We caught up with Patrick on how training for his 14th (yes 14th) marathon has been going.
Name: Patrick Vierveijzer
Age: 48
About You:
My name is Patrick Vierveijzer and I’m 48 years old. I am Dutch by birth and father to 15-year-old twins Ralph and Sven.
Most of my professional life I have spent as a commercial executive in the automotive leasing and fleet management domain.
Apart from running, which is obvious, my hobbies are spending time travelling with my family, karate, golf and reading a good newspaper.
How did you get into running?
I only got into running at around the age of 40 when I accidentally started running as a part of an in-company programme to activate people towards a more healthy lifestyle.
Quite simply running changed my life… now thousands of kilometres and 13 marathons later my weight has dropped, my energy doubled , and any stress I have doesn’t stand a change after a good run, whatever the weather’s like.
Why did you choose to run the marathon to support London Sport?
It’s this feeling I have about the indescribable benefits of running that I am passionate about passing on and since my first short run I have energised many other people to be more active.
Within the companies I worked for, I’ve started health, sports, walking and running programmes as well as in my personal space by encouraging people to go outside and do that most difficult thing: make the first move (which is far more challenging than running a marathon when properly trained).
And as I do realise, not everybody is as fortunate and privileged as I am, I jumped at the opportunity to run for London Sport to support the incredible work they do in this area as we share the same passion!
What motivated you to sign up for your 14th marathon?
I love setting goals and that’s why I am training hard to break the three hour barrier at the London Marathon this April.
However, with my age progressing I am not sure if I will ever make it… And that’s why I set myself a more achievable target: run all six major marathons (Berlin, New York City, Boston, Chicago, London and Tokyo).
London will be my fifth and I have Tokyo planned for 2020 so I am pretty close to my goal.
