JD30: Mission completed

Today Juneathon 2013 is coming to its end.As already mentioned earlier this month, this year the challenge was much more about the logistics of finding one hour or so a day to get out of the house than about massive running volumes. Besides, my knee did not co-operate so half of the month I was substituting running by stroller walking and improvised biking. Nevertheless, this last Juneathon day I did go out for an early 5k run.

So at the end of the ride, I did manage to exercise 30 days in a row and my June totals look like this:

• Run – 13 – 80.0 km – 9.6 hrs
• Bike – 17 – 230.0 km – 13.8 hrs
• Walk – 9 – 57.0 km – 13.1 hrs
• Cross – 2 – 0.0 km – 0.8 hrs
• Total – 41 – 367.0 km – 37.3 hrs

I am particularly happy with the running total as it shows that my knee is getting better.

So as always thanks JogBlog and thanks all fellow Juneathoners for being out there: for reading, commenting, supporting and running along.

See you all in January 2014!

JD29: Early morning 10K

The last weekend of Juneathon calls for something a little bit special. I managed to honor day 29 with an early morning run.
Woke up, made sure nobody was hungry or wet or in need of anything and sneaked out of the house. Ran for 10 km through (partially) new paths. Heaven!

Back at home everybody was still asleep. I took a loooong hot shower and installed myself with a huge mug of black coffee on the sofa. 20 minutes of total rest. And then to know that the weekend is yet to start…

JD28: Roman history

Rain and bike on Friday evening? Well, if it weren’t for Juneathon…I biked towards the beach but turned back after 9 km or so as the rain came down faster than I could handle. Returning through the village of Valkenburg, or Praetorium Aggripinae, as Romans used to call it, I bumped into this pillar:    At home I Googled some more on Romans in The Netherlands.

JD27: One for Leona

The great thing about running and blogging combined is making and meeting many virtual friends. On this 27th day of Juneathon, one of them determined my running destination…… by inserting a comment about the ‘floating’ bridge in our new park in one of my previous Juneathon posts. Of course I went there and made some more pictures for her. It made my 6km evening run fun and purposeful.

JD26: Nothing to report

Five more days to go.Ran 8 km (happy). Made no pictures (tired).

JD25: More food for thought

Yet another June biking evening. As I was passing the Willem de Zwijgerlaan, I came across somewhat unusual portrait of the famous Dutch ruler (Willem de Zwijger = William the Silent):

The quote translates as: “I cannot approve of monarchs who want to rule over the conscience of the people, and take away their freedom of choice and religion.”

JD24: Ibsen and Islam

How comes the necessity of going down town always comes on a rainy day?As I was running towards the tax office (yes, lets get it done with quickly…), I was listening to Henrik Ibsen’s play “An Enemy of the People”. The famous quotes: “… the strongest man in the world is the man who stands most alone,” and “A minority may be right; a majority is always wrong,” were echoing in my head. Somehow, it jump started me to run faster and so I did. After 10 months or so I was running the 6-minute kilometers again. 6 of them. On my way, I passed these two buildings: 

JD23: Family day

It is a tradition that we have established just a few weeks ago: we are trying to enjoy Sundays together, as a family.Today was no different: our plan was to sleep long (thanks, V!) and then get out to discover new parts of one of the parks in Leiderdorp, namely the secret garden. The weather was okay enough for me to walk downtown first and then to grab V and the girls and continue moving. And yes, finally we managed a real discovery tour: the secret garden was open (and the cheesecake and cappuccino at the nearby farm tasted excellent). All together a perfect computer-free day with a 10 km walk to log.

JD22: New park – still no trees

Saturdays are usually fun and this one was not different: our Belgian friends came by to meet the girls and we spent some quality time together while enjoying the world’s longest brunch ever. It was already late in the evening when I realised there was still some Juneathoning to do.A while ago we have discovered a new park that was being ‘built’ in our neighborhood. I ran there once before already but it officially only opened last week. It sounded like a good destination for my evening run.


It was again not more than 5 km but I would be happy with any distance, as long as my knee was not hurting.

JD21: The longest day

On Fridays, I am per definition tired. Today the whole working week has been sitting on me, the house is a mess, kids don’t want to sleep, there is nothing to eat (and if there was, I would be mad to eat too much, anyway). It rains and the whole misery takes soooooo long as it is the longest day of the year today.
After many days without running, I needed a sign that my knee was getting better. Was very hesitant all evening but finally off I went, at 10 p.m, to catch the last beams of daylight. The mojo lasted for 5 km. Not bad at all and I even saw a swan…