City Pier City Den Haag 10k Race Review

This 10k was just meant as a training run. I wasn’t aiming for a PR or did any tapering for it. Last year I did the 5k and 10k at the City Pier City Den Haag, but the 5k was so busy last year that I decided to only do the 10k. I’ve never done the half marathon during this event, because the time limit is a bit tight, although I’m considering trying it in the future and just see if they’d take me out of the race or not.

I always find the CPC Den Haag a bit of a weird race. Not because there is anything wrong with the organisation, but because the type of runners and spectators are a bit unusual. There are a lot of schools and businesses that take part in these races (there’s a 5k, 10k and half marathon on the same day) and as a result there are quite a few teenagers which are made to run in the 5 and 10k, while they actually don’t want to. Especially in the 5k race, which is why I don’t run that one anymore. Too many uninterested teenagers obstructing the course. And I’ve noticed that there are a lot of spectators that smoke during this race. When you come near the start and finish area you can often smell the smoke. Both of these things are pretty uncommon in other races I’ve taken part in.

It had been raining all morning, but fortunately it was dry when I left the house. The only issue was that the race village was on a large field and that entire field had turned into mud. The weather was actually pretty good for running: around 10 degrees, dry and cloudy.

The 10k starts at the Malieveld, goes past the Peace Palace, past Madurodam, through the park and back to the Malieveld. The route isn’t very interesting and unfortunately there aren’t many spectators along the route, only near the Malieveld are there spectators. That means that if you’re at the back, like me, this race isn’t that exciting. But for a 10k it’s fine. I must say I enjoyed it a bit more last year when it was sunny.

Since this was only a training run I planned to run a time around 1:18. Even though my split times were fine, it didn’t feel like it was going very smooth and it has been feeling that way for the past week. It’s funny how some runs  feel quite difficult, while others can feel very easy, regardless of pace. I crossed the 5k mark at 37:53, a bit faster than I would have thought, but I assumed I would be running the next 5k a bit slower. However I managed to run the remaining 5k slightly faster and finished in 1:15:35. My third time on a 10k. Not bad for a training run.

Luckily, they’ve made the medal slightly nicer this year compared to the boring medal from last year. It now looks a bit more modern and has the route on it. I would like to try and run the half at some point, since that’s the true City Pier City race, since you actually get to the beach and see the pier. Maybe next year.