Right outside the Nieuwmarket metro stop is a 1488 city gate that houses a restaurant and cafe and serves as a landmark entrance to the famous red light district of Amsterdam.

This is my fourth time to run Amsterdam so I can say it’s my favorite European marathon. It’s close to where we live, the race course is beautiful, and finishing together with the half marathoners is just the perfect push to pick up our pace when we’ve already faded in the second half.

Richard and I took the three-hour intercity train to Amsterdam Central Station from Brussels Midi Station early in the afternoon of Saturday, October 20, 2018. We got off at the Sloterdijk station to check in at Holiday Inn Express, our race hotel.

We bought two-day train tickets and hopped on the green line M50  metro to take us to the Amstelveenseweg stop. We walked the few meters to the Sporthallen Zuid where we can pick up the bib at the race expo.

There were clear directions to the race expo; the blowup superhero greeted everyone at the entrance to Sporthallen Zuid.

We quickly got my race bib and  stopped by another booth to ensure my timing strip was working and the information correct. The pre-registration for the race was 75€ including the T-shirt.

We spent a few minutes checking out the various exhibitors. One of the exhibitors was promoting Cannabis Gold with products made from marijuana!

I bought some Reskin and shoe laces and made our way out before I decided to buy more stuff!

We made a short stop at the red light district to have a quick pasta dinner at Del Posto. We couldn’t stay out late because of the early race start the next morning.

Back at the hotel, I checked out the goody bag which contained only a race shirt and the bib. I sometimes have chafing so hopefully this ReSkin product that I bought earlier at the expo would help avert that problem.

We had an early breakfast before taking the metro back to Amsteelvenseweg for the race start at the Olympic stadium. There were 45,000 runners coming from 145 countries that weekend!

There were many merchandisers at the race start, promoting various products and giving away lots of samples. Richard and I snagged some yogurts to eat later.

The course was very familiar by now. We saw the same sights and actually the same entertainers from the previous years.

I ran my way to the finish in 5:18.

The finishers’ area had more products being given away.

We navigated our way back to the hotel where I changed clothes and cleaned up. I took home several of the products being given away at the finishers’ area. Sweet!

We hopped on the metro  again to go to Amsterdam central station for our Eurostar train back to Brussels. I didn’t realize that I booked us on the Standard Premier class and was pleasantly surprised by the food and wine served. What a nice way to end a great marathon!