Five Fit Girl Reasons to Run Rotterdam

The cat’s out of the bag: Rotterdam, the second largest city in tiny Netherlands, surpassed Amsterdam in terms of coolness. The Rough Guide, New York Times and the Guardian have mentioned my raw and rough hometown as uber cool and must-visit city. Almost all rave about its architecture, its new neighborhoods and its fresh bars and restaurants. Oh, and did you know Rotterdam is the base of #FITGIRLCODE HQ too? All that should be enough to give my hometown a visit. But wait. There’s more.

Rotterdam is a runner friendly city, with broad sidewalks to run on, asphalted bike roads to share and marks for popular running routes. Several bridges crossing the river can be used for an urban hill challenge. So even when you’re just training, there are many routes available. The city has a pretty packed race calendar, too. Here are my 5 favorite running events which would help any running loving Fit Girl to run this hip town…

1. April –Marathon Rotterdam

The Rotterdam Marathon is a racing weekend with the Full Monty event on Sunday. The course is known as one of the fastest in Europe. If you don’t want to run the 26.2 on your own, you can know run the official event as a team of four. The perfect BFFF event, right?

2. June – Ladies Run Rotterdam

Release your inner pink lady with this female exclusive running event! Last year, they added 7.5k to the event, so whether you are a beginner, intermediate or advanced runner, there’s sure to be a fitting racing distance for you! Ladies Run caters to us female runners with loads of shopping, a stylish event t-shirt and goodie bag and more practically: lots of toilets on the event site. Even if pink isn’t your favorite color, you will love the happy vibe of this running event. (source: Ladies Run)