NN Marathon Rotterdam 2025 | hitting the wall
Hi all!
Today was my big day! I had the NN Marathon Rotterdam 2025 today - where I hoped to break my PR.
Today was an amazing experience, I really enjoyed the event and all the amazing support both from friends and family aswell as almost a million supporters that where present. I was not able to break my PR infact I hit the wall very very hard at 32km. For today I will look back proudly because “the harder the battle , the sweeter the victory”. I feel I left most on the track as I nearly fainted waiting for the metro back home - and needed my wife to get the car and pick me up from the metro (which I would normally be way to proud for to even ask 🤣). Two hours later, I am oke again!
With regards to my PR attempt. I don’t exactly know what went wrong today. I didn’t feel stressed, had a great training camp and didn’t push in the first half. I ran at comfortable pace with a low zone 3 heartrate - which should even set me up for negative splits. Still at 29km I noticed cramp building up and saw my heartrate rise. I decided to go for plan b and avoid hitting the wall. I slowed down in order to lower my heartrate but I was unsuccessful. At 32km I was no longer able to ignore the cramps. Forcing me to stretch and run again (in repeat). While it definitely didn’t go as planned I will break that PR the next time. I am far from done and will rebuild and become stronger than I was today. Infact my next marathon is already planned (30th November) but might also do one in between.
Some cool photos of today
Amazing friend came to cheer for me!
Hugging my oldest daughter at 41km
We will be back stronger!
Happy running! <3
I can't even imagine getting back up after a cramp and running another 10Km. I can see you dropped the camelbak, how did you felt about it?
You're amazing, congrats!
Thank you 🙏 ❤️
Yeah, it was a good call To drop that as it turned out way hotter than forecasted. I managed to drink at every station and in the second half 2x at every station. I will practice on running + drinking as at the first few stations I lost +/- 50% of the drink by trowing it in my face.
But yeah way lighter! I’ll keep the camelback for trails and just use the stations in the next marathons!
¿ᴺᵉᶜᵉˢᶦᵗᵃˢ ᴴᴮᴰ? ᵀᵉ ˡᵒ ᵖʳᵉˢᵗᵃᵐᵒˢ ᶜᵒⁿ @ruta.loans
What a great participation, congratulations. We are thrilled to have been present in Rotherdam.
It was amazing and a honor to represent the team! ❤️
Excellent time. It is exciting to run in such an important marathon and with so many people supporting us, congratulations
Thank you! Very proud to represent the team! ❤️
Looking forward to the next few races!
Good representation !BBH !IDD !HOPE
congratulations, remember being able to marathon with lots of people
Felicitaciones amigo por haber culminado no cualquiera continua después de unos calambres.
Thank you!!
Congrats on completing the Marathon! Regardless of the time, it is always an amazing achievement!
It is easy to get disappointed, especially when you had a specific time to aim for. I'm sure there is lots too learn, so you can come back stronger, and beat it next time
What is your PB? How close were you to beating it?
Thanks for the encouraging words!
My PR is 3:22:37 from a couple of years back. Honestly I felt that beating that would be a walk in the park today as my trainingscamp went almost perfect. But most importantly it was amazing today and like you said, I can come back stronger the next time!
Ah ok.... you're a bit quicker than me then!
(I've only previously done one official trail marathon race in 5:20, but I've since done some marathon length training runs in approx 4:20-4:30, and I suspect I'd be able to get under the 4 hour mark if I managed to get an injury free training block done!)
And yes, it can be frustrating to have a great training period, and then not match that on race day!
I hope you don't mind some thoughts/advice - when I read your report it sounds like both the cramp and the 'dizzy spell' at the end might be linked to dehydration? What was the weather like in Rotterdam? Here in the UK we currently have warmer weather than normal, and I wondered if that might have contributed too?
Thank you! Yeah we analyzed what happened - most likely it was dehydration / lack of salt. It was warmer than usual - I drank water rather than sportsdrink with electrolytes and was only able to use my salt tabs for +/- first 18km (they fell on the ground). After the finish my whole face was covered in salt and I nearly fainted so big chance this was atleast one of the attributing factors.
What kind of injury are you recovering from?
Ah yes, definitely sounds like dehydration was a factor then... sounds like you well aware of the solutions in order to prepare for the next event :-)
I've had a groin/hip adductor issue for a few months now, it appeared last November .I've spent the last 3 months with rest and physio treatment and stretching and strength exercises, and I am now finally on the mend (fingers crossed). Looking forward to finally getting back into a more normal training routine... and I already have a Half-marathon booked on October later this year!
Congratulations, my friend, for your participation in that marathon. You were incredible despite the setbacks. You are a beast.
Thank you my friend!
Great to see all the hard work paid off! Thank you for taking us all on the journey with you.
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STOPWell done!👏👏
Don't let the time drag you down, you still ran a marathon and no one can take that away from you 💪
Thanks man! Yeah it was a lot of fun!
Also that it hardly ever goes as planned is part of the experience! That you have to dig deep and really ask yourself how bad you want it is very cool!
Also learned more about the need to have sufficient salt in your system 😆
Cramp is really a b*tch. Salt and hydrating is important while running these longer distance.
Have experienced the same thing on Lidingöloppet.
yeah great lesson for next run! There was suppost to be rain and some thunderstorm, but that didn’t happen instead we had loads of sun but with high humidity. I made an error doubling down on the water stands without doubling down on salt.
Good morning. Congratulations. Congratulations.
You have my respect🙇🏼♀️!! Huuuge congratulations!!
Thank you!