No, stil not there, plenty of others with same surname, but not me or Mr T! Will try again later. If any of you saw someone wearing a flag of St George on their back - IT WAS ME!!
Well my thoughts on the half are pretty much the same as Nibbs. I decided to do Amsterdam to see if I could duck under 1.25 in my last half of the year. The stupid system for the start put paid to that. It took me too 2-3 minutes to get through the start and I then spent the first 20 minutes being blocked by and having to dodge and swerve around people who were probaly looking at 2-2.15 half times - not good for me and not good for them really either. Consequently, I ran further than I wanted to, ran faster to try and overtake and my race plan went out the window. The info before the race said it would be in timed pens - why didn't they do it? Over 6000 people of mixed abilities all in together, not a good idea.
As for the race,settled into it in the end and enjoyed the finish into the stadium. Time was 1.29.14 which at least means that all 4 half-maras I've done this year have been sub-90, so I'm sort of "established" at that time.
And a HUGE WELL DONE to all the marathon runners. I am in awe, Never run that distance and not sure I want to!! Fantastic achievement by you all, irrespective of time.
Cheeky Spider,Well sone on your time, glad you enjoyed the finish, i was too knackered to sprint! we too were confused by pens. We were one side of barriers, then suddenly we had to squeaze in gap to other side, but found the pens hard to work out for the times too. They seemed to let people off in sections as well, so people were going past me fast, but i was also overtaking very slow people. Think we'll stick to the 10k next time!!
Had excellent day on Sunday; ran more or less as I intended to, and squeezed under 3:15 target with 3:13:58 - a PB by 15 minutes, so very happy here. One nasty stitch at 37km where I had to stop for a minute as couldn't walk, and it was hard work from there to the end, but otherwise felt good. 1:36/1:37 splits, too - the little graph on the results is nearly flat, except the little dip between 35-40k when I stopped. All in all, very pleased with self.
Really good to meet folk at the meal on Saturday, and again in the Tara after the race. The whole weekend was fantastic, I thought - Amsterdam's a top place, no doubt. Would love to do it all again.
Pseudo: Good luck with the rest of your lunatic scheme. Take it steady in Washington.
oh gosh just managed to find photos - must start wearing make-up for races with potential photo shoot at finish and remember to look alive! Poppy, might have to email you tomororw as manic here now.
Ooh Multi is there something you want to tell us;-)
I had a rather nice looking chap first time until I realised I was looking at 2004 results;-) Not been critical did you get race number right? Hope they find you soon:-)
ALF: Always a little further Miles makes smiles. Progression
Really good to hear everyones stories, obviously some good, some bad, but then it would be a very boring sport if we could all accurately predict how we would run, wouldn't it ?
For me, I ran 4:40 which was quicker than I had run in Paris but not by as much as I had hoped.
I ran with the 4:15 pacer until about 25k when I started to really struggle just before we came off the Amstel. I stopped at the 26K water station for a full 2 minutes to take on liquid.Then during the section through the Business Park I wanted nothing more in the world than to stop. Could they have picked a more boring part of Amsterdam if they had tried ? Absolutely no crowd support there as well. I stopped for a further 4 minutes at the 30K point to take on more liquid. From about 35k I picked up again, roused by more crowd support and passed quite a lot of people in the last 7K. However the damage had been done as far as my time was concerned.
It was a pity that the course couldn't have been a bit more central and taken in a few more of the sights. The support wasn't great in number, but what support there was was very enthusiastic, particularly from the children.
I'm not too disheartened though and am already making tentative plans (injuries permitting) for next year.
Spring: Plan A- London Plan B- Rome ?
Autumn:
Florence
Not quite in the Pseudo league, but that would be plenty for me.
Good to meet you all before and afterwards (notpete, DG,CC & Slowcoach Bill), though I was struggling in the Tara Bar towards the end of the evening-the race had clearly taken it out of me.
notpete- congratulations again on achieving the time you set out to achieve. I know that you were on cloud nine with that time
DG- you must be classed as elite now surely ? Nice to meet you and the lovely Chubby Cheeks too. CC- see if you can find the time to get the long runs in. I know FLM 2006 is so tempting, isn't it ?
Pseudo-good luck with Washington & New York. You can then turn your thoughts to the golf course for next year! 4 marathons in 7 weeks, and a Newcastle supporter as well- now that's what I call a masochist!
I have to say I am impressed with the results service, having mats every 5km really allows an anorak like me to analyse where I lost all the time. I went round with a forerunner and to be honest it was a waste of time given all the splits that were provided. It was especially good that they even E-Mailed the individual results to everyone. Other bigger marathons could learn from this.
I seem to have some sort of partial memory block - I don't remember the business park!! In fact I don't feel like I remember much after coming off the Amstel. And we even ran straight past where our hotel was and I didn't even notice - though by then I don't think I was aware of anything except the 4.15 pacer's orange balloon!! :-)
Nigel, how many of you started with the 4.15 pacer? There were only a handful by the time i tagged onto him around 36k.
Good to read that lots of you had good races :-) Though its put paid to my theory that there was something 'wrong' with the course.
