The unique "Dwars door Drenthe Marathon" , by Bert van Bommel and Peter Bosma

Several AJC members participated on the 14th of October in an exceptional sports event: a (half)marathon in one direction (west to east) through the quiet scenery of peaceful Drenthe.
The runners could try to get a PR on the straight and newly asphalted highway N381 towards Emmen and take advantage of the usual wind from behind.
We were with a group of 13 (Rob de Jager & Ina-Joke, Peter Bosma & Agnes, Bert van Bommel & Janny, Guus Sarneel & Saskia, Jan Korving & Monique, Jaap Constant & Cora, and  Blaricummer Adrie Boxmeer). The hotel was fine, breakfast good, dinner OK (except for the rib-eye steak ...), the beer was "lekker", but stronger than expected. The atmosphere was excellent as always.

We went by bus to the starting point, and took off at 11:00, and unexpected and uncharacteristically, we had the wind in our face.
Although Drenthe is beautiful, the track was after all a bit "eentonig".  We were all glad that we did not opt for the whole one ( except for Kris Loveniers and Adrian Gex-Collet), who ran the 42km in 4h14'. Chapeau!), so we had more time to enjoy the social event afterwards. All bars were crowded and many drinks were needed to compensate the fluid loss during the race.

Our performances were surprisingly good considering the fact that the wind was blowing against us from the east!

The only chaotic thing was the returning of the clothing bags afterwards. They need to do this a bit better next time. And maybe there will be another "Dwars door Drenthe Marathon" marathon next year, despite the fact that this year's event had been announced as a once-only race.But success tastes sweet, also for the organisation in Emmen. Nice pictures can be viewed on the website .

So far we have not planned a new target for next year, but we are sure that we will come up with another splendid  AJC race somewhere in Europe! In the meantime keep on training and join us next time.

Dwars door Drenthe, by Kris Loveniers

Being in a fairly good general shape, our colleague Adrian Gex-Collet and I decided to try to run a marathon.  "Dwars door Drenthe" seemed like a good choice.  Although it's held on the same weekend as the more popular Amsterdam marathon, this one appealed us more because of its smaller scale (about 500 participants).  It does have a monotonous track though: 42 km of concrete along provincial road N381; which might explain the reaction at the finish of a fellow runner: "you live in The Hague? And you chose this as your first marathon? What's wrong with you?"...As for the race, I'm happy that I managed to run at a steady pace.  I was surprised to pass the infamous "wall" without any problems, and the last kilometre I even managed to squeeze out a finishing sprint. Probably thanks to the advice several experienced runners gave me: eat and drink before you're hungry or thirsty; and don't run at a speed you do a 10K with.  So I ate a piece of banana every 5K, and let my polar watch dictate my running speed (it made me slow down at kilometre 25 although I was still feeling well - probably for the best!). So, being it not at a new world record, we both finished the race.  And as so many before us have told: the feeling at the finish is amazing, and it's an incredible experience!