Adventures of a marathon girl

Hi y'all, Me and my fellows are entering the realms of bittersweet and endings. The road we have travelled together is narrowing and it's not going to be long before I have to face the music on my own. After dangers untold and hardships unnumbered the time has come for me to stand on my own two feet and trust that Joris The Tin Man and Esther the good witch have taught me all their lessons and that I am ready to do this. I can't believe how fast time has passed and how much this entire journey has changed me. Last weekend I ran my last long run before the marathon and I did smiling all the way, helping struggling fellow runners and it felt nothing like the first time I ran a 30km run. Almere gave me confidence, boosted my spirit and has left me feeling proud to actually be a long distance runner. The road leading up to this point has been incredible. Trust me: you can't do this and have it not change you. It is simply impossible. You can't do this if you are n

Hi y'all, So this weekend the biggest running event the world (yes that is correct) has to offer took place in Amsterdam and this year, for the first time since I seriously started running, I could not run it because it didn't fit into my full marathon schedule. We are talking the Dam tot Damloop which takes runners from Amsterdam to Zaandam over a 10 mile race course beginning with the dreaded and therefore twistedly loved IJ-tunnel. That is the tunnel that you drive through to get to the other side of the IJ to Amsterdam North. Kind of like you'd run a tunnel from Manhattan to Brooklyn. Or from Antwerp city to Linkeroever. The complete length of this tunnel is just little over one mile but what makes it specifically hard is the plunge it takes from ground level to it's lowest point and back up plus...it marks the first two miles of your ten mile run. Furthermore the tunnel is never closed for traffic except during Damloop weekend thus making running through that t

Hi y'all, The adventure has taken a turn to the darkside and yesterday, as I ran my first 30km race ever, I have met every deamon there is to meet. I went straight to the pits of hell and back and I have never ever felt all of what I felt before. At the same time you find yourself surrounded by people that, for just that time and place, are true angels. They drag you out of your dark thoughts and help you move forward, they are the ones believing in you when you have lost all faith, they literally help you push through when you thought you had nothing left to give. Running. It's horrible and beautiful at the same time. If you ever really want to know what you are made of, if you ever want to truely grasp the way your own body works, if you ever want to know what it really means to not give up... I suggest you take time, you take all your time and you train for that full marathon. It changes you in more ways then you could ever know. So what happened yesterday?  The love of