Yesterday I had my longest training session of the preparation for the Amsterdam Marathon next month: 34km in slightly less than 3 hours. Just few meters into the run a thought came to my mind. Four years ago, I called myself crazy when I decided to enter the 20km of Brussels for the first time; not because I thought I would not be able to run it in a good time, but because I was not even sure if I would be able to make the distance. By then, the longest I had run was 10km. And somehow that seemed the limit.
But now, going for a morning run of 34km did not seem crazy at all. I just saw it as a normal training session; tough, but perfectly doable. And this gave me a really good feeling. It was really rewarding to realize how my run has improved, both physically and mentally, in these four years. Not that I am particularly proud of my running skills; I am just an ordinary amateur runner. But I do love running, and I am enormously happy that doing what I love over and over again, stride after stride, km after km, has brought some serious improvement in my running performances. And I hope that the next four years will bring new challenges and achievements. And, of course, completing a full ironman is still part of the dream; training (first for the triathlon short distances, of course) are planned to start next year.
