arrival I managed to pick up some sort of bug that was going around before my events even started so was not looking forward to trying to complete but thought I’d just try to manage my body and see how far I could get not really expecting to complete them all.
My first events were all on the track with the 10.000 meters first followed by the 5.000 meters 2 days later ( a parkrun was squeezed in between) I was happy to get a gold in the 10.000 in my age group without having to run too hard and got a silver in the 5000 so that was a good start to the games.
Next up was the Steeplechase which I hadn’t run since I was in my 20s and was unable to train for so was dreading it. I had no real plan of how I was going to tackle the barriers and water jump until I got to the first barrier ( I knew I couldn’t hurdle them like I did in my 20s ) . I was trying to hang back as we got to the first barrier to see what others were going to do but I think everyone had the same idea so just put both hands on the barrier and vaulted over which seemed to work so used that method the rest of the way round including the water jump ( I had no idea the water was so deep near the barrier as previously I would nearly clear the water ), as it happened I ran away from a field of 5 and finished in under 10 minutes so was very pleased with that and will have to enter this in future games. I wish I could of watched us going around though it must of been hilarious.
The 10k cross country followed and did not go so well, on arrival our numbers had been mixed up and I was competing as a 40 year old instead of a 60 year old. On top of that many of us ended up going the wrong way because the tape had broken and no marshals had made it out to the course before we arrived at a major turn ( I had followed a Dutch girl that had over took me coming down a hill thinking that she probably knew where she was going ) in the end many of us added over 1k to the course and I placed 4th but we managed to win the team event gold so that was good.
The final event was going to be the Half marathon on the final Sunday during the Rotterdam half marathon, before that a few of us decided to do one of the very few Parkruns that starts with a Z in The Hague so if I ever try to do the parkrun alphabet I’ve got that one. On the Sunday I wasn’t really looking forward to the half marathon as the week had now caught up with me but once I had started running I didn’t feel to bad and was planning on just taking it steady, I did spot a couple of runners in my age group as I passed them during the first 5 k then seemed to be running with younger age groups from then on, I was pleased to finish in 1.48 on the day and was surprised to be collected at the end and told I was first in my age group in the WFPGs competition and escorted to the podium and given the gold medal. I found out later that one of the competitors that I overtook earlier ( I remember him because the number on his back was 60013 and was upside down ) had run 2 mins faster than me so he must of overtaken me as I slowed but still I never expected to be fast enough to get silver on the day so was pleased with the result.
In the end it was a good week despite not feeling great and considering that they had Covid to deal with the previous 2 years the Dutch put on an amazing games and wore great hosts.
It’s now on to the Chicago marathon in October so will need to start building my mileage once I finally get rid of this bug.
Take care all and safe travels
Chris
chris herbert's travels/adventures 