Runner Roy Hoornweg will live the sporting fairy tale of his life on Sunday: “ How cool is running on a track? ”

Eight five-kilometer laps on the track. And then two more kilometers to and from a hangar with departure and arrival. The whole constitutes the marathon which will take place on Sunday morning at Twente airport near Enschede. About eighty athletes are at the start and all are high level. At least one of them is “making his debut” on the distance from the king and that is Roy Hoornweg. “How cool is walking in an airport? On the runway, with tight asphalt and very wide.”

It’s a remarkable story, because runner Hoornweg normally deals with completely different things. As fast as he can in the 5,000-meter or half-marathon and keeping pace with others in the early stages of a world record attempt, he normally does. But the desire for the famous 42 km and 195 meters was there. A supersonic training carried out remotely in December opened some unexpected doors, he turned out to have unsuspected talents for it.

Hoornweg: “I have always dreamed of the marathon. And on Sunday I will become a real marathoner. I can feel it on my face when I talk about it, I will shine completely. It is kind of a dream.” And indeed; Hoornweg, 31, shines from ear to ear. So it’s not just any marathon: an Olympic ticket is at stake.

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Participation in the Sapporo Olympics in July is normally in line with Papendrecht’s Olympic idea: participating is more important than winning. But that’s no less anticipation. Hoornweg: “The games are the tallest of the tallest. To be there. The Olympic Village. It is just magical.” An additional advantage: an Olympian is a real person. This experience generally opens many commercial doors in the post-athletic career.

De Papendrecht has had a successful career in which in recent years he has mainly focused on the pace of the best players in the world. Successfully and often right on second, he guides the best through the early stages of their race. This means keeping out of the wind, making sure you don’t run too slowly, but certainly not too fast, and accepting and passing on water bottles. He is commended for this work. But it was not all the gold that shone for the athlete.

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Completely broken

Five years ago, Hoornweg tried unsuccessfully to reach 5,000 meters in the Rio games. It turned out badly out of sheer bad luck. “It was a low point. I then raised 12,000 euros with Roy2Rio, a crowdfunding. I trained for a hundred days in Australia and the United States. I was just married and gone for so long. I left home and home to focus solely on I did all I could. A few days before the end of the project, I was unexpectedly drawn to the decisive race at Stanford University in the United States. I had nowhere to go. It was finished. I was heartbroken. “

This grief was deep and did not really manifest until a year later. He made a presentation on Roy2Rio for his sponsors and donors. A slideshow with photos and stories. While he was talking there, he broke. Everything came out. Cry my eyes. The audience responded with understanding. “Apparently it had to come off. And it happened that night. It took two years before I could finally really let go.”

In an attempt to “revenge” his failed mission, he practically practiced to death, then sidelined for months. He got mental help, gathered a strong team around him and got back on his feet. I started running again and continued to win again. And turned out to be a popular “hare”. And then came the fiery training in December which earned him a ticket to the Enschede game.

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In this special marathon, he is set to become the fifth Dutchman to run a scorching-paced marathon of less than 2 hours and ten minutes. Only this moment gives a serious chance of a departure ticket to Japan. What gives hope is that Hoornweg has often dominated its handful of Dutch competitors in previous competitions at other distances. And that during his spontaneous marathon, he felt he could have been a little faster in 2 hours 18 minutes.

“It’s my debut on Sunday. You don’t really know any better. I feel healthy tension, but that doesn’t worry me. The situation is different from five years ago, when it had to be, people put money in my It’s a thing of the past. I can’t wait to be there. It’s not the preparation, it went perfectly. It’s a great adventure. A gift. “