Tip-toe through the tulips ... I mean the crocus crocuses? croci? (was too early for tulips in Holland)! We could not wait to get into our first race of the year, the AD Haagsche Courant 10K was one of the races at the Fortis City-Pier-City Loop Den Haag (kids' races, 5K, 10K and half marathon). My friend Lindsay, who lives in the Hague (and speaks Dutch), picked us up at Schipol Airport on Friday evening. After breakfast at Lindsay's apartment the next morning, we headed to the Malieveld in downtown Hague. 
But we had to stop first by the neighborhood shop to buy some delicious Dutch cheese (got to taste a few varieties at the shop) to take back to Italy. Went back to the apt to drop off the cheese and off to downtown via tram. Outside the train/tram station was a sea of bicycles parked in a lot (how does one know where to find his/her bike?). Lindsay told us the rules of the road where bicyclists are "kings" and pedestrians are not supposed to walk on bike paths and drivers have to give way to bicyclists when turning. 
When we arrived at the start point, the children's race has already started. We looked all over for the registration tent since I needed to pick up my bib and Debi had to register. But there was no sign of it anywhere and the people Lindsay talked to had no idea where the tent was. We finally found someone who directed us to the right place, registration was quite easy; we did not run with a chip since it was only 10K and we had our Garmin watches to keep track of time/pace.
The weather was cold and cloudy with a very light drizzle, quite nice for running. The race started at 1:00 pm with the firing of a very loud cannon, there were lots of runners and all the announcements were in Dutch. We started at a steady, slightly faster pace than our usual training runs. Even so at about 3K, we heard someone on a bike behind us say (in English, maybe he said it first in Dutch but we would not have understood him): “You are the last two …" We turned and saw a race marshal just behind us, with an official vehicle following.
Surely we couldn’t be the last two runners! Anyway, we just ignored him and continued running at the same pace, knowing that some people who started too fast were likely to slow down. Sure enough, by 5K we started passing other runners/walkers. In fact both Debi and I started to feel really good and picked up speed on the second half of the race. Many of the spectators were very nice, cheering us slow runners on, in Dutch of course, although most people here speak pretty good English. Debi said she kept saying "Grazie" while I just smile and wave back. Lindsay said that we were going to see some interesting sights on the route but I could not remember much, except that we passed the impressive Peace Palace. I did not want to slow down to take photos – here is the official website. 
I finished the race in 1:09, Debi came in at 1:12; we both felt pretty good. Back in the apt, Debi had an interesting encounter with the unique heater (photo on left) in the guest room: the towel and headband she put on the heater to dry started to burn! She took a photo of the burnt stuff in the sink but we think it was a bit gross to post on this blog :). 
We topped the excitement of day with a very nice dinner in an Indonesian restaurant. The next day was spent walking around Amsterdam, taking a leisurely lunch at a café (NOT a coffee shop!) and souvenir shopping. By the way, the photo on the right was not taken at an artistic angle, the apartment, typical Dutch style building next to the canal, is leaning over.
Too soon it was time to get back to the airport for our flight to Florence. What a weekend! Thanks to Lindsay for her hospitality (we’re trying to convince her to join us in Dublin in October). For me, it’s on to the Rome Marathon next weekend (Debi is taking off to the Amalfi coast with friends).
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