This past week, Deb and I went on a trip to the Netherlands,
and I did the Amsterdam Marathon. Our
last international trip together was to Norway in 2013. On our way home from that trip, we had an
overnight stopover in Amsterdam. We had
half a day for sightseeing and spent the night in a boutique hotel near the
city center. That was enough to whet our
appetites, but we both wanted to come back.
Deb especially liked the canals, which reminded her of Venice.
Thursday, October 12
We were able to get a non-stop flight from Minneapolis to
Amsterdam. It was an overnight flight,
which arrived Thursday morning.
We stayed at the Amsterdam Hilton. For those of you who are Beatles fans, that’s
the same hotel where John Lennon and Yoko Ono spent their honeymoon and had their
“bed-in for peace” in 1969. When I made
the reservation, the “John and Yoko Suite” was available, but it was a bit out
of our price range. It’s about €1,200
per night! While we didn’t stay in the
John and Yoko Suite, we did get a room with a canal view.
After checking in at the Hilton, we walked to a neighborhood
between the western canals called Nine Streets.
Along the way, we walked through the museum quarter and the southern
canals. We got lots of canal views.
Amsterdam is a bike friendly city. Most of the streets and sidewalks have bike
lanes. We quickly discovered that you
have to be more careful crossing bike lanes than you do crossing the
streets. In most places, the bicycle
traffic outnumbers the automobile traffic.
Throughout the city, we saw bikes parked everywhere.
Deb was a little disappointed with the shops in Nine Streets, but
we found some interesting shops in another neighborhood as we walked back to
the hotel.
We didn’t have any lunch, so when we got back to the hotel,
we were hungry for an early dinner.
That’s when we realized that the Hilton was well-located for the
marathon, but not so much for dining.
There weren’t many restaurants close to the hotel, and the hotel’s
restaurant wasn’t open for dinner yet.
We eventually found a pizzeria about half a mile from the hotel.
We managed to stay awake until nightfall, but then we went
to sleep immediately.
Friday, October 13
The expo was held at a Sporthallen Zuid, which was near the
Olympic Stadium. I walked over there as
soon as it opened. On the way, I got my
first glimpse of the stadium, where the marathon would start and finish.
At the hotel, we were able to buy two I Amsterdam
cards. These gave us unlimited use of
public transportation for 48 hours. They
also gave us free or discounted entry to dozens of museums.
Our first stop was the Van Gogh Museum. Our I Amsterdam cards gave us free admission.
After the Van Gogh Museum, we walked over to a pancake
restaurant called The Carousel. There
was a small carousel inside the restaurant.
No visit to Amsterdam is complete without having Dutch
pancakes. Mine had Nutella and
bananas. Deb’s had pineapple.
After lunch, we took a tram to the western canal
neighborhood to visit the Amsterdam Tulip Museum. Amsterdam has more than 50 museums. The Amsterdam Cheese Museum wouldn’t necessarily have
been at the top of our list, but it happened to be two doors down from the tulip
museum, so we went there next.
We were in a neighborhood that we had visited four years
ago, so some of the shops looked familiar.
For dinner, we were originally planning to go to another pancake restaurant
called The Happy Pig. They close at
6:00, and we were still shopping, so we couldn’t get there in time. Instead, we took the tram back to The
Carousel. This time, instead of sweet
pancakes, we had savory pancakes. Deb’s
had bacon, cheese, and pineapple. Mine had bacon,
apples, and butter.
After we got back to the hotel, I walked over to the stadium
and back. It was about a mile in each
direction, and I already knew the way, so this became my daily walking route.
Saturday, October 14
After my morning walk to and from the stadium, we went to
the Rijksmuseum. This is Amsterdam’s
finest art museum, with works from the 12th century through the 20th century.
After the Rijksmuseum, we took a one hour city canal
cruise. The cruise was free with our I
Amsterdam cards.
After the canal cruise, we took a tram into the city center,
so we could have lunch at The Happy Pig.
Then we explored the city center.
Finally, we went to the Albert marketplace in a neighborhood
called the De Pijp.
The market was several blocks long and took about an hour to
explore.
For pre-race dinner, I had pizza. When we arrived at the restaurant, we were
told it would be an hour to get a table for two. Everyone wants to have pasta the night before
a race, so Italian restaurants tend to be fully booked. They only had three small
tables, and the larger ones were all reserved for larger parties. Then we got lucky. One of the couples left right after finishing
their entrees, instead of staying to have coffee. We were able to get that table after waiting
for just a few minutes.
Sunday, October 15
Sunday was race day.
