I started running when I was 10 years old. My first run was the 1986 City Pier City Run 5k with my class when I was in elementary school. I finished far before my classmates and other kids my age. A few weeks later I joined the local athletics club. I started with running 1000 meters and later in life I specialized in running 800 meters.
Looking back I had my running peak during my D-juniors (U14) period. With a 1000 meter PB of 3:01 I regularly won races and eventually won the U14 cross competition in the region The Hague (NL). When I became a C-junior (U16) I started exploring indoor events and I started running 800 meters instead of 1000 meters. During this period I found out that I preferred cross country races over indoor races. The indoor track and conditions didn't suit me well and the outdoor conditions felt much better. During this period I decided that the 800 meters was what I really liked and wanted to specialize in, not knowing that life was about to change in a few years. Eventually my U16 800 meters PB became 2:00 a time that I couldn't improve when I became a B-junior (U18). As I got older I got more problems with longer distances, I couldn't improve my 800 meter time and eventually I ended up in the hospital diagnosed with stage 3 thyroid cancer. Now everything became clear, why I didn't get faster and developed problems with my running condition.
In the beginning of my diagnosis the expectation was that I wasn't going to survive. The tumor had spread through the upper part of my body including the lungs and liver. So I decided to enjoy the part of my life that I had left and see how it would end. During 2 years of surgeries, treatments with radioactive iodine and recovery my interests and way of life changed and I did not always make the healthiest choices. Eventually the treatments had good results and I survived stuck in my "new life" smoking and partying. As I got older and matured my life got more stable and relaxed, I bought a house, got married and settled as most grown-ups do. But again my way of life was going to change. I wanted to quit my unhealthy lifestyle and work on my condition, and yes I tried to run and quit smoking a few times but that didn't work in the situation that I was stuck in. In 2019 my marriage ended in a divorce, I sold my house and the pandemic came. After a year of getting my life together I stopped smoking and picked up running. My first intention was to work on my condition and to empty my mind. In the beginning I combined cycling and running, not verry structured but when I felt like it. Eventually I started with running a 5k cross country once a week and before I knew it twice a week. After a while I added a 5k road run. Slowly my tempo improved and the runs became longer and longer. What also improved over time where my lungs and I started feeling like a runner again.
In 2024 I decided to start a more serious and structured training schedule to see if it was possible to regain my old running form and start racing again. I started with a weekly training plan consisting of; a long run, a threshold run and an interval session. When I finished my 10k training runs between 43 and 45 minutes I realized that with more serious training it should be possible to run a sub40 10K, a really acceptable time even for young healthy runners. In december 2025 I joined the local athletics club nearby and I signed up for my first 10k race which I finished in 40:19. On the 11th of juli at the age 50 I ran my first half marathon finishing third in 1 hour 27 minutes and 43 second, a result I'm really pleased with.
