The half marathon...I ran a half marathon 4 years ago. It was an innocent time. I joined the university running club for a 10-week training program. It basically was a running group that went running together 3 times per week, and recommended we ran at least once more on Sunday. I had never been a long distance runner, although I was reasonably fit due to playing a lot of basketball. However, the first few weeks of the training program... Running when you are unfit is like playing an out-of-tune guitar: It just is not fun. But there were girls there (including two flatmates), so I couldn't exactly complain or stop running. Fear of revealing you are a loser: the ultimate incentive...
So it went on, and slowly something changed. I couldn't quite pinpoint it. It almost felt like I was looking forward to going for runs. I was almost enjoying going running. Moreover, I was playing much better basketball. I was eating more, which I really enjoyed. And I was getting only A's at school... (okay, that last one has nothing to do with running, but I still wanted to remind everyone how awesome I was... I know, what happened? Look at me now!)
After 10 weeks, I felt incredibly fit, and I ran the crap out of the Christchurch half marathon. Most people had trouble climbing stairs afterward, but when I finished, I felt an uncontrollable urge to play some basketball. However, once the goal of running a marathon is gone, the urge to go running dissipated. (They did give out a brochure to the Melbourne marathon, but I was not that enslaved). Still, running a half marathon was something I definitely wanted to try again.
The Nelson half marathon was lame and just a cross-country run, so I flagged that, and I wanted to run one in Japan (just so I could stand a head taller than everyone else at the start-line) but my basketball team took priority over the marathon dates. (I ruined about three new years resolutions on this goal) Now, in Holland, with my incredibly sparse schedule, I had no excuse anymore. I committed to the Leiden half-marathon, in the form of 15 Euro. (Amusingly, some people expressed surprise that it costs money to take part in a running event... "they would have to pay me to get me to run 20 km!")
So, the weather in Holland became running-friendly 8 weeks before the Leiden Marathon. That was shorter than I hoped. Still, I went for my first run and hated it. The first run is never fun. But I kept going in the knowledge that it does get better. It is like living with a conjoined fetus.
The best thing about running is the exploration. I mean, these last 8 weeks I have seen so much more of the scenery in my area than I ever would have otherwise (in a 7km radius). People nowadays have such a distorted sense of distance, because they never feel it with their feet. And people underestimate how far you can run. I've ran through all the nearby towns, passed several windmills, about 10 churches, crossed hundreds of little bridges, seen hundreds of cute dogs, I've ran through and got lost in a gated community more than once, I've ran through sand dunes, I've been places that otherwise I'd never even want to go, hundreds of thousands of footsteps, I know the area as well as a counter-terrorist.
Okay, so maybe my total running time over the 8 weeks only amounted to just over 24 hours. But I was feeling pretty good about my chances to beat my previous time of 96 minutes. I mean, check out the photo- You could not tell this guy that he isn't serious. In fact, I dare you to.
This was actually to make fun of the other competitors. You may remember my rant at the Rotterdam marathon about all the competitors wearing ball-hugging tights, turning it into a "package-measuring contest". Well, I decided that a marathon event can be described as: "A gathering of good-looking people in horrible looking clothes". Seriously, besides the tights, you won't have seen as much fluoro colours since the 80's. So I proudly wore my handle-bars (a "dirty sanchez", if you will), a headband and super-reflective aviator glasses to display the fashion sense of the biker from The Village People. No-one said anything about it, or even laughed at me, which I found hilarious: This uniform allowed me to blend into the marathon community! Amazing!
Earlier, when I said that exploring was the best part about running, I lied. The best part: carbo-loading! oh man, an excuse to eat as much a humanly and humanely possible! It makes it all worthwhile. The day before going the half-marathon, instead of running I stayed at home and ate enough food to make an entire Ethiopian family hate me. It was awesome!
Unfortunately, unlike the Rotterdam 10K I ran in, I did not bring my camera along for the run. It was a miserable day. The start was at the exact centre of Leiden: A relatively narrow street, filled with people. Seriously, it was a bottle-neck for the first 8km. It was so busy that it was impossible to get into your own rythm. You would have to run at the speed of the people infront, until you spot a gap to dart through, and you'd have to slow up again.
The course led south into the next town of Zoeterdorp, and through to Voorschoten before veering back north. A brass band was playing at each major interval, so we could listen to 20 seconds of cheerful music. There were at least four brass bands along the course, and about 8 rock/pop bands. One was a tent erected outside of someone's farmhouse. They could have been playing "guitar hero" for all I know. Still, it was appreciated.
The splits along the way worried me. The clocks and distances told me that I was going much slower than I expected to. I felt the goal of 96 minutes slipping away from me. After the halfway point, the crowd had thinned enough for me to concentrate on my own speed, which was nice. And the sun came out for the last 20 minutes, as came into the home-stretch and re-entered the town of Leiden. The photo above is one of the city walls that we ran though. There was an angry-chick-rock-band playing, and tents selling beer.
And... over the line... Here is an actual video of my spectacular finish.
http://www.racetimer.se/nl/runner/show/513718?race_id=193&layout=racetimer_euYes, that video proves that long-distance running is possibly the most boring spectator sport ever. I crossed the line, got a medal, a cup of water, an energy drink, a piece of fruit and.... a beer. A beer? How awesome is that! It would have tasted awesome if it werent for that god-awful energy drink, but it's the thought that counts, and the thought of getting beer after doing a half-marathon is awesome.
My time was 104 minutes. I ran the first half 2 minutes faster than the second, so I wouldn't have made it under three digits. Maybe I should have trained for ten weeks. Maybe I should have carbo-loaded more. Maybe I shouldn't have drank 2 nights earlier. Maybe I should have shaved off my handle-bars to save on wind resistance. But the more I thought about it, the more I miss basketball. At the time of my marathon in Christchurch, I was playing basketball at least 4 times per week- ontop of running. I always thought that running helped my basketball, but now I think my basketball helped my running.
It still feels wierd for me to be physically tired without having dribbled a basketball, or chased some kind of object. Running in itself is great, but is not enough for me. It was ironic then, that my singlet I was wearing for the half-marathon was my old basketball team singlet. One day I will make a new years resolution to run another half-marathon to beat my old time, but I vow to always make time to dribble a basketball too.
One final not about my time. I know I was disappointed at my time, but I think the real reason for it is that the marathon organisers measured the track wrong. Look closely at the medal... Yes, that is a comma! That explains everything: I ran 21097 kilometres. Of course it took me a few more minutes to complete the course. I had just ran over half the circumference of the entire world! So, my average running speed was 12171kmph. I am redeemed!
Please, do not look directly my competitor's package. Because that's exactly what they expect!
