Day 4-Rotterdam Marathon-4/11/2010

Because to day was race day, I got up super early to get in my own workout. The gym is quite spectacular. I had it all to myself, and there are individual televisions on each piece of equipment. We had breakfast in the dining area. Alan had it arranged so he could have his special PB and banana smoothie.

Strange to other marathons, this one had a start time of 11:00 am. Most that I know of start early in the morning. I got pretty stressed out about where to meet him, planning to see him in as many spots as possible.

It seemed to work out find, the transportation pass I had purchased made it really easy to find my way through the city. A couple of the parts, I walked from point A to B, rather than public transportation. I ended up walking through some “interesting” neighborhoods.

I know that my cheering for all runners made a difference. Iwas clapping for everyone and giving chants of encouragement. I recieved many dutch thank yous and many smiles.

I met Alan at  more than 4 different points.  A couple to give goo and water. Unfortunately Alan got pulled off the course for not meeting the time requirement (around mile 18). I was unaware of this, so was looking for him for an hour and half near the 30k mark. They had opened up the rode by this time, so I was quite stressing out, thinking of all worse case scenarios. Finally I decided to walk back to hotel and I got a call from Alan. He said they had made him get off the course, even though he still wanted to run. This will just give us fuel to run next year (me too) and tackle this challenge. This marathon is apparently one of the top 10 in the world, with a strict time limite of 5.5 hours.

l

very garlicky scallop salad at Look

We had a drink and cheese and mustard at the hotel bar. It hit the spot…then a long nap.

Dinner was at Look, one of our favorites in Rotterdam. Their garlic mayonaise is absolutely amazing. I had a great garlic scallop salad and the chocolate cake with garlic ice cream is to die for. Alan’s meal included garlic soup, chicken, salad, fries, potatoes, and garlic icecream with chocolate cake (he split half with me). I had hot chocolate with amaretto as a night cap. What a long and eventful day!