Rotterdam Marathon

For all the years I’ve been living here I’ve never once bothered to go check out the Rotterdam Marathon.  It just wasn’t something I was interested in at all.  This year I thought I would go and watch, partly because I’m hellbent on getting out and being more involved in things that go on here, but also because I have a better camera now and was interested in taking photos.

I wasn’t sure what time to go over to the area where they’d be passing through our neighbourhood.  We knew the race started at 11am and we are at the 10k mark, so surely it would be a few hours.  That’s how my brain processed it, biking 10k takes me ages, so running must take dogs ages.  I forgot that not everyone runs around on short little roly-poly legs like me.

I also underestimated the Kenyans.  Those guys run like someone just shot a bullet up their ass.

When the race started I was watching on TV and thought ok I have a little while they are just leaving the city center now.  Then five minutes later it was like, holy shit they’re at the stadium already!!  Just to give you an idea, walking from the center to the stadium would take me about 3 hours, 2 pairs of shoes, 4 bottles of water and possibly an ambulance.  Ok, maybe not quite that bad but there would definitely be whining involved.

We threw on our clothes and hoofed it out the door.  We weren’t far from the area they passed by, only about a five minute walk, but it was clear that these people move at superhuman speeds and I didn’t want to risk missing the beginning.  I wanted to get photos of the guys who were leading the pack, but I also wanted to get on TV!!  As you can see in the above photo the dude was too busy watching me to film me and when he did finally get his head back in the game you could only see us from behind.  I know this because we left so quickly we forgot to turn off the TV, so when we got home I hit rewind and went back to when they went by us. All you saw was my leg and the back of Xander’s head.  Bummer…  I was going to take a photo of my momentary leg fame on the TV but as I was trying to get it paused at the right spot our cable box crashed and I lost it.  Typical.

Those guys didn’t get us on TV either.  Slackers.

I got quite a good spot to take photos.  I went to a cross walk and stood on the area that was just inside the barrier so I could get them as they were coming towards me.  It was awesome!  I never thought watching people run could be so much fun, but it actually was.  Not sure if I’d have found it as exciting if I didn’t have my camera with me though, that tends to add an extra bit of enjoyment to everything for me.

Here are some of my favorite photos from the day, for the rest you can check my Flickr Set.

How many funny faces can you fit in one marathon photo? Lots!  That’s one of the best things about a marathon, I’ve learned.  People are tired, stressed, happy, excited and you get to capture it all.  I love photographing people and this makes for a great opportunity for that.  This photo made me chuckle a little because everyone in it is pulling some sort of weird face.

The 10k mark was where the relay runners switched.  This man was greeted excitedly by his family and the little girl, whom I assume is his granddaughter, was most proud of all.

I found myself being sort of fascinated by their legs and feet.  I guess it’s because they are so powerful and lean.  I also just dug this dude’s socks.  It took me back to the 80’s when I was rocking the white pants, hot pink suspenders, green socks, yellow belt and my favorite pair of jelly shoes.

In amongst the pattering of sneakers against the pavement, I heard a faint clicking noise.  As it got closer I realized what it was I was hearing.  This man had just run 10k, and was probably continuing on to do more, with only one leg.  I missed a lot of the upcoming runners as I mentally berated myself for complaining so much about how hard some of the things are that I have the privilege of doing on two legs.

This man stood out to me out of the hundreds who ran by.  I don’t know who he is or what he does.  I don’t know where he comes from, who his family are or what is going on in his life right now.  All I know was that when I watched him he looked so happy. Was he happy because this marathon was a dream of his?  Was he happy because he was running the 10k and saw the end in sight?  Who knows… but he made me smile and whatever made him so happy made me happy for him.  He’s one of those random strangers, like this guy, that I will come back to and ponder on from time to time and wonder who he was.

You know the guy with one leg? Well, take what I said then and put it here only about eyes.  The lady with the flowers was being interviewed for TV because she is blind, and with the help of her running partner on her right, she had just completed the 10k portion of the race.  How awesome is that?!

As the crowd of runners thinned out at the end, the water boys and girls became amusingly competitive about who would get to pass the water.  Running ahead of each other, joking and trying to get the runners’ attention and being generally comical.  I’m pretty sure the runners always went for whichever was first within reach.

As we were walking home I was thinking that I was sure glad it wasn’t me who had to clean up.  The entire road around the 10k mark was completely covered in these little cups.  Those marathon runners are such litterbugs!