AMSTERDAM HALF MARATHON & 10K

15^TH OCTOBER 2006

Thursday 12^th October and a group of Striders converged on Bournemouth Airport in preparation for a trip to Europe’s centre of prostitution and drugs and to put their athletic prowess to the test on the European Circuit!! The Lytchett Striders International Athletics Club members making this inaugural trip across to the land of the Windmill were: ‘Captain’ Mike ‘I’ve got a yacht’ Cutler, Neil ‘looking for love’ Russell, Karl ‘missing Hayley’ Whitfield, Brian ‘I’ve been unwell all week’ Sanderson, Lindsay ‘superwoman’ Balch, Judith ‘Windmill legs’ Vlaarkamp and Tony ‘ sex museum’ Peach. With a back up team of wives, girlfriends and boyfriends.(oops–‘partners’).Later joined in Amsterdam by Linda Treays and son James, Carol Wrobel and Suzanne Barnes and families.

After some food and drink (or just drink in come cases) to prepare ourselves for the journey we boarded our Thomson Fly Flight at 7.15pm. An hour later we had arrived and after walking almost a half marathon from where the plane landed to the baggage hall, we eventually managed to work out how to get tickets from Schipol Airport to Amsterdam Central Station.

With only a short walk from the station to the hotel, we arrived about 10.30pm. Those not too tired to go to bed descended on the Amsterdam nightlife. Well, Neil, Tony, Karl and Brian went and found a bar in Dam Square (for a very expensive pint of beer). We meandered back to the hotel, unwittingly via the Red Light district! and stopped for another drink in what was possibly a Gay Bar – but Neil seemed happy. We then inadvertently ended up going back into the red light district and eventually made it to the safety of our hotel at around 1pm!

The next morning we met for the buffet breakfast- scrambled eggs (greenish in colour), lengths of fat with small pieces of meat attached (apparently this is what they call bacon in Amsterdam) and a mile queue at the two slice toaster! I exaggerate a little, the breakfast was pretty good, (but the scrambled egg was a definite shade of green). We then set off to Register and collect our numbers. By using all our combined knowledge of the Amsterdam tram system (e.g. none), we all managed to get there without paying, which was quite satisfying in some ways and exciting as you never knew if the local police might bang you up for that. We bumped into Judith and Lindsay (who did not want to stay in the same hotel as us for some reason) and compared the previous night’s activities and standard of hotel accommodation etc. The Registration venue was similar to the Expo in London but on a far smaller scale. After an hour of wandering the stalls and looking out for any freebies (there weren’t any) we left to go our separate ways for the afternoon, some to do some sightseeing eg. Anne Frank’s House, some shopping, some drug taking /special cakes and more visits to the red light district (yes, it is actually open all day for business). That evening we all went to a music bar where Judith’s sister worked and had a great evening of heavy hydrating and dancing to a really good soul band. Neil and Karl popped out for some special cake and coffee, but it didn’t seem to do them too much harm, although Neil was not happy that he didn’t start hallucinating and was thinking of asking for his money back from the big green frog sat on a toadstool who sold him the cake!

Saturday was at leisure, time to either take a canal trip (Neil and Karl- how romantic!) hire bikes and undertake the Amsterdam cycling challenge or just a bit of wandering around the canals and side streets. There was a mass boat race going on around the canals during the afternoon and dozens of large rowing boats ( presumably in teams) racing around a series of canals and plenty of vocal support from the bridges as they passed under. What it was all about, who knows? but it was different!

In the evening we all met up at a typical Dutch restaurant, and had a pleasant evening in preparation for our exertions the next day. Though drinking lager and eating vegetarian lasagne at 10pm at night was not the recommended pre-race preparation according to Runners World.

Sunday morning- After breakfast, we decided to get to the Olympic stadium in time to watch the end of the Marathon (that had started at 10.30am) and found a great position in the stand by the finish line. We saw the Marathon winner come in – a sprint finish on the track between two Kenyan athletes and there was a great atmosphere in the stadium with music blaring and the crowd shouting. We saw Linda and James finishing the 10K, (which had started at 11am) with James beating his mum by around a minute, something he was rightly very proud of!. We called out to them from the stand and I think they saw us. We went off to change for the Half Marathon that started at 2pm and took a few ‘team’ photographs (see Striders Website). Mike Cutler was missing from the photograph as he was having his legs waxed (or that is what we suspect).There were around 7,000 entrants for the Half Marathon and Karl, Tony, Neil and myself got in our starting pen, but it was 5 minutes before we got over the line and with about 4000 people in front of us. But we had timing chips so at least we could get accurate finish times. It was an overcast, cool afternoon, but a great atmosphere and good crowd support. We were not sure where the others were; though later found that Judith had been at the front (favouritism for the Dutch?) and Lindsay just behind. We still did not know where Mike had got to as he was faffing about with his make up bag somewhere!

The race- after crossing the start line, we gradually wound our way through the slower people in front of us and after a few hundred metres Tony was out of sight, never to be seen again (well not until the end).The route was mainly through suburban streets and industrial type areas, not particularly attractive compared to say the New Forest! I passed a Littledown Harrier after a few miles (said hello and would see him later- I didn’t). After around 10 miles, ahead of me I saw the magnificent sight of Judith trotting along. I wondered how it had taken me so long to catch up with her, and said a few words of encouragement to her as I powered past! Anyway, the last few miles were more attractive through the Vondelpark (where we had cycled the previous day) and passed the Rijksmuseum and along side one of the larger canals, then back towards the finish at the Olympic stadium. Arriving in the stadium was great with the crowd (around 5,000?) shouting out loud for me (and the other few hundred coming through the entrance I guess). With a quick sprint around half the track to the finish line and that was it. Our support team was up in the stands cheering us all in. By now the sun had come out and it was a lovely late afternoon and we gradually made our way back to the hotel. After a quick nap, shower and a meal, Tony and Julie were very keen to get to the nearby Sex Museum and Mike, Jackie, Neil, Karl, Caroline and myself found a great bar for a few after race drinks. (see website). Neil made friends with a young Dutch man who was probably high on drugs and also tried to chat up the English landlady (see website) with an opening line about how impressed he was with the Amsterdam transport system! (He will never learn)

The next morning was an early start at 6.30am and despite some delays in our flight back and having to be in the proximity of some loud Northern people going back to Doncaster (not pleasant as such an early hour) we boarded sleepily and arrived back at Bournemouth at 10.30am local time.

All in all, a great long weekend, several pb’s achieved, great memories of our Friday night out, canal trips, bike rides and the red light district and some legal drugs ( well magic mushroom tablets ) and a good laugh. I think we will all want to do this again in a year or two and maybe more Striders will join our International Running Club and some maybe tempted to do the Marathon!.

Any resemblance to the characters portrayed above and real like people is purely coincidental.

Brian Sanderson