Miscellaneous

Running #

I enjoy long distance running in my free time, and my favorite distance is the half-marathon. My half-marathon PB is 1:28:04, which I ran in the Leiden Marathon 2025.

I didn’t run (or do much sports) before enlisting for NS at the age of 18, so many people (especially those who knew me in school) often ask how to start. I was lucky in that I never had to lose weight, change my diet, improve my running form drastically, deal with complications from past injuries, or do any other things that would otherwise have made it difficult to just start. You might need to consider finding out how to do one or more of these things first. Beyond that, my advice is always to just start running more, but at a slow, easy, and conversational pace. If you like, you can then increase the mileage and frequency gradually.

If you’re interested in training to get faster, I recommend reading Jack Daniels’ Daniels’ Running Formula and Pete Pfitzinger’s Faster Road Racing and Advanced Marathoning to learn about the different components that go into structuring training plans.

Speedcubing #

I used to be very involved in the competitive speedcubing community. My favorite and best event was the Megaminx, a 12-sided Rubik’s Cube-like puzzle which I can solve in 30 seconds. In my prime, I was ranked 9th in the world and placed similarly at the World Championships. I’ve also won a national championship title and set some national records in the process.