Amsterdam Marathon Recap

Long overdue. I know. Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa. I've been slightly preoccupied with other things. Enough said. ;)

As for the Amsterdam Marathon... Here we go.

Date: October 21st 2012

Where?: Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Goal #1: training run - just a fun sub-4 was what I was aiming for.

Goal #2: trick running buddy John into thinking I wanted to PR and I needed his help to do so - that way he would finish this thing. And John finishing this baby was the main goal of the day. (seriously - 3 weeks after my BQ at the Berlin Marathon, I was not going to try to PR again. Pretty hilarious that John bought the whole 'PR' story.)

Outfit: a pretty adorable Nuu Muu dress. Yeah, I can brag about this one. ;)

Let me just lead you through this year's Amsterdam Marathon photo by photo. Sounds like a plan, huh? (photo courtesy: Ans de Boer and Bjorn Paree)

The Start

The 9:30 AM start is pretty cool, since it's in the Olympic stadium. Pretty cool. John was in the corral located behind the corral I was in, so we kind of sneaked him into my corral. Yeah, that's me - living on the edge, baby.

Very crowded start. Narrow course to start of with. Enough said.

Needless to say we elbowed our way through the first 10K. And headed out too fast. Yeah, baby. I like me some positive 'I sure did mess around' splits.

Half Marathon point

Just before the half marathon point John's wife Ans, my mom and a friend of hers were waiting for us. With fluids and energy gel. All part of the play to trick John into crossing the finish line, instead of DNF-ing at the 30K mark. 

The course was less crowded at this point - holding an okay-ish pace. We hit the half way point at a relaxed 1:53-ish. 

25K in

Hello Bjorn! The only guy that is able to take 'non-embarrassing' race photos of moi. And boy, did I try to mess these up.

Definitely my favorite photos of the day. Marathon-photos.com - I didn't even include your overpriced crappy pics in this race report. :)

28K

Ran into a couple of older guys talking about qualifying for Boston. With the post-BQ jitters still in place, I hopped right in. Fun talking to them - even more fun seeing them meet their goal. However, at this point John was no longer talking to me. He was suspiciously silent. At that point I realized the whole '30K point is getting closer' thing was what was going on. In the last couple of marathons (in which marathons he was on BQ-course) he had to drop out at the 30K point (cramp, tummy issues (which were caused by a parasite - yeugh!)). 

30K

A sigh of relief next to me. We had crossed the 30K mark. Good bye 30K demons. John was going to finish this baby.

34K

Jasper was waiting for us with more fluids and energy gel. We took some time here to readjust John's compression sleeve (quad) and have some Coca Cola. 

36K

I'm a pescatarian. However, I do cheat once in a while. This happened to be the case 2 days prior to this marathon. I know I should not have red meat before a long run - it messes up my tummy. Big time. As in 'I need to throw up, but I'm trying to hold it back' messing up. Ouch. Not fun. 

40K

The Vondel Park part was fun - the part where John has a cramped up leg wasn't. A short stretching session seems to fix the problem. Meanwhile, I'm still regretting the whole 'red meat' thing. Will I ever learn?

41K

Mom, Els and Ans are waiting for us. Right before entering the Olympic stadium to finish.

The finish

There we were. Nearing the finish line. John was going to finish this baby and had showed those DNF demons who is boss. A short sprint and...done. 

3:49:27. For a fun run, I'll take it. Plus, we had fun out there. And didn't kick each other into the Amstel River. That's a plus.

Ans caught us after the finish. In our ubercharming blankets. 

This photo pretty much sums up the day. My absolute favorite pic of this race. 

Another weekend, another planned marathon

Planned marathon: Amsterdam Marathon, the Netherlands

The Plan: with an ultra (50-ish K) coming up in a month, the plan is to approach this thing as a training run. Yep, another one of those 'here goes nothing' ones. ;)

Oh, and Barborka on the Run - this girl is going for a huge PR in the Amsterdam Marathon. Mark my words, babe! :)

Friday Wisdom

Made possible by India Arie. :)

Berlin Marathon recap and photos

I loved this year's Berlin Marathon (September 30th 2012). Not a secret. What's not to love when you manage to BQ? A slowpoke BQ, but still - a BQ is a BQ, right?

The race is extremely well organized, volunteers are really friendly, it's easy to get into the start area and there aren't crazy long lines to get your butt into the porta-potties. The course is nice and wide. It's a very scenic course too. Plus, you really don't notice that there are another 43,000 runners out there. The course does measure long, though, probably because of the huge avenues you run on - lots of weaving around other runners from left to right. My Garmin is usually spot on with the KM markers, but said 43K instead of the usual 42.5-ish K (I always get some extra meters in during a marathon - apparently I suck at following the blue line).

What I also loved: running into Wendy and Dieter during the race. What are the odds? :)

As for the stats: hit the half way mark after 1:45:01, and crossed the finish line after 3:32:57. Yep, that hip was definitely killing me - flared up after 11K, and got progressively worse from that point on. Then again, that BQ was well worth that sore hip. Boo Haa! I could not stop smiling for the entire week post race. How cool is that? :)

What I didn't love about this race? The photos. Oh boy, did I manage to get some ugly race photos. Wanna see?

These were taken at the 36-ish K point. Could also have been 38-ish K point, though. This part of the race is a bit blurry-ish.

Oh yeah, this might just be the worst race pic ever. Keep those eyes open, dork! And yes, my  nose was congested to a point where I needed to open that mouth to some air into my lungs. Not the best look. Understatement of the year.

Okay, let me introduce you to the horror of the finish line pics (time on clock is gun time, not my chip time). 

Those weren't too bad, were they? Well, let me make that up to you with these beauties.

Let me introduce you to the 'What the F, did I just BQ?' look. You'd think I'd be smiling, huh? Well, guess again - apparently I was in shock.

So, I think we could state that - as far as messing up race pics goes - I've reached a new low. ;)

I'm on the cover of Runner's World Magazine

Well, sort of.

Berlin Marathon, I might just love you

Full race report coming asap, but for now...

Berlin Marathon 2012: you've been good to me. After this year's ultra training schedule and the lack of speedwork because of that, I did not expect it to happen. I did not dare hope it to happen. But it did. I finished the Berlin Marathon in 3:32:57. Over the moon. Cloud nine. What was on my iPod when I crossed that finish line and danced (yes, danced, although it might have looked more like a wobbly hobble) through the finish area? I know, I have the worst taste in music. ;) Get over it.