Adventures of a marathon girl

Hi y'all, Well today my long run turned into something really fun and special. According to schedule I had to run 13km but since I had accepted the Runkeeper Global5K challenge I also had to do a 5km. So I decided to break up the run and stop my app at the 5k point and restart it again to log the other 8k. And so I did. Now there is something oddly satisfying about running a virtual event with people from all over the world. It started out with the updates I received featuring charts of participants per country. When the Netherlands dropped to 4th place I couldn't believe it. How can a country that small with about 17 million people in it host the biggest running event in the WORLD known as the Dam-tot-damloop...even beating the NYC marathon but drop to 4th place in the virtual world? So I got busy tweeting & facebooking trying to motivate people to actually join in and than I got more excited too. Just looking up the hastag #Global5K and using it myself was so much f

Hi y'all You haven't heard from me for a little while and I'm sorry about that. Truth is I have a lot going on and I am struggling with finding my balance. There is work at one hand and there is my private life on the other hand. I wish I had the strength of ten Vikings or the magnificent seven but I'm afraid I do not posses that power and I'm just a normal person with no super powers. I have to tackle life as it comes along and roll with the punches. That is what I have been trying to do but the punches keep getting harder and harder to take. Back in San Francisco on the 21st of October we got the final word on my mom and ever since that life has been one giant roller coaster ride. My mom, my amazing and beautiful mom has bulbar ALS. The one thing we really did not want to hear has become a reality, It is unfair and that is just all I can say about it really. We are a strong and united family and we are facing this as such. We want to celebrate life every singl

Hi y'all After running the hills of San Francisco it was straight back to work and no time to relax. Jetlag and all I had to get straight back in the saddle and work my ass off. Well this might not come as much of a surprise to y'all and most likely we all have to that right? So jetlag or not, cold or not you push yourself to overcome your tiredness and do what you have to do. Until you wake up two weeks later with a body temperature as high as a southern afternoon in July with no sweet tea around and a throat that feels like someone filled it with broken glass and added some salt to make it extra stingy. And that is when the fun really starts. You wake up and the first thing that jumps to mind is: NOT FEELING TO GOOD!!! What the actual juice is happening here?? So wait...I have to temp myself. Oh grose. Oh well. DARN IT!! I have a fever. WHAAAAT? I can't be sick. I just can't! Right after that initial thought comes the second feeling and it goes a little so

Hi y'all Well...I did it. I ran the hills in San Francisco. Was it all I hoped it would be? It was and more. The race was intense in all aspects. You can run as many bridges and steep ramps as you like but it will not be the same as that last hill between mile10 and 11.  So what did it feel like? Well... Starting coral: Firmly planting your feet on the road, listening to the most amazing speech I have heard in a long time. 'Today someone will look at you and you will be their inspiration'. Listening to the buzzing of the growing crowd and how it all stops and turns into the most impressive silence ever when an amazing voice sings the national anthom, the walk up to the starting line and the first real steps into the race. Fulton road and golden gate park: Oh my...that is a steep steep hill. Keep on going just keep running even if it is in a dribble tempo and WORK THOSE ARMS! My...survived and there is the park. First toiletbreak. Can you believe this? We are lin

Hi y'all Today's training ended the long and tough part of my schedule so that means I'm officially in my taperweek. This was killer week. With a 14km run last Thursday that circled Amsterdam and even included running up and down the stairs at Nemo. This week ended with an 18.5km run. Yep. And I pulled it all off while working and dealing with some serious things. Want to see my runs? check m out here  https://runkeeper.com/user/Seilram/profile Just a few more days before we cross the ocean and fly to the USA, Not my first transatlantic and not the first time we're going to San Francisco but boy-oh-boy I am looking forward to this trip. Not in the least because the love of my life gets to join me. His physician told us that it would be in his best interest to actually take the trip. Not that I'm keeping score but YIHAAA. I know this doesn't make sense now but I will tell y'all  as soon as I can. Sander joining me was the best news we got last week. I

Hi y'all After being part of the amazing Dam-tot-Damloop and having so much fun I am confident I can actually pull off the distance in San Francisco. The hills I'm a little nervous about but I'm doing everything within my options to get stronger so my legs will be able to carry me up and down the hills without losing too much time. This means I started seeing a physical therapist and I'm working on core stability and strength too about three times a week. I do have some breaking news  but I can't share it yet because not all details are clear. As soon as they are I promise y'all a memorable update. As for now....I have been training for the hills in San Francisco. How? Well....last Sunday my love set out a race course over 7 kilometers that included two pretty steep bridges: Amsterdamse brug and Schellingwoudebrug. Just a few pictures that Sander de Boer made for you to enjoy. Thank you Sander for being there all the way. I love you! At the base of the