Anyone found the results online yet ? I received all the other marathon news emails, but haven't received results yet. Should I have done something to get results emailed ?
I got mine automatically, somehow; I don't remember ever asking to get them. You can get them directly from www.ingamsterdammarathon.nl (with bonus graphs, too) - just click 'Results' on the left hand side (the word, not the little arrow next to it), and stick your bib number on the next page that comes up.
Thanks - missed that somehow. That's a really useful graph.
How is this for an exactly equal split - my 2 1/2 marathon times are EXACTLY the same to the second 1:57:52 + 1:57:52 = 3:55:44. Could never do that again if I tried ! (#8091)
Comments
I used a Nike CV10 (not GPS) which recorded 27.77 miles for the marathon!!!!!!!!
Very odd as it was spot on at three previous races (to within half a percent)
Will try again later.
If any of you saw someone wearing a flag of St George on their back - IT WAS ME!!
Well my thoughts on the half are pretty much the same as Nibbs. I decided to do Amsterdam to see if I could duck under 1.25 in my last half of the year. The stupid system for the start put paid to that. It took me too 2-3 minutes to get through the start and I then spent the first 20 minutes being blocked by and having to dodge and swerve around people who were probaly looking at 2-2.15 half times - not good for me and not good for them really either. Consequently, I ran further than I wanted to, ran faster to try and overtake and my race plan went out the window. The info before the race said it would be in timed pens - why didn't they do it? Over 6000 people of mixed abilities all in together, not a good idea.
As for the race,settled into it in the end and enjoyed the finish into the stadium. Time was 1.29.14 which at least means that all 4 half-maras I've done this year have been sub-90, so I'm sort of "established" at that time.
Think we'll stick to the 10k next time!!
I did last year.
Really good to meet folk at the meal on Saturday, and again in the Tara after the race. The whole weekend was fantastic, I thought - Amsterdam's a top place, no doubt. Would love to do it all again.
Pseudo: Good luck with the rest of your lunatic scheme. Take it steady in Washington.
I can see your pictures:-)
Sorry I never met any one in Amsterdam apart from Barbara I had forgotten where it was .
Glad everyone enjoyed it of sorts well done to everyone.
Miles makes smiles.
Progression
Poppy, might have to email you tomororw as manic here now.
Ta
Go to
http://www.marathon-photos.com/index.html
type in your real name and up they pop pretty scarey .....why do I always look so awful in races
Miles makes smiles.
Progression
no problem I know the feeling:-)
Miles makes smiles.
Progression
Cheers, WP!
Miles makes smiles.
Progression
Miles makes smiles.
Progression
I had a rather nice looking chap first time until I realised I was looking at 2004 results;-)
Not been critical did you get race number right?
Hope they find you soon:-)
Miles makes smiles.
Progression
Miles makes smiles.
Progression
I'd still prefer to be that brunette though!
For me, I ran 4:40 which was quicker than I had run in Paris but not by as much as I had hoped.
I ran with the 4:15 pacer until about 25k when I started to really struggle just before we came off the Amstel. I stopped at the 26K water station for a full 2 minutes to take on liquid.Then during the section through the Business Park I wanted nothing more in the world than to stop. Could they have picked a more boring part of Amsterdam if they had tried ? Absolutely no crowd support there as well. I stopped for a further 4 minutes at the 30K point to take on more liquid. From about 35k I picked up again, roused by more crowd support and passed quite a lot of people in the last 7K. However the damage had been done as far as my time was concerned.
It was a pity that the course couldn't have been a bit more central and taken in a few more of the sights. The support wasn't great in number, but what support there was was very enthusiastic, particularly from the children.
I'm not too disheartened though and am already making tentative plans (injuries permitting) for next year.
Spring:
Plan A- London
Plan B- Rome ?
Autumn:
Florence
Not quite in the Pseudo league, but that would be plenty for me.
Good to meet you all before and afterwards (notpete, DG,CC & Slowcoach Bill), though I was struggling in the Tara Bar towards the end of the evening-the race had clearly taken it out of me.
notpete- congratulations again on achieving the time you set out to achieve. I know that you were on cloud nine with that time
DG- you must be classed as elite now surely ? Nice to meet you and the lovely Chubby Cheeks too. CC- see if you can find the time to get the long runs in. I know FLM 2006 is so tempting, isn't it ?
Pseudo-good luck with Washington & New York. You can then turn your thoughts to the golf course for next year! 4 marathons in 7 weeks, and a Newcastle supporter as well- now that's what I call a masochist!
I went round with a forerunner and to be honest it was a waste of time given all the splits that were provided.
It was especially good that they even E-Mailed the individual results to everyone.
Other bigger marathons could learn from this.
Nigel, how many of you started with the 4.15 pacer? There were only a handful by the time i tagged onto him around 36k.
Good to read that lots of you had good races :-) Though its put paid to my theory that there was something 'wrong' with the course.
I received all the other marathon news emails, but haven't received results yet. Should I have done something to get results emailed ?
How is this for an exactly equal split - my 2 1/2 marathon times are EXACTLY the same to the second 1:57:52 + 1:57:52 = 3:55:44. Could never do that again if I tried ! (#8091)