- I live in beautiful Amsterdam-Zuid, where everything is within walking or cycling distance. I feel truly at home here.
- My bike means a great deal to me; it’s over 20 years old and used to be my mother’s. As they say, a Dutchman learns to cycle before he learns to run.
- In 2012 and 2015, I cycled the Tour de France one day ahead of the professionals. I cycled over 3,000 kilometers in three weeks, pedaling along to the mantra: “Eat, move, sleep, repeat!”
- During the mid-1970s, I’d run in the summer to get fit for the soccer season. There I was, smoking with my running buddies (back then, it was normal to have a post-run cigarette), entirely unaware that the US was experiencing its first major ‘running boom’.
- My first race was probably around 1976, give or take a year. It was a cross-country 10K, and my picture was in the newspaper. Beaming with pride, I showed my parents, who were relieved that I was spending my Sunday afternoons running, instead of in the pub.
- I started to take running more seriously when I moved to the US for my studies in September 1978. I saw runners on campus at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, and I bought my first running shoes from JCPenney. Little did I know…
- My first marathon was the 1981 New York Marathon. Living in Milwaukee, I read “How to prepare for your first marathon” from Runner’s World. I ran in a pair of (then-famous) Nike Waffle Trainers and finished in a net time of 3:36:39. Alberto Salazar won and set a (temporary) world record with his time of 2:08:13. Among the women, Alison Roe of New Zealand won in 2:25:28. It wasn’t until a few years later that I learned that the course was about 150 meters too short, meaning the records were disqualified.
- In 1983, I ran my fastest marathon. Just two weeks(!) after I ran 3:13:15 in Athens, I ran even faster in New York: 3:11 and something. When I told Michael Capiraso, President of the New York Road Runners, he said: “Nobody runs his personal best in New York.”
- My main frustration in life is not having run a sub-3:00. Even more so, because if I had known then what I know now, I could have done it. But’s that’s all wisdom afterwards
- My favorite marathons: New York (for the excitement), Boston (for the history), Big Sur (simply spectacular), Two Oceans (one of a kind) and Terschelling (for the nature).
- My 50th, 55th and 60th birthdays were all the Chicago marathons. The 60th was in 2013, in my own 60th year on the planet. On the plane back to Amsterdam, I met the male winner, Dennis Kimetto, and the female winner, Rita Jeptoo. (In 2014, Dennis set a world record in Berlin for a time of 2:02:57, and Rita was found guilty of a doping violation).
- My favorite running routes are a 6K and 10K around Vondelpark, a 16K from the Amstel to Ouderkerk, and the reservoir in Central Park when I’m in New York.
- Twice a week, I go to a Les Mills Body Pump class in Medico Vision in the Olympic Stadium, where during the early 70s, I saw Ajax play against Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Celtic, Benfica and Real Madrid.
- I have a season ticket for my other love, Ajax, the club home to the most famous number 14 ever: Johan Cruyff.