Hi Y'all Today I ran the biggest event in the running world. I ran the Dam-tot-Damloop. 10 Miles from Amsterdam to Zaandam and you run straight through the IJtunnel (how-low-can-you-go...below sealevel to the max!). It is an amazing run that you should run if you have never done it before.At the start I felt confident and happy. I knew I could do this because in the past weeks leading up to this event I ran this distance twice already. Not so much the distance I was worried about more finding my own pace and my inner calm. But I managed to focus on myself and I ran a nice race. Not fast, nothing to brag about in that sense but just a steady, calm and nice race. ANd boy did I have FUN. I had FUN. Really!! After the finish line Goofing around with Marianne And than there was my super amazing husband man. The man of the hour. My man. I love him. There he was. After ten miles of sweat and a guy actually emptying his NOSE on my CALFS....there he was.

Hi Y'all Now the title of this here blogpost might ring a bell to few out there. Yes part of the lyrics of an hilarious song called 'The sicknote'. I can hardly describe the immensity of this week and looking back at the past maybe three years even I can only think that it must become very difficult to understand what is laid out on the path me and my love call our life. Let's try a summary of this week: On Monday my mom called. She tested negative on myasthenia gravis. Hurray and hallelujah would be a normal response were it not that this only means that she is now facing the very real option that it is ALS. The not-knowing right now is horrible. My mom is one of the strongest persons I know and as she broke down in tears it crushed my heart. I love her and I do not want to lose her at all, let alone to ALS. I'm scared and I feel utterly useless. There is just nothing we can do but wait for new tests at AMC hospital. Than on Tuesday night as we were on an adve

Hi y'all After yet another week of teaching and dealing with normal life it seems to become a little easier to combine it all. I wrap my running schedule around my commuter distances to work and that helps. If I'm not running than I'm riding my bicycle to and from work. It's about an 11 or 13 km bike ride depending on the route I take. So switching biking to work for running back makes up for the 11km on Thursday. Now the title of this blog should be warning enough. So if you do not enjoy the dirty parts of running than by all means...STOP READING RIGHT NOW AND GO ABOUT YOUR NORMAL BUSINESS!! Good for you. Even after a fair warning you have decided to stick with me and read on. As you are well aware of I'm running for MLDS (CLICK HERE TO DONATE) a foundation that fights to create funding to help people with stomach/liver/bowel issues. Now after the past few weeks I figured let's see what is happening to me on those 8km-something-runs when I am in dire need of

Hi y'all NEW DONATIONS ARE IN ON MY FUNDRAISING PAGE !! THANK YOU GUYS!!! After a complete week of working and keeping up with my schedule I think I am either completely crazy or insanely awesome. So for no good reason at all I'm inclined to stick with the latter. So what has been up? Well...two short runs, 2 long runs, work, hospital stuff and finding out what I have to do in order to complete my admission proces for my Educational Doctorate. Yes...I want to do that. But math and me are no friends and I have to take the GRE exam and guess what? Quantative reasoning is a huge part of that. However if I can run 34 km in a week (and I thought I couldn't that either) than I must be able to fix that math issue I have in 3 months right? Now the runs this week were challenging. Last thursday I had to run 13km and on km 6 I realized that I really really really needed a toilet so I turned around, took a shortcut, ran home (Sprinted is more like it but did you know that makes

Hi y'all Just seven more weeks before the big run in San Francisco and a about three weeks before I run the 10 mile dam-tot-dam loop. The latter being the biggest event in the Netherlands. I'm excited and with each passing run I feel myself getting stronger even though some runs (like today's run) I'm at the verge of breaking down and collapsing and willing to give up and than I just... don't. If you are looking for a way to sponsor a good cause (tax deductable above 60 euro!) than feel free to donate some of your savings in order to fund research for stomach/liver/bowel diseases CLICK HERE AND DONATE The past week was a weird one. It started with summer holiday being over but than it really wasn't so I had another week left all at the sudden. That gave me and my love the opportunity the rent a cabin in the woods. We did bring our digital stuff with us because there was some work to do but I am honestly grateful for wifi and internet. I can now do so much wo

Hi y'all, Sooooo how have you been? What's been up this week? Well honestly? Not much. This week was nothing short of plain boring runschedule-wise. It sucked. Just three runs and all of them only about 4 miles. Now I don't know about you lot but with a week like that I can't think of new and invigorating routes or places to run. So this week was just... Now I'm not going to bore you with a stupid story on boring runs any longer than this so I figured this week I would give you some of my favorite running items. Not really an original thing to do either since I have seen many bloggers doing this, however I learned from other runners and I just believe that any worked through and tested out running-item-tip might be helpful. I mean I have been testing out tips from other runners myself and some items are now things I can't imagine going without. This post wasn't paid for by anyone and I know this might come across as a commercial break but I wasn't