The Halves I Ran in 2013

Yesterday, I officially signed up for my second Egmond Half Marathon. The first half-marathon I will run in 2014.

I have unfinished business to settle with this half-marathon, as well as many other half-marathons I ran this year.

Consulting the tentative list I made in a previous blog Introducing A Look Back Blog Series , I've ran a total of 5 half marathons this year, and one DNF (did not finish).

The 1st half marathon I ran is Egmond - it is literally the first half marathon I have ever ran.  The back ground story of it I briefly mentioned in my end of January, 2013 blog. 

I ran Egmond after more than a year of running (17 months to be exact), and two full marathons behind me.  You can read why I did not run or was not able to run half-marathons first and went straight to running marathons on this blog:

The Halves of Holland (1/3): The Running Road to Egmond Half-Marathon Part 1

The 2nd half marathon I ran is Groet uit Schoorl - my first DNF.

Groet uit Schoorl 2013 -
my first "lost"/"pseudo-finished" unfinished run (DNF)
- I'll be back next year!

Lost in Schoorl as I call my first DNF race in 18 months of running - a running story/lesson to remember, mentioned here in brief, until a blog can be written about it! This race is definitely going on Running Calendar 2014 with a vengeance!

The 3rd half marathon I ran is CPC Run The Hague  - my fastest memorable half-marathon so far.

The 4th half marathon I ran is Luxembourg Night Marathon - not my fastest, not my slowest but unforgettable in so many ways.

It has a lot of firsts; my first half-marathon outside of Holland, the first time I ran on a hilly course, and the first time I became a poster girl for a marathon I ran because of being happy running it! :D

You could read a bit of background story here:

Luxembourg Half-Marathon: RAN!

  image courtesy of Ing Europe-Marathon Luxembourg FB page

The 5th half marathon I ran is Vechtloop Weesp - heartwarming and literally very warm half-marathon!

Vechtloop 2013

This "Colgate" smile was after I saw my split time (10K 1:07:some seconds brutto) and I still was confident, still hoping, that I would at least be in at 2:20:some seconds at the finishline 21 km later in the scorching (for me!) heat.
 

A favourite moment: if you look closely at the background is D a volunteer, who helped me in the last 5 km (I had side pains - not a clever way of hydrating, drank too much, ran too fast).
She was a great morale booster/cheer leader.

Luckily for me 2:35:some seconds later, my lovely solesisters Eva & Udjen were still waiting for me!

The 6th half marathon I ran is Amsterdam Half Marathon - my slowest and almost DNF run.

It was a challenging run but with a lot of support, willpower and determination: I did it!

The words above basically summarized the running motto of all my 5 half marathons (plus the 1 DNF - I ran after all 8 km of the course!) for the year 2013~!