Amsterdam Marathon 19th Oct 2008

Julia and I were the only people doing the marathon so we left the apartment somewhat earlier than the others. I suspect that J thought that knew where I was going. For my part I thought that it would be obvious – it wasn’t. We ran at least half a mile, possibly more, to get the right tram. By the time we found the right stop she’d made the transition from sniffly to sniffly and mildly hysterical. 

We arrived at the 1928 stadium with about 15 minutes to spare but unfortunately our pen was already pretty full. For some reason we were in the 4hrs zone

 (despite aiming for 3:30) so by the time we crossed the start line more than half of the runners were already out of the stadium. The stadium itself was a good size but by modern Olympic standards it was a minnow. There were some nice deco style sculptures at the gates and a pleasant tower but otherwise it was rather utilitarian. 

After the gun it quickly became clear that the course was going to be fairly cramped. It was not until around 10km that some elbow room started to open up and I got into my stride. At Amsteldijk course turns south and heads along a wide waterway (I’m guessing that this is the Amsteldijk). Our average pace was slightly worse that the 5min kilometres we needed to average and my desire to push on was putting pressure on Julia (who looked very tired). We agreed to part company at about 17km and I pushed on – determined to close the gap on my 3:30 pace. By half way I was only about 56 seconds behind target and I tried desperately to pull it down further. 

Unfortunately, every time I got the gap down something got in the way. The drinks stops were crowded and narrow and I seemed to lose a minute on every one. By the time I reached Zeeburgerdijk this was compounded by the need to visit the little boy’s room (this takes three minutes by the way). I pushed on through Oost and into the parks near the hotel. I could manage single miles at speed but somehow I just couldn’t raise the tempo in a sustained way. Now I was fighting for a PB rather than a 3:30. At 3:34 I was in sight of the stadium, I popped my last jelly baby, and suddenly I had energy. I overtook a collection of very blond(e) people on the sharp left turn into the gates and suddenly I could see the finish.

 I thought “oh my goodness I may just miss out” and I put the hammer down as much as I could without popping my hamstrings. The left hand bend into the finish was a fantasy of proper athletics and I hauled myself past a couple more people on the final straight. 

I crossed the line in 3:37:29, 1min and 3 seconds better than my Reims time. I was both gutted at the loss of 7 minutes and relieved at the PB but by the time I had watched a few hundred people really celebrate their times I kicked my curmudgeonly side in the ankle and managed to be mildly pleased with the performance. I was very relieved to see Julia come in under the 4 and alive if not well. 

Clad in our medals and plastic bags we started the long walk back to the tram stop. On the way we came across the Half Marathon route as it disappeared into Vondel park. Despite being freezing we managed to stay to see Jackie, Richard, Julia W, Suzie and (a very businesslike) JD covering themselves in glory. There followed a very long bath and a considerable amount of Belgian and Dutch beer.