I managed to run a half marathon! During the Marathon Eindhoven on October 12th 2008, I completed the distance in 2 hours, 36 minutes and 52 seconds, which is 8 minutes faster than I had planned for. And I managed to smile pretty much the entire time.

I was never particularly good at sports, and by 2000 or so, I had even dropped most of the activities I had enjoyed in the past. In the years that followed, I had no energy or endurance at all. I sometimes even skipped going to class because cycling to university seemed like too much work. Until one day - May 25th, 2003, to be precise, I'd had enough, and started on a beginner's training schedule for running.

I fell out of the habit of running a couple of times, mostly stopping in autumn and starting again in spring. But in 2005/2006, I managed to continue running through the winter, and I've managed to keep it up ever since. I run once a week most of the time, or twice during the summer holidays when other sports activities are not available. And while I could not keep up running for 12 minutes when I started, I regularly run for over an hour at a time now. I'm not very fast - usually between 8 and 10 km per hour - but I've built a lot of endurance over time.