I got enough sleep the previous three nights, but pre-race nerves
combined with jet lag made it difficult to sleep. I only managed to sleep for about two hours. Fortunately, I’ve done enough marathons to
know that I’d be able to shake that off.
I finally got up at 6:30, so I could have a light breakfast before
getting ready for the race. The hotel
started its breakfast service early that morning.
The race didn’t start until 9:30. I had to walk about a mile to get to the
stadium, so I left about an hour early.
That gave me plenty of time for a bathroom stop before finding my way to
my start corral inside the stadium.
It was 55 degrees when I left the hotel, but it was forecast
to get into the upper 60s later in the afternoon. Most runners probably thought it was too
warm, but for me it was comfortable.
I wore a Tyvek jacket as I walked to the stadium. The race provided a gear check, but I didn’t
want to bother with that. Instead, I
tied my jacket around my waist before starting the race.
Three weeks ago, I set a race-walking PR at the Ely
Marathon. That was a hilly course, and
conditions less than ideal. I wanted to
know how much faster I could go on a nice flat course with better weather. This was the best opportunity I could ask
for, so I went for it.
I wanted to break 5:15.
To do that, I needed an average pace just under 7:30 per kilometer. Ideally, I would do 7:30s for the first half
and then speed up a little. If you’ve
read any of my race reports, you know that’s not what happened.
I was lined up in corral D.
Corral assignments were based on estimated finish times that we provided
when we registered. When I registered
for this race, I thought I would be running, so my estimate was under four hours. Corral D was for runners in the 3:30 to 4:00
range.
I knew I’d be starting much slower than the other people in
my corral, but I thought I could ignore them and go at my own pace. Guess how that worked out.
We started on the track in the Olympic Stadium. That’s not a large enough start area for all
the runners, so we were packed in like sardines. Runners who didn’t line up early enough were
in staging areas next to the track. I’m
not sure exactly how and when they got onto the track.
After the leaders started, it was still a few minutes before
I noticed any movement in my corral.
While we waited, we could watch coverage of the leaders on a big screen
in the middle of the stadium. It took
almost eight minutes before I crossed the line.
When I crossed what I thought was the starting line, I
started my watch. It turns out that was
the finish line. The starting line was
still 75 meters away. It was a natural
mistake. It was a balloon arch with chip
mats underneath. It said, “Finish,” but
I assumed we started and finished in the same place. By the time I realized my mistake, it was too
late to stop, reset, and restart my watch before crossing the starting line.
Instead I made a mental note to subtract 21 seconds from the time on my watch
whenever I read my splits.
After leaving the stadium, we turned onto a street that had
tracks for a tram line. I was careful to
stay to one side, so I wouldn’t accidentally trip on one of the tracks.
Next, we entered Vondelpark, a large city park. I knew we had gone about 1½ kilometers, which
means I missed the first kilometer marker.
I would have to wait for the next one to find out how fast I started.
Inside the park, we reached an aid station. The aid stations were generally spaced about
five kilometers apart, but this section of the course was out-and-back. This aid station was meant for the return
trip, but it gave me a chance to drink some water before the 5K aid station.
Just past the aid station, I reached the two kilometer
mark. My watch read, “13:44.” Deducting 21 seconds, my time for the first two
kilometers was actually 13:23. If I
started at my intended pace, it would have been 15 minutes. I started WAY too fast. Suddenly the 21 seconds seemed
inconsequential.
I eased up a little, but the next kilometer was still too
fast. I walked it in less than seven
minutes. I wasn’t making any effort to
keep up with the runners around me. They
were passing me left and right. Still,
the fast crowd around me was influencing my sense of pace. It didn’t seem like I was going that fast.
Often when I try to walk fast, my stride is a bit
awkward. This time, I felt nice and
smooth. I knew my pace wasn’t
sustainable, but it felt deceptively easy.
I kept telling myself to ease up, but I knew it would take several
kilometers to find the right pace.
I was passed by one of the pace leaders. She was carrying a stick with a yellow
balloon that read, “4:00.” As the four
hour pace group passed me, I wondered how many other pace groups I would see
during this race. Over the next few
kilometers, I was also passed by the 4:10 and 4:20 groups. For the first half of the race, I was
surrounded by faster runners, so I was constantly drifting backwards through
the pack.
After leaving Vondelpark, we turned right and headed toward
the Rijksmuseum. I heard “Hi, Dave” from
the crowd. I turned in time to see
Deb. I didn’t know for sure what her
plans were, but I told her this would be a good place to watch the race. It was only a few blocks from a neighborhood
where she wanted to go shopping.
