The idea of doing Amsterdam marathon was to try and get myself an honest PB over the distance. Pretty much all of my marathons to date have either been a safe/conservative effort in preperation for an Ironman later on in the year. Falling at the end of October gave me time to focus on running for a while before hand and allow for a short rest before beginning preperation for next year.
A few things fell into place nicely in the preperation for this marathon which meant I would be going into this one better prepared than ever for a good crack at the distance. You can see this in the graph above. Making the decision to shelve swimming and biking for a few weeks meant that even though I was putting in good volume it still felt like I had plenty of time on my hands.
Katie and I left from London City airport on Friday evening which was super easy from where we live in Charlton. Katie had booked a hotel nice and close to the race start/finish and just one train stop away from the airport. Katie wasn't keen on my suggestion of spending the night 'experiencing the Amsterdam culture' so straight to bed it was. After breakfast we strolled down to the expo to register and check out the Olympic stadium. Things certainly weren't on the scale of the London Marathon but everything was very slick. Back to the hotel out for a 25min run then nice and early to bed.
The race start was 9:30 so we decided to set the alarm for 6am and eat before 6:30. This gave enough time for a short 10min run and the usual multiple visits to the bathroom. We arrived at the Olympic stadium and hour before race start and found our way to our respective starting pens. There was a great atmosphere as the race got underway and we made out way around 200m of the track and out of the stadium. Things were very congested in the first half mile and I was pleased I'd put myself at the front of the pen (2:40-3:00). I felt surprisingly comfortable at 3:50/k but forced myself to slow to my target pace of 4:00/k. After 10k of weaving through the city the race made its way down the canal. There was a head wind on the way out and became more than a little frustrated by the group of guys who we're taking shelter behind me. After a mile or so I moved out gesturing for someone to do the work but not a single one of them did. I considered trying to bridge the gap to the next group about 10-15 sec up the road but decided against it. Crossing the canal and heading back the tail wind evened out my pace and I went through half way bang on 1:24. The next 10k took us through a more industrial area which wasn't very inspiring. However many of the people around me were now starting to slow and I felt good as I passed more and more runners by simply holding onto the same pace- 4:00/k . Hitting the 32k mark I felt great and thought I'd try and increase the pace it felt like I had but in reality I was just maintaining the pace I carried through the last 32k. I felt very good up to about 34k and then had a more uncomfortable patch up to about 37k but was always confident that the wheels were going to stay firmly on. The numbers on my Garmin were telling me I should be finishing with a long 2:46 but I'd noticed that the k markers on the course didn't agree. The last 300m were great running into the stadium and half a lap of the track to the finish. Crossing the line in 2:48:12
Happy? I can't not be. My target for the race was 2:48 which is exactly what I ended up with. I was slightly frustrated by the fact my Garmin seemed to have found an extra 400m over the course and initially thought I can't have gone that far off the line. However that's only an error of less than 10m/k and interestingly Katie and two other guys I know who were racing also covered an extra 400-500m according to their Garmin devices. The course can't be long, maybe it's just an accuracy thing, 1% out isnt that much I guess. My ultimate marathon goal has always been to get a championship start at London which requires a qualifiting marathon time of <2:45 or a half of <1:15 both of which I'm more than confident is achievable. But probably not next year. I have a far bigger itch to scratch ;-) 
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