Under the watchful eye of the sleeping lion

Hi y'all,

School is out for the Dutch idea of spring break and that means one entire blissful week of not commuting, not getting up early and not working my ass off... right? Wrong! In many ways the life of a runner is similar to that of the non-runners however there is one big difference. When you're training for a marathon apperently there is no time off. Vacation merely means you pack your running stuff and train elsewhere. In my case I'm training in the dreaded mountains of the beautiful and peaceful towns around ancient Polop and La Nucia. We are in Spain. 

We are visiting my inlaws because they live here during Dutch winters and honestly? I can't blame them. Winter here means at it's coldest about 13° Celsius, the scenic routes filled with an abundance of almond trees full in bloom that take you from town to town are breathtaking and coming from a flat country those mountains are always something that make us go 'wow'.

Back to the vacation bit of this story: this morning there was no sleeping in. I woke up at 07:00hrs, ate my overnight oats, had some coffee, watched the dark night fade into a grey morning with huge thunder clouds rolling in over the mountains from one side to the ocean on the other side. Unsuccesfully tried to spot the mounteneers and stood on the balcony trying to figure out how cold this morning exactly is. Cold. The nights are very quiet, very dark and truely cold up here. Standing on that balcony looking at the beautiful surroundings I felt happy. What an amazing way to wake up even at 07:00 hrs in your week off. Imagine the smell off a wood furnace, hot coffee in your hand and the sounds of small chirping birds, barking dogs and the occasional car driving by. And I get to run here. That is a privilege.

So what is it like? In one word: breathtaking 😆 The love of my life mapped out  a route for me, my inlaws took me out by car to show me the route and this morning I set out and took two wrong turns so my run turned into a near 14km run in stead of the planned 10 but I loved every high felt heart beat of them.

As soon as I set out I realized that if I was to stay within my D1 heartrate zone I was in for a long run because the mountains here are...well rough. For the first time I started to see the purpose of walking up and doubleling down. Walking up kept my average heartrate low and doubling down makes up for some of the time without sky rocketing your heartrate. 

At the 7.5km point I turned at the roundabout and I texted my husband and inlaws not to worry because I was having an amazing time and I was even taking pictures.  Right after that my road hit the rastro and as I looked up to the mountain these dark and
threatening clouds loomed and at the same time a very bright and colorful rainbow shot it's rays at the town I was running towards.

It completely took away my sense of direction and when I met 'my' fork in the road...well...I missed it. So I ended up taking the long road uphill with the wind picking up badly and than doubleling down all the way to the Xirles sign. Staying in my D1 heartrate zone meant that when I finally turned back up the last steap climb towards the village in which my inlaws live, the thought of running another 7 km and making this a half marathon actually crossed my mind. You know what that means? I turned into a RUNHOLE. Crap!!

Most of this morning's run was done in a crisp morning wind with some fierce sunlight warming and coloring my skin. I ran the beautiful towns of Polop and La Nucia back to Xirles under the watchful eye of the mountain called the sleeping lion. I am once again humbled by the rough beauty and unmistakenable force of nature. The mountains should awaken your senses and when they do, like they did to me, they will make you roar!

That's it for now.
Until we read again, as always,
Love, Marlies.