Floris Gierman narrates his sister Janneke's first marathon in Amsterdam, tracking her splits, heart rate around 145-157 bpm, and nutrition strategy of gels every 30 minutes. She runs past the Olympic Stadium and Vondelpark, then shares her advice for first-timers: start easy, hold back for 32 km, then push hard.
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All right, we're here in Amsterdam running the marathon with my sister. It's her first marathon. Janneke, how are you feeling? Very relaxed. Very relaxed, a little bit nervous, and very excited.
Here we go!
Olympic Stadium over here in Amsterdam. Beautiful. This is Janneke's first marathon and we're about half a mile in and the first comment was, we are going a little bit fast. Yeah, so, uh, we're getting into the groove of things, finding a pace. Janneke is going to Aim to run around a 4-hour marathon. I'm gonna run by feel, my heart rate, my pace. Cheering squad. We are going through the Vondelpark. Things are looking good. Janik's heart rate, 145-ish. Nice way to ease into it. Looking good, Jan. Yeah, yeah, we're going to run through the museum right Now, Rijksmuseum, let's go! 5K in, legs feeling good, but we're running a little too fast, so we're going to dial it back a bit. You're the king, man!
Respect!
Well done, man! Damn, we're about 10K in. Ah, there's the 10K sign. Janneke is cruising. Just saw the folks, there they go with the flow sign, and Janneke is, uh, running with the flow. Gel number 2. So Janneke and I, we talked about a nutritional strategy of every 30 minutes a gel for her. So if you think of Precision Hydration, 30 grams of carbs per gel, so it's about 60 grams an hour, and then one salt pill an hour as well. So we're going to take a salt pill. Yeah, the temperatures are quite cool, so that's nice. Keeps the heart rate under control and not sweating too crazy. How we doing, Jan? 15K in?
Yeah, yeah, super.
Okay, super.
You keep it slow.
Of course. It's so easy to get caught to run fast, especially when it's your first marathon. So look, I'm a bit at heart rate, looking a bit at pace and going with the flow. Doesn't get more Dutch than this— windmills. So I almost lost Annika in the stampede of people. I've never seen this at a marathon. Hills and bridges over here. So we're adjusting our pace a little, keeping the effort level the same, getting passed by people left and right, and that's okay. It's so cool, they actually wrote your names on your bibs. So Flora's and Janneke, and we keep hearing people yell our names. Gives you energy for sure. All right, water station chaos. Ambulance. Jesus, chaos. Jesus, still missed it. Halfway point coming up. All right, John, check in. How we doing? How the legs feeling?
Yeah, heartbeat, heartbeat is good.
What's your heart rate at?
153.
153. How are the energy levels?
Also good. Yeah, a little jealous already. I can keep this going.
Excellent.
And the temperature is good and we have a lot of entertainment along the road.
Exactly. All right, top waypoint in 1:59 and about 10 seconds, right at about sub- 4 marathon pace. Let's see if we can hold it, Jan.
Yeah, it's challenging.
No pressure. Wildlife in Holland, you get llamas and plenty of cows and sheep. In the US, when people are cheering, they say, let's go! Here in Holland, they say, lekere beezen. 25K in. 2:20 and 32 seconds. Janneke needs some Dutch techno to keep her vibes going.
Oomph, oomph, oomph, oomph.
Trying to keep up with Janneke. She's in the zone. We're about 30K in. I don't want to talk to her. I don't want to distract her. She's just doing her thing, ticking away the Ks. 32 kilometers and 2:59. 10K to go. All right, Jan, this is the check-in, so let's talk for a minute. How are you feeling right now? How are your energy levels?
Pretty good. Yeah, my legs start to hurt a bit.
Okay, it's mile 20, that's totally normal.
My heart rate is a bit up.
What are we at?
157.
Okay, that's good. Okay, so now we can decide, do we want to Do we want to keep running this pace? No. Do we want to pick it up a little?
Yeah.
All right, great. That's a really good sign. So 10K to go. I'll follow your lead. Okay, let's enjoy these last 10Ks. Yeah, I'm super proud of you. Yeah, as a pacer, I gotta remind myself to drink as well. Let's try to catch up again. 3:09:45. Starting to see more and more people walking and cramping. Yep, it's that stage of the race. This is my favorite part of the race. We're 36K in, running smooth. So, Yannick, I think when you get to the end of the marathon and it starts to get a bit hard, yeah, to try to run as relaxed as possible. So drop the shoulders, Keep the chest open, even the hands, not so tight. You're doing so good, nice work. Let's finish strong. Uphill, so we're just cruising, same effort. 37K and the legs are getting sensitive. Yannick is picking up the pace and I'm just trying to keep up. 38K in 3:31, you're on 4K to go. Running our own race, smooth cruising, controlled and pushing it. It's so rad to see we're running like 8:15, 8:20 minute mile, then it gets passing people left and right. They give so much energy. Yeah, best family support right there. Good, we did it!
We did it! Such a strong finish. It's not that hard.
Look at that. Okay, Jan, so we just finished your first marathon. What were your thoughts going into it at the start line?
I was very nervous, especially for the last 10K because I never did it before.
What was going through your mind for the last 10K? Why were you nervous? Like, what was it? Just the unknown?
Yeah, and I thought that my legs would hurt like shit, and it was pretty okay. I was even able to go fast.
So how did we go about— what did What did you decide to do during the race? How did things go?
It went very easy, so we had to slow down a few times.
Because you were running more than 30, 40 seconds faster than your initial idea of your pace, right? You wanted to run around a 9:10 minute mile, that was around, or like around a 9:05 minute mile, that would be just sub-4.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And then we looked on your watch a few times and it was like 30 seconds a mile faster.
Yeah, and then we had to slow down. Slow down, and we slowed down a few times, and then you said, okay, when did you say, at 32 you can go? So that's what we did.
Yeah, well, and we only slowed it down a little bit. You were still going faster than estimated race pace.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
We came through the halfway point at 1:59, then 1:59, we're like, okay, we gotta work for it to get under 2 hours. Yeah, so you did the first—
you said no pressure.
So what was going through your mind the last 10K when it was getting a little tougher?
My, my, my legs hurt a bit, but I thought, well, I can handle this, it's not so bad. So just keep on going.
What would you do different for the next one?
Um, maybe a bit faster in the beginning, but I don't know if you then hit the wall later on. So maybe I would do it the same.
It's a, it's a fine line.
Yeah, now it, it turned out very good, perfectly.
Do you have any advice for people who have never done a marathon or are thinking about the last 10K?
Start easy and run easy for the first 32, and then just go. That's it.
Just go.
Go.
When you get tired, just run faster.
Yeah.
Okay.
And you?
Now we got to meet mom and dad.
Gassho place.
And we're going to eat all the Dutch food and snacks in the world. Y'all hear st—
