Adventures of a marathon girl

Hi y'all, Another week, some 30km in and let me tell ya: it is HOT in the flatlands. Seriously disturbingly hot. Now normally I would not be complaining, you see I love summer and a good old fashioned hot day ending with a good old fashioned barbeque. I love this as much as any other southern loving country girl does... But when you have to get your miles in than this heat is something else. It is a force to be reckoned with. So you try to figure out a way to make it more fun for yourself and for your partner. You see my man ain't no runner and bless his soul for being the most supportive man a girl can get. He is always cheering me on whenever and wherever I run a race (fair enough maybe not the runs up to 10km, but all above that he's there) and now he's in a bit of pickle and needs some happiness in his life. So this week we figured it would be fun if he came along riding his bike. So last Wednesday I had to run 9.5km and he decided to come with me. It was a hor...

Hi y'all What a week it has been. Half way point on my schedule and I skipped one training session last Sunday. Why? Well a lot is happening right now and for the mental sanity of the love of my life we decided to follow up on our GP's advice and get away from it all. So after my 11km run on friday we jumped in the car and drove to Antwerp for a much needed weekend getaway. Without going into the gory details I can tell you that the love of my life is having a very hard time right now. The past two years coping with a volvulus twice , an operation to remove a huge part of that bowel and in the aftermath of that a fourth complete blockage appear to have taken their toll on him. So after he came home last Wednesday he realized he needed more than just a break. I don't know what will happen next but last weekend we just got in the car and drove to our second hometown Antwerp and that was a good decision. I didn't run my scheduled 13km run on Sunday because it was way too...

Hi y'all, Countdown tells me only 83 days to go before I will crush the hills in San Fran. Woohooo. I am still very excited about that and each passing week I learn so much and my confidence grows with each mile. Can I do this? Hell yeah I can! So how was last week? Well I trained 3 times according to schedule and felt good afterwards. check out this week's runs here Running feels great but most of the times it's the wake-up-early part that really gets to me. I know I feel better running in the morning than I do running after an entire day of doing stuff but I really don't like morning. So normally when I know I have to get a run in I am going through a few stages and I end up running anyway. This is kind of what happens: Phase one is the part where I go: MAKE IT STOP. I'm gonna throw shoes at somebody. GO AWAY! NO NO NO NO...why do I want to run a half marathon? This is STUPID! Than the bargaining starts.Just one more minute? No wait another minute? R...

Hi y'