After 3 months of intensive training, the time had come. . On Saturday afternoon we were on our way to Leiden. All three of us with a healthy portion of tension whether we would succeed. For all three of us it was the first marathon ever.
Our preparation could not be faulted, but we had already received a message from the organization that it was going to be a hot day in Leiden, so we had an extra portion of nerves if we were going to make it.
We traveled by train and arrived in Leiden around 3 pm. Near the station was our hotel, we checked in and settled into our rooms overlooking the LUMC. Surely that couldn’t be a coincidence.
We walked into town looking for the marathon starting point and saw walkers who had run on Saturday. There was already a nice atmosphere in town, we walked through the old center with beautiful old buildings and bridges over the water everywhere.
Around 6 p.m. we had dinner at City Hall, an Italian restaurant. We wanted to eat a lot of carbs to get extra energy. The restaurant was in the City Hall, half of which is now a restaurant.
As we sat eating, we saw through the window that the fences were being placed for the marathon on Breestraat, where the start is. On the other side of the restaurant, we saw that the finish arch was being built. We got the jitters. We had a chat with the people building everything up and they wished us good luck.
After a somewhat restless night and a good breakfast we walked towards the start. And with us a lot of other participants. We looked for our starting box and saw the pacers we wanted to follow. Six minutes per km, as long as it would work.
And then at 10:00 am the start, the atmosphere was already good. The heat didn’t seem too bad.
The first 24 km the three of us stayed together and near the pacers. Every 5 km there was water, wet sponges and often something to eat. We had brought all kinds of things ourselves (nougat, banana, dates). The scenery was beautiful, a beautiful polder landscape with lots of water and ducks cheering us on.
We already saw people falling out around us and occasionally heard an ambulance
Then suddenly I got a huge cramp in my calves and had to stop to stretch. I wanted to continue and walked on. Every 2 or 3 km the cramp returned and I had to stop. . I was enormously supported and encouraged by the others and so I managed to keep going. At a slower pace indeed and with stops and pain but I wanted to reach the finish for the good cause The people on the side encouraged us and offered us water Onderweg zagen we steeds meer mensen opgehaald worden door een ambulance en anderen wandelen in plaats van hardlopen. That was scary.
It was great to walk hand in hand with Audrey and Lars through the finish line.
There was family there to take care of us. And the medal we received made us even prouder It took at least a week after that to realize that we had really managed to run a marathon.
We heard afterwards that after we finished, the marathon was stopped and the 10 km canceled because the hospitals didn’t have room for any more people.
I got emails from family, friends and colleagues because they were worried, it was even on the national news.
We ended with a dinner by the water and were met in Sittard by a fellow runner who sympathized with us very much and gave us advice many times.
The following weeks were necessary to rest and enjoy our achievement.
It was a great adventure and almost 2600 Euros will go to the important charity.
Mariet, Audrey and Lars.
