Hi all,
Here's my race report on the Rotterdam Marathon, as it happened. In summary I kept it pretty easy, and wanted to see if I could go under 4 hours. I'm happy to say I managed to do this, and even managed to speed up as the race went on. Being the 30th Rotterdam Marathon, it was a jubilee event, so the organisers went all out this year to make it a success.
On the day before the marathon, I picked up my race number from the marathon expo. Unfortunately I didn't win the free trip to "some place warm", but the pasta party that night allowed me unlimited pasta at the top of the Euromast, the tallest building in Rotterdam. Looking at the great views of the city, I managed to help myself to three generous helpings of pasta and was thoroughly loaded!
The next day was race day. It was unusual in that it started at 11am. This meant a normal wake up time, but by then the sun would be high in the sky. Thankfully, the clouds were out and it ended up being a very very cool day for the most part. I felt that a world record might be broken in these conditions.
After a good breakfast, I made my way to the starting areas. At the last minute, I decided to take my camera and my phone with me. I wanted to take some pictures of the race in progress, which I'll include in this post.
11am ticked over, and the race formally started with a cannon blast, which I managed to hear amid the cacophony of noise on the Coolsingel. Soon, I started to run my own race. A lot of people were passing me from behind but I tried to ignore them, put my head down, and ran at the pace I wanted to sustain for the entire time. After 1 km, the watch was 6:15, after 2 km it was 12:15. Perfect - I'll try and maintain 6 mins/km throughout and see what happens.
Along the way I took quite a few pictures. It was pretty much an easy effort up to the half way mark. I got there in around 2:03. If I kept going at that pace, I would be clocking around 4:06. I wondered if I could break 4 hours by going just a little faster. Around 25 km, my legs were starting to fatigue a bit, but I still managed to hold on without slowing down. By 31 km, the time was approximately 3:00. At that point, I tweeted on the run whether I could do 11 more km in 60 minutes.
The sun was high in the sky by now, and I was getting tired by then. I wasn't feeling it in my lungs, but I was feeling it in my legs. Yet I still didn't slow down. Every km marker I passed, I kept looking at my watch, doing the maths in my head. I was still on target! But only just. As soon as I entered the Coolsingel, with around 300 metres to go, I decided to do a sprint finish and managed to cross the line in 3:59:22. A new season best for this year!
The baggage tents, where runners keep their bags, were also the changing areas for runners. The Dutch aren't afraid to strip naked and change their clothes, which is an eye-opener! Only in Holland! After I picked up my bag, knowing there weren't any massage services around, I headed to the hotel and crashed for the day. Probably not the smartest thing to do considering that my muscles were very tight after 4 hours of continuous running. The after-effects were still apparent after 3-4 days, but now my legs are fine!
To summarise, here are some of my personal highlights, and lowlights, of this year's Rotterdam Marathon.
Highlights
- Unlimited pasta at the top of the Euromast.
- Finishing on the Coolsingel among thousands of supporters.
- Awesome crowd support along the way.
- Many live music performances and bands along the way.
- Free t-shirt with your race pack. That's always a nice thing to have.
- Grabbing food from the locals. I was trying to grab pretzel sticks from a lady, dropped all of them once I grabbed them, and then another guy ran after me, kept pace with me and held out a bag of potato chips while I managed to grab a handful!
Lowlights
- No massage facilities!!!
- Relatively early cut-off target time of 5:30. For those not able to meet this finishing time, you're out of luck finishing the marathon officially.
- Drinks stations quite sparse. Having drink stations every 5 km is a bit hard for us runners.
And now some photos.
A giant banner on display at the marathon expo containing supportive messages for this year's marathon runners.
Some nice person even left me a message. This person's always one step ahead of me ;-)
The Euromast, where I helped myself to unlimited pasta!
Jammed in the starting pen between the 3:30 - 4:00 marathoners.
Somewhere around the 15 km mark. This was mostly residential/park area.
Crossing the Erasmus Bridge again heading back towards the city centre, around the 26 km mark.
Entering the Coolsingel, with only a few hundred metres to go. You can really feel the crowd support here. 
Only a few hundred metres to go from here.
Getting closer!
And finally, it is finished! Sore legs, but not too exhausted from it all.1 down, 4 to go. Copenhagen is next! After my run in Rotterdam, I'm confident that I can put in another solid, but unspectacular, time in Copenhagen next month. After all, it's just another training run, and an excuse to visit a city. Let's hope my trip doesn't get disrupted because of Iceland's volcanic ash!
Best,
Aaron
