Been back from Amsterdam for a few weeks now and just realised that I haven't been on here to let you all know how I got on. We had a very enjoyable weekend there. Spent the majority of the first half of the weekend getting lost. It's a good idea to take along a European map and not rely on the sole use of a GB&NI (only) sat nav to try and get you there!!
Left home at 5pm on Friday night and finally arrived in Amsterdam on Saturday at 5pm. The drive was much longer than I had anticipated. From memory the RAC European Route finder had quoted me about 3.5 hours to get from Calais to Amsterdam (it took almost that long to find my way out of Ostende after an over night stop in a car park).
Anyway as for the Marathon. It was a pleasure to run as for once I took a comfortable pace from the start. Average splits were about 27:15 for every 5km apart from the last one which was slightly quicker (26:30). I ran the whole race with my Spanish race walking friend at his pace and we finished in 3hr 48mins. We were both very pleased with the time as our aim was to go for sub 4hrs. And this was 20mins faster than I managed at Brighton Marathon.
The only disappointing thing about the weekend was that we didn't get to see the centre of Amsterdam and didn't get to try out any of the cakes or local beers. One drawback to going with a serious athlete I guess.
Roll on Almeria 2011
.
Julie
ps Basic Spanish version of the weekend to follow written by myself
!!
(29-07-2010, 03:09 PM)El Gordo Wrote: (29-07-2010, 01:12 PM)ladyrunner Wrote: I have entered myself for this one. It's was a bit of a rush decision one hour before I went away on my camping holiday last week. Now I have returned and need to start thinking about how I am going to get there and where I am going to stay.
Am going along with an ex-race walker friend from Spain, who is coming to stay in Brighton for 3 months. If I can get them put on my insurance I suppose one option would be to take my motorhome and find a campsite close to the start. If anyone has any experience of the Amsterdam Marathon including travel/accomodation tips they would be much appreciated.
Just need to start some training now but I'm not going for a time, just want to try and enjoy the race.
Julie 
Good on yer.
I don't think any of the regulars here have done the Amsterdam Marathon. I find a good source of info about maras, including loads of reviews from people who've done them, is www.marathonguide.com. Look up the race and you should get a load of stories from years past. NB a lot of the reviews come from Americans who can get a bit moany about things (not that I've read what they say about this one).
All I know about it is that it's dead flat. No doubt you'll tell us more afterwards. In fact, a race report is a requirement 
. Have fun, and don't stray into any of those cafés until after the race. 
