Arjen Robben ended his football career with Groningen last summer. But instead of raising his legs, he discovered a new passion. The 38-year-old now runs more kilometers than he did in years as a winger anyway.
Robben ran his first marathon in Rotterdam on Sunday. For a long time he was moving at the speed of an arrow. The former Bayern Munich star reaches a length of 35 kilometres, constantly running just over four minutes per kilometer. But at the remaining 7,000 meters, he is bothered by convulsions. It is noticeably slower. He still covered 42.195 kilometers in an impressive time of 3:13:57 hours.
‘It was a real fight’
Even though Robin reached his target time almost completely on point, he clearly didn’t enjoy the marathon very much. He admits it to regional station Regenmond: “I did, but that’s it. That was a real fight. At first I was a bit concerned with time, but at some point you just threw it into the sea. Then you survive. But I did it.”
As an added motivation, Robin started with former speed skater Erben Wennemars. “I have a wonderful bunny with me,” he joked about his opponent before firing the starter pistol. Winimars himself is very satisfied with Robben after the race. “Every now and then he collapses a little bit. But it’s great that he did it,” he praises. From now on, the ex-footballer can not only call himself the champion of the Champions League, but also can proudly call himself a “marathonner”. (Sword)