I Finished!

Wow! What an adventure. Got started right on time. It was a little chilly. Incredibly enough I actually ran into three of the other 4 Americans besides me. One is the Chaplain to the New York City Marathon and has run something like 45 marathons. He is from Massachusetts. I met his friend from Pennsylvania. They were visiting a Dutch friend who was also running. Names (not sure who was who) were Ron, Jon and Don.

First half of the marathon was fairly uneventful. A nice bicycle policeman peddled next to me for awhile - told me he ran the 10 miler last year but didn't do too well because he had partied the night before and was hung over.

At one point I was the last "official" runner on the course. But eventually the guy wearing orange in the sweep van asked me if I could run faster and I told him "no." That was sometime after the halfway point where my time was 2:30:58. And from there the adventure began!

Once I was behind the official projected 5 hour time limit I became pretty much on my own. No more people telling you where to run, to turn, etc. No more water and drinks unless I was lucky and they were slow cleaning up. No more kilometer markers.

There were still a few people behind me but eventually I think most of them quit. I made a very urgent and necessary pit stop behind a tree in a park - definitely need to stop affected my ability to run for the 15 to 20 minutes as the need was quite urgent. During that time I ended up walking with a Flemish woman who had cramps. It was her third marathon - she had run Rotterdam and NYC previously. Lost her when I made my pit stop. Then the worst of it - I got completely lost twice. There were no road markings or any other decent way to determine the direction of the course. Asking directions was a bit problematic - if I was lucky enough to find someone who spoke a little English chances were that they had no clue which direction I needed to run. Even cops at the end weren't sure or would say "the marathon" is finished. The best I could do was a "Hansel and Gretel" manoever of following the trail of empty water bottles. But like Hansel and Gretel there were times when the water bottle trail disappeared because the clean-up trucks had already collected them! Cops telling me the marathon was over certainly didn't help me because (1) I was determined to finish no matter what, and (2) even if I wanted to quit I still needed to get to the finish to meet Joe, Phil, Pacou and Marie. Evidently there was a truck that picked up those who did not finish but I never saw it.

Ran nearly 5K beyond the 26.2 miles or 42K!!! No wonder my legs are feeling a little the worse for the wear. Saw Joe right at the finish at 5:59:42. They had closed official timing at about 5:15:00. Joe said there were still people finishing as they dismantled the finish in prep for the 10 mile start/finish.

Managed to get my chip turned in and collect a medal. Figure I might have finished just at or before the dismantling of the finish had it not been for my numerous mishaps - pit stop, getting lost, numerous stops to ask directions. Painted road markings would have been a great help. I intermixed some walking after, I'm guessing, 18 miles or so and was walking a good bit towards the end. Partly it was because my left knee was giving me a little trouble (I was mad at myself for forgetting to take Advil this morning before the race) but even more so I think it was because of frustration at continually getting lost.

So, all in all, I think my next marathon will be one without a time limit of 5 hours. If I had run faster than that there would have been continued support and I would not have gotten lost. People were all very nice although not always able to provide the help I needed - mostly accurate directions.

So, don't ask me today if I'll do another one. It's like childbirth that way. One needs time for the memory of the pain and discomfort of the experience to wear off so the joy and sense of accomplisment can be truly appreciated!


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