Back to walking...the 'Vierdaagse van Nijmegen', one of the acknowledged traditions in the Netherlands...the organisation has filed to be recognised as a 'World Heritage Event' with UNESCO...haha, these Dutchies...always think they have something more exceptional than dykes, polders, tulips, windmills and tolerance for marihuana selling coffee shops!
Well this time let me be short:
Comments...this walk of the world is getting close to be walked for the 100st time (it was cancelled during the WorldWar 2..I guess the Germans did not appreciate it really). I believe in 2016 will be the 100 year jubilee and I intend to be there; it is indeed a happening as the whole town of Nijmegen breathes this event for a full week. Huge festivities with renowned actors, music and noise galore; with more drunken students than there are cobblestones in the old city! All is allowed and in the morning when I walk to the start of the walk at 04.00 hrs., one wades in some streets through the plastic bottles, beer holders and other debris of the party goers...who evidently do not walk themselves. I am used to it now and I do wish to continue this walking tradition myself. Although there is full abstinence for adult beverages for me until the end of the 4th day. I now walk every day 40 kms...2 days very fast / racewalk / and 2 days at a leisure pace.
Compliments: every year things work out well; the organisation knows what to do and steers about 30.000 walkers through the urban and rural areas of 'het Rijk van Nijmegen'. The start is a bit old fashioned but it works: you have a card and get it stamped...haha. Walkers are a happy crowd, with a lot of people from other countries; it is fun to be with those who have a positive mind. 'Wandern macht frei'!
Complaints: the routes never change and urban growth gobbles up God's nature. My first walk was in 1972 and I can see the difference....too much nowadays walking through the suburbs. Then there is no way to suggest how to do things differently: the management of the event simply has never heard of a feedback mechanism. The waiting for 30-40 minutes every morning before the start could be diminished significantly if an electronic system was introduced. If one returns before 11 am...then one has to wait to be checked out. When I racewalk I arrive around 10 am...just to hang around for nothing is really not acceptable these days anymore. And the medal on its hanger with a poorly designed clip is too 'cheapy' an affair. Nearly lost it in the town. By a miracle I got it back..I started looking for it in the street and suddenly a couple came up to me and asked me if I had lost something. They had found my medal and believed indeed it was mine!! My friend Gerard took this pic on the dyke close to Nijmegen...one sees the river 'Waal' and the railway bridge. There is another road bridge some 2 kms. further...and that is the one that on day 1 needs to be crossed before the finish....the dyke is a long one...about 6 kms. and when it is warm, very warm it is a 'killer' for the untrained.
Over to my 4th Miami marathon....this one did really hurt as I had not trained a meter...I have decided not to risk such exhaustion anymore next year if I do not train at least 125 kms before. The first 24 kms went actually very well...just trotting along. My daughter Kesso overtook me after 17 kms...as usual, but then she does the half-marathon. Then I basically lost my pace slowly but steadily, had a pee at km. 26 and then simply could not jog anymore...back to racewalking but even that was slow. I had to stop for 5 minutes in Coconut Grove and another minute close at Monthy's restaurant also in the Grove, overlooking the harbour...nearly gave up...my stomach was not 100% either...but I had not come all the way to Florida to throw in the towel. Rickenbacker Causeway....ouff...I just walked over it / across it...and then finally I walked up and alongside a lady who was even more messed up than me...she smiled and said 'I am half dead but I'll finish it'...so that worked for me. At the finish Kesso was waiting and I actually was able to pull off a little sprint and racewalk duckwalk during the last 200 meters.....time...? 5 hours 57 minutes 31 seconds / my worst marathon on record. The marathon speaker when I went through the finish shouted ....'Mire come corre ese Senor'!! Ole!!
Pictures above with Nicole and Kesso at the end of it all.
Thanks to those who have supported me....Antonet Adolfs, Gerard Verstappen, Henk,Ellie,Kesso, Sylvie, Nathalie, Valerie (all van Zutphen family), Mrs. Guus Vollebergh-van Leent, Jan Konings, Jos Schenaerts, Henk...the wheelchair racer..see you later this year in July in Nijmegen again!, Nicole Peter, Sandra Calderon, Eric Williams, Johanne Mosscrop, Gerard van der Meeren, Batshe Chibafa, and my special friend H.B.
And here are the visuals about my work ....
