Marathon report

Thoughts from the half-marathon today in Leiden:

1. My start number was 2563. The smallest prime factor of 2563 is 11. I was hoping it would be a larger number, or maybe 2563 would be prime, so I could spend time working it out in my head. Running is rather boring sometimes.
2. I achieved my goal of finishing under 2 hours. Other than that, if you want to know my time, you can probably find it with some good internet sleuthing and intelligent guesswork with Dutch here.
3. Running shoes are way better than indoor soccer shoes for running long distances.
4. Weather was ideal. About 15 C, and a mix of sun and cloud.
5. The most surprising thing for me was that, amongst the water, Gatorade, oranges and bananas, you could also get free beer in the start/finish area (after you finished, of course).
6. I committed a mortal sin and spent about 1 or 2 minutes not running, but walking.
7. Dutch moment of the day: having a conversation with a guy without him figuring out I was foreign. The breathless patter of the running class is hard enough to understand without it being in another language. He was doing the full marathon.
8. People who run full marathons are beasts.

I'm sure you would all love to see a picture of me finishing, but I have none. Imagine I guy in a blue shirt with a beard and a little bit sweaty, with a cheap medal on, and wearing number 2563.

UPDATE, 15/6/2005: The marathon website has video clips of everyone finishing, including me (RealPlayer). Unfortunately, whoever transferred the video to computer managed somehow to get it rotated 90 degrees so you'll have to tilt your head (or your computer if you've got a laptop) to make sense of things. I'm the guy in the blue shirt finishing when the big clock reads 2:00:16 (not my official time, on account of the mass start).