My legs are sore and my feet covered in blisters…but I did it! I ran my first Half Marathon. Along with thousands of other runners I participated in the City Pier City Run in The Hague. The course of this annual race, in Holland’s third largest city, loops from the city center all the way to the beach of Scheveningen and back again. It’s a fairly flat course, with only the occasional bump or sloped street. But you’re wrong to think that this makes it an easy race. Any 21.1 kilometers (or 13.1 miles), whether flat or filled with hills, is a looong way to run.
When the gun sounded at 2:30 pm I set off on what would be my longest run yet. Due to a knee injury I had not been able to work through my training schedule all the way. So the longest run I had done up to that point was just over 16 kilometers. I knew the half marathon would be a long way, but I tried to keep up a fairly fast pace and just went for it.
After 28 minutes I reached the 5k marker…57 minutes the 10k marker… I was running a good race so far, but then it got tough. At the 12 kilometer marker I began to feel blisters. I have not had any major blisters before while running, so it was a bit of a set back. I asked God to take the pain away, and kept on running. My legs were fine, my lungs were fine, I wanted to keep going at a steady pace and not fall back to the back of the pack. I passed the 15 k marker at 1:29:37, and that’s when I heard someone yell: “It’ll be over before you know it, so enjoy it while you can!” I decided the lady who yelled this was right, so I looked at my watch a little less and at the people around me a little more.
I noticed an old man who was hanging out of his window playing an accordion. Kids were lined up ready to get high-fived by the runners. People were waving from balconies and brass bands were playing on the side of the road. And there was even the occasional puzzled look from the odd person who had been oblivious to the fact that thousands of runners would be stomping through their street today.
After the 16k marker every kilometer was a small victory. Every step I took was taking me further than I had ever ran before. I was beat, but I knew I was gonna make it. Left and right I saw people collapse or quit within a kilometer from the finish line. The last kilometer was a tough one indeed. I pressed on and when I heard Alicia Keys’ “New York” song blast through the speakers near the finish, it gave me the boost I needed, as it made me look forward to the full marathon I’m hoping to run in New York City some day. (Though I was happy that today I was only running the HALF marathon!)
I finally crossed the finish line in 2 hours, 8 minutes and 38 seconds. Content. Victorious. Smiling.
I grabbed my medal, grabbed some energy drinks and walked away smiling. Resting on a bench near the finish line I cheered on some of the people who were still at it. Then my boyfriend found me and he all but carried me to the train, ’cause I was pretty sore! Still…it was worth it and I highly reccommend you run a race yourselves! Even if it’s a 5k. Gotta start somewhere 
P.S:
After this day one thing has become clear to me: African runners must have some sort of extra running gene which the rest of us did not get. Mary Keitany from Kenya currently holds the women’s world record for the Half Marathon. She ran it in just 1 hour, 5 minutes and 50 seconds. That…is just not normal.
