Random running ramblings…

… from my 16 k run last night:

The sausage was perhaps a bit too big. Well, it was definitely too big.

Wouldn’t it be great to run a 10-miler tonight? I haven’t been able to do that this year yet while E is almost 6 months!

I should have cut the toe nails first.

Why am I doing this? What am I trying to show here?

Only somebody as stupid as me cuts the excessive bottle belt strap so short that after fastening, the belt makes breathing impossible. Hmm, last year the strap was not too short….

Would it help to shave off the 10 kg extra fat and get back to my pre-pregnancy weight first?

Why oh why did I ever suggest to run towards the sunset? I will never make it to the beach on time.

Why running at all?

Everybody around me runs like crazy: ultramarathons, uphill races, 24 hours non stop.  Do I really stop after one short hour, whining? And what exactly is my problem? Do I have blisters all over my feet? Is my leg broken? Do I really suffer from any pain? No. Then there is no excuse.

Am thirsty. Want a hot shower. Both at home, still 4 k to go…

Made it! Really, did I? Wow, it actually feels pretty good now.

Charity Run? Why not!

During the past months, funny thing has happened to me: somehow I started realising I was becoming a (slightly) better person. Not in the sense of better/faster runner but better as in more receptive to other people: their stories, sorrows, lives.

This might be a temporary thing, enhanced by our tiny running/racing successes but never mind, I am predetermined to use it to the max. And so I enrolled our 2 headed Team AprilRuns to the charity project Europa Kinderhulp and in September, we will be running the world famous Dam tot Damloop (10 miles from Amsterdam to Zaandam, 40.000 runners!) and raising funds for this charity.

Europa Kinderhulp is a Dutch charity organisation with its main goal to enable different kids from all over Europe to spend 2-3 weeks of a nice holiday in Holland, to escape from their socially and financially poor surroundings. It is not any life saving general project, it is just an attempt to help each individual kid to forget the misery at home and play.

I remember myself when I was a kid, how important my holidays were for me, the 2 fabulous months every summer. If we can raise some money to lighten up a couple of children’s faces, to make sure they spend the holiday of their life, our goal is achieved.

Asking others for money is not what I do nor am good at. I have never done it and I am not sure if I am good at it. It helps knowing that the money is being raised for a very good cause. So if you feel tempted to help, here is what you can do:

1. Visit our Dam tot Damloop charity website  and feel free to read/donate;
2. Email me or leave me a blog comment to arrange for a different way of payment.

If the whole idea is not interesting to you, never mind: the point of charity is that it is voluntary. Keep running!

Running the dunes

Saturday was our first morning without April – sunny and bright sky but the house was awfully quiet and we both felt rather empty. We decided to gear up with our new Team AprilRuns running shirts and hit the road to the dunes near Noordwijk. We have the 1/2M distance to run next month so why not to try how far we could go today.

We parked the car and quickly found a forest trail at the edge of the dunes. The views over the blossoming tulip fields were fantastic:

As we ran on, the paths started to fill up with bikers, hikers and other runners. Also, the paths started getting a bit hilly.

After about 7 km’s, we tested our fast-energy banana sticks (grrrr, awful) and decided to run further. Then at 10 km’s, our legs still felt fresh enough to continue and we decided to check the beach café nearby (well – sort of nearby). The truth is: we did not want to return to our quiet house… so we ended up with the total of 16.5 km, V’s longest run ever.

Procrastination on Friday night

Our gym is closed on Friday’s so usually Friday is a sportless day. But since V. decided to go swimming, I had to come up with something, too. Well, I decided to postpone the decision till later.

When ‘later’ came, it was dark and cold outside. I looked in the direction of the shelf with my running gear and before I knew it, I was filling the tiny plastic bottles with water. And suddenly there was no way back…

I left house around 9 pm and decided to run for half an hour and only then assess my strength and see what to do next. 4 km into my run I was on a new smoothly paved biking path and it felt so good that I wanted to run to its end. 2 km further on there was a nice windmill marking the centre of a small village. I did not think much, did not want to make any decisions yet, just ran.

Then after about one hour on the road, I texted V. that my route took me further than expected and that it might take another hour for me to come home. She was sligthly worried and suggested to drive towards me to pick me up. The Big M sounded like a great place to reunite but I realised that the following 4 or 5 km would drag me through a path unaccessible to cars. So I continued running and postponed the decision to be picked up until I would reach the Big M myself.

I felt rather tired by then, my knee was hurting and some of the leg muscles did not want to co-operate anymore. On the other hand, I estimated it was probably just another 3 to 4 km home, a bit stupid to call for rescue…. and I ran home.

And that is how I ran my longest run so far: 16 km.