Doorgaan naar hoofdcontent

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.
35C3A032-0AD0-4CC0-BEF1-CEA448242485

Reacties

Een reactie posten

Populaire posts van deze blog

The will to succeed....

Hi y'all, The world is filled with wishes, dreams, hopes and fears and I'm happy this tiny orb has all of m and yet that longing, that need, that hope for things to happen or maybe even the fear for them won't ever make anything happen. A dream alone will get you through a dark time but it won't make the night go away. Hope for better times will provide you with some sort of elastic band that might stretch a little further but it won't get you over that gap. A wish is nothing more than a whisper over candle light or a shooting star blasted into a universe that knows no sound and fears are the seeimingly unbreakable ties your mind has you wrapped in. The world won't give you anything, the universe can't hear you. People might and hopefully your mind will. Did you ever experience the absolute need to do something, no doubts nor fears about weather or not you're able to? That is exactly how I felt the first time I started training for a marathon. I wanted
Een reactie posten
Meer lezen

Out with the old

 Hi y'all, I can't believe we're actually here again. Another year coming to a close. A year in which I started a new job, a year that took al the strength some of our dearest friends had in order for them to survive, A year that taught us caution and a year that made us realize friends are there for each other in good times as much as they need to be when someone is scattered like a broken puzzle. A year in which we learned how a pandemic changes the world and marks all of the people that went through and survived it when maybe their loved ones didn't. A year that showed us the good and the horrid face of humanity facing huge losses. A year that helped some of the people we hold so dear take a stand for themselves and stand up for their own life. A year that just yesterday made all words obsolote when it took the dad and near-to-be-ex-husband of three beautiful people in my love's family. Words just completely left the earth and nothing else matters but the silence
Een reactie posten
Meer lezen

I will run the Damloop 2013 for ZZF

To my dear Dutch donating friends and all other readers, A new blog. It has been a while since I blogged about anything so why start now? I am fortunate enough to be one of many runners of the famous Dutch Damloop and I've taken on this 10 mile run as fundraiser for a very good cause. They're called Stichting Zeldzame Ziekten Fonds This organisations' main goal is to raise money for research on rare diseases such as Kawasaki's disease and Neuralgic Amyotrophie. Why this organisation when there are so many others? Well that is easy: Since little is known about those rare diseases research needs to be done. As we all know research is expansive and since everybody has to make budget cuts the research on these rare diseases is likely to be put on hold. But did you know in Holland most patients of a rare disease are children? And did you know that most rare diseases are life threatning or leave you (severely) impared? Did you know that in Holland 30% of the children s
1 reactie
Meer lezen