We turned again to run under the Rijksmuseum. Then we had another sharp turn, and the
course briefly narrowed to one lane. As
the course got congested, we briefly came to a halt. We got going quickly, but it was an opportunity
for me to hit the reset button on my pace.
It didn’t seem to help much. My
pace stabilized at seven minutes per kilometer, which was still too fast.
Just past 5K, we reached another aid station. This one had water and an energy drink called
Isostar. The volunteers handing out cups
called it “eeso.” Some of the other aid
stations also had energy bars and gels.
I saw spectators waving Finnish and Norwegian flags. I noticed the runner in front of me was from
Poland. Then I was passed by a couple
from Belgium. There were runners from
all over the world, but European countries were particularly well represented.
Between 6K and 9K, we were on and out-and-back segment that
took us by some tall office buildings.
Like Paris, Amsterdam has a modern downtown area that’s a distance away
from the historic city center.
Before the race, Deb asked me if we would be running on
cobblestones. Some of the streets around
our hotel were paved with bricks, which people often refer to as cobblestones. Except for the plaza right outside the
stadium, we had been running on smooth pavement. In the modern downtown area, we encountered
some bricks. That’s the last place I was
expecting this.
At 7K, I finally recorded a kilometer that was slower than
seven minutes. By 9K, however, I was
again recording times under seven minutes.
Being surrounded by faster runners was really affecting my pace, even
though I wasn’t trying to keep up with them.
There were bands along the course, but I rarely noticed
them. One that did catch my attention
was a drum group from Brazil.
I started to ease up.
My next few kilometers were in the 7:00 to 7:10 range. In the 12th kilometer, I eased up to the
point where my pace felt lazy. That one
was 7:45, which was too slow. I overcompensated. If I had slowed to 7:30, I would have been content
to maintain that pace for the rest of the race.
Slowing all the way to 7:45 scared me.
I picked up my effort, but overcompensated again. The next one was 6:53.
At 14K, I was roughly one third done with the race, and I
was on pace to easily break five hours.
I didn’t actually expect to maintain that pace. I was still planning to slow down. I eventually settled into a pace between 7:10
and 7:15.
We were now on a long out-and back segment along the banks
of the Amstel River. We were on a bike
path that was paved with bricks. The
bricks had a rough surface. I think that
was to give bikes better traction, but it was uncomfortable walking on
them. I started to notice painful
blisters around my heels. I don’t know
if the brick surface was a contributing factor, or if it was coincidental that
I started to notice the blisters on this section.
The pavement alongside the river changed several times. We had an asphalt section, then some smooth
bricks, then more asphalt. I felt
relieved when we seemed to leave the bricks behind.
Along the river we had a different form of entertainment. There were guys above the river wearing boots
that used jets of water to propel then 10-15 feet above the river. Maintaining their balance must take a lot of
practice. I saw at least four of these
guys.
I was eventually passed by the 4:30 pace group. I was still much too far forward in the
pack. I noticed as they passed that they
didn’t leave me behind as quickly as the other pace groups.
Between 19K and 20K, we crossed the river and started
following the opposite bank back towards the city. By now, we were out in the countryside. The river was on my left. On my right, I saw cows grazing.
On this side of the river, I had to endure more
uncomfortable bricks. Here, they were
weathered, so the surface wasn’t as smooth.
At the halfway point, I was still on pace to break five
hours. I still expected to slow down,
but I was worried it wouldn’t be by choice. I was starting to feel fatigued
from my fast early pace. I fully
expected to crash and burn in the second half.
Around 22K, I started to notice that I was keeping pace with
a few of the runners. Most of the
runners were still passing me, but it felt encouraging to be able to keep up
with a few of them. I had fewer kilometers
remaining than the number I had already completed. I started feeling more confident. Could I actually sustain this pace?
I was getting hot, so I started to drink more at the aid
stations. Near the river we had a nice
breeze, but it was getting warmer, and the sun was now high in the sky. At one of the aid stations, they were handing
out bananas. I wasn’t going to have one,
but one of the volunteers called my name.
He was in the middle of the street, backpedaling so I could grab the
banana without slowing down. I took the
banana.
As we got near the end of the section along the river, I
noticed more of the rough brick. This
section was longer than I expected. As
much as I enjoyed running along the river, I could wait to get back onto smooth
pavement.
Even the best city marathon has at least one section that’s less
attractive. After leaving the river, we
briefly passed through an industrial section of town. Between 25K and 35K, I didn’t have a good
feel for where I was. I wasn’t familiar
with the east side of the city.
In the second half of the race, some of the aid stations had
sponges. I could see how those would be
helpful on such a warm afternoon, but the streets got littered with hundreds of
sponges. Some of the aid stations were
like obstacle courses.
