On Saturday 13th April, Myra and I set off to the Netherlands for our Spring race of choice – the Enschede Marathon and Half Marathon. Enschede (pronounced ‘En-schk-de’, not ‘En-shed’ as we’d been telling people) is the oldest marathon in the Netherlands and promised a flat (obviously), well supported city race.
A small expo awaited us on arrival with the usual array of running vendors and promotional material. Numbers were collected with minimal hassle, despite some payment difficulties (must be Brexit, we were informed) and then we spent the rest of the day sheltering from hail and blizzards.
Thankfully, race day brought an improvement in the weather – still cold at the start, but not a cloud in the sky so things soon warmed up. It wasn’t my day in the half, but a good atmosphere and nice route kept me going to the city centre finish. Myra got to go round again for a slightly different second lap to complete the marathon as 12th lady (behind no less than 7 elites from Africa).
Results:
Myra ran 3:04:01 in the marathon (80th overall, 12th Female, 3rd FV35)
I ran the half in 1:36:00 and was 317th overall and 66th M35.