When travelling to a marathon abroad with the primary supporter wifey (aka the queen), at arrival at the race location priorities may slightly diverge.
Arrival at Amsterdam Schiphol airport, the queen goes “oh look at all those variations of stroopwaffles in the shops here, shouldn’t we buy some?” The runner goes “the food on the flight wasn’t supporting a 70% carbs diet, how to get this corrected now during the rest of the day?”
On the train towards Rotterdam, btw. many European countries (foremost the Deutsche Bahn) could learn from the Dutch railway system. Trains between major cities in a 15 to 20 minute interval at unbeatable low prices - Amsterdam airport to Rotterdam, about 45 minute connection is EUR 10,20. That’s what railtraffic is about, no fuss connections from A to B for the masses. Not some imaginary high profile competition to short haul air-travel with overpriced tickets and high tech trains with constant problems and delays.
The queen on the train, “oh look at all those tulips and crocus fields”. The runner, “this land is flat which is good for the race and windy, which might be tricky, what race strategy to apply?”
When in Rotterdam, the queen gets amazed by all those bicycles all around and the modern architecture, “we need to do a modern architecture walk, while we’re here, perhaps we can borrow some bikes somewhere” she says. The runner scratches his head, “eh yes, we came here to do some distance, but wasn’t the plan to do it in a running style?”
The day prior to the race is the time to pick up starting material (start number, latest infos, some more Power Bars and a foot massage 
). Of course the place to do that is located in the World Trade Center in the middle of Rotterdam, next to the one of Europe’s shopping paradises, the Coolsingel/Blaak quarters. The queen is all eyes for “so cute baby and small children clothing, perfect for the princess”, who stayed at home. The runner, wears horse eye shields and only sees the Adidas running logos that cover the entrance area of the marathon registration and exhibition hall.
But what would be a marathon race without the best support with you. A spring without tulips or the Netherlands without Stroopwaffles… 
today’s training: 20 minutes warm up and some accelerations, went really well
Tags: rotterdam marathon
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