Just before 28K, I was passed by the 4:45 pace group. This was the last pace group I saw during the
race. They were still in sight for a
long time.
At 28K, I was roughly two thirds done. I was still on pace to break five hours, but
only because I went so fast in the first third of the race. The middle third wasn’t as fast. To actually break five, I would need to speed
up again. I never considered
trying. At no point in this race did five
hours seem like a realistic goal.
By now, I had reached an equilibrium point. I was now passing as many runners as were
passing me.
I was gradually drifting into a slower pace. Now I was doing about 7:20 per
kilometer. With every kilometer that was
under 7:30, I became more confident that I would hold on to set a PR. The only question was by how much. At some point, I realized I would break
5:10. Could I break 5:05? It seemed possible.
The aid station just before 35K was congested. I wanted Isostar, but I kept having to go
around runners who were coming to a stop.
I missed those tables and went for water instead. More runners were coming to a stop. To get water, I had to come to a stop
too. Then I had to avoid all the sponges
on the ground. I lost several seconds
navigating through that aid station.
When I got to 35K, I saw that I slowed to 7:33. I was discouraged, even though I knew it was
only because of the time I lost at the aid station. I worked harder to get my pace back into the
7:20s.
After 35K, we came alongside one of the canals that form a
ring around the city center. I didn’t
recognize anything, but I had a better idea of where I was. I managed to pick up the pace, doing the next
few kilometers between 7:22 and 7:25. I
was now determined to break 5:05.
After crossing the Amstel River, I started to recognize my
surroundings. I recognized a section of
the canal that was lined with houseboats.
This was near where we caught our canal cruise. Soon I reached the Heineken Brewery. Ahead, I could see the top of the
Rijksmuseum.
After passing the Rijksmuseum, I entered Vondelpark
again. From here, everything was
familiar. As I walked through the park,
two race officials on bicycles asked us to move to the sides of the path. They were escorting the lead runners of the
half marathon. For the rest of the race,
we were occasionally passed by fast half marathon runners.
About halfway through the park, a runner who was trying to
keep up with me commented that I was picking up the pace. I was.
At 39K, I knew I would break 5:04.
I continued to light a fire under myself to go as fast as I could.
I did the 40th kilometer in 7:14. I had a shot at 5:03. As we left the park, I tried to maintain my
pace, but it got more difficult. We were
back on a street with tram tracks. I
didn’t want to walk on the tracks, so I tried to either walk between them or
stay to one side. Sometimes I had to
change “lanes” to go around a slower runner.
Sometimes a half marathon runner had to pass at the same time. That was awkward.
As we got closer to the stadium, the street was divided, so
the half marathon runners had their own lane.
My legs were getting stiff, and I felt like I was slowing down. Before entering the stadium, I had to cross
the plaza again. It was slightly uphill
and paved with bricks. I’m not sure
which bothered me more.
I was relieved to finally get onto the track, but I was out
of gas. I fought for every second. When I finally crossed the line, I was
momentarily disappointed to see that I didn’t break 5:03. My official time was 5:03:08. There’s really no reason for disappointment
though. I set a walking PR by 14
minutes!
I went out at a pace that was way faster than I
planned. Usually when I do that, I pay
for it later. I did slow down by five
minutes in the second half, but even my second half was faster than my goal
pace. Had I walked the whole race at my
intended pace, I would have been 12 minutes slower overall. Sometimes it pays to be greedy. I really had no idea I could walk that
fast. It makes me wonder if five hours
is possible.
After crossing the finish line, I continued walking around
the track and got my finisher medal.
Then I exited the stadium to get to the refreshments. I was thirsty, so I quickly drank a whole
bottle of Gatorade. They had bananas,
but I didn’t have room for solid food.
Walking back to the hotel was slow. I had painful blisters on both heels. I wondered if I would be able to walk to a
restaurant for dinner. The trams near
our hotel weren’t running because the streets were all closed for the race.
We eventually walked to Carousel for dinner. I had to walk on the balls of my feet, so my
heels wouldn’t touch the ground. It was
slow and tiring, but we eventually got there.
The first two times we ate there, we had Dutch pancakes. This time we had the poffertjes. We saw a street vendor making them when we
were at the Albert marketplace on Saturday.
Monday, October 16
Today, we flew home.
It was another non-stop flight, but it’s still a long time in the
air. It helped a lot that we didn’t have
to get up early. We were able to enjoy
one last breakfast at the hotel before leaving for the airport.
Race Statistics
Distance: 42.2
kilometers
Time: 5:03:08
Average Pace: 7:11
per kilometer (11:34 per mile)
Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:
342
Total Countries: 27
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