No clouds in sight. It hasn’t rained for the past two weeks. It will rain soon. The air smells like spring. The lines at the portable toilets are as long as they will be. The lockers are too small. The drop bags are too big for the lockers. The lockers are sold out. Protect the pin of your locker. My bag doesn’t fit into the locker. Someone didn’t book a locker at all. Someone forgot their bib. Someone forgot their pins. Someone forgot the sunscreen. Someone forgot to send their bib number to her boyfriend. A couple takes a selfie. A gel is ripped off and chugged. A yellow dragon is adjusting his tail. Select activity. Run. Today’s suggestion: rest. Dismiss. Start. 21k to go.
Every race occupies a specific place in every runners’ personal cosmology. This is ours. Races that we dream to run. Races we want to run but are not dreams. Races we don’t want to run. Races we never thought we would have run till we did. The Den Haag Half Marathon falls into the last category. Before moving to the Netherlands two years ago, even visiting Den Haag never crossed our minds. Let alone going there to run. But here we are after a short train ride from Amsterdam at the start line for the second time. Not just one, but both of us behind this little blog.
Tap here to power up. Hup Bart hop! Only 2k to beer. Lekker pace! Remember you paid for this. Let’s go! Uuuuuh Oooooh
We never visited Den Haag. This race is the only way we experienced the city. Den Haag is very different from Amsterdam. The buildings are new. There are skyscrapers. The sea is only a few kilometers away. There is a lot of space. The roads are large. The roads are straight. The roads are flat. A mix that makes the Den Haag Half Marathon known to be fast and attracts more than 10 thousands runners every year. Among this crowd we are squeezed waiting for our turn to cross the start line. The ORANGE start line. It couldn't be any other color. One looking to score a PB and break the 1h30 mark. One ready to pace an ambitious girlfriend at her first half marathon.
Songs you will hear at any race in the Netherlands. The only way is up - Martin Garrix, Tiësto. Hey Brother - Avicii. REMEDY - Alesso. Runaway (U & I) - Galantis. What is love - Haddaway.
The course is a simple big loop heading from the town center to south then west to the seaside and back. On a day that betrays us as the start of the spring, all the half million inhabitants of Den Haag seem to be out cheering for us. There must be someone we know. Some with coffees. Some with cakes. Some with beers. Some with glasses of wine. Everyone is ready to spot that friend, that colleague, that relative, that dad, that daughter, that mom crazy enough to run 21k for fun. You spot the person and shout. They shout back. They keep running. You go back on your phone checking the live tracking.
Real names of restaurants on Den Haag seaside. Beachclub Copacabana. The fat mermaid. El niño Beach Club. Crosta Pizzabar. I’ve got my ice on you.
How entertaining are things that go well? Do we need ups and downs to make a sports achievement legendary? The man going for his PB starts fast and way ahead of pace. Start fast and hold it. If you fade later you will have a margin to play with, we told him. He holds it till the last 5k. Then he fades but it doesn’t matter. Sub 1h30 it is. The girlfriend who only ran more than 10k once in her life starts ahead of the fastest time we could think of. She holds it till the end. 1h43. The pacer is happy. He felt a bit like a pro pacer working for a professional athlete. Someone else's PB can be rewarding as yours. The yellow dragon might have run his PB too.
As runners keep crossing the finish line, we drink our beers with the sun drying our salty faces. Strangers who ran with us start to follow us on Strava and will be precious kudos in the near future. Among the pictures we airdrop to each other, a t-shirt says it all:
Run happy. Run grump. Run speedy. Run slow. Run a little. Run a lot. Just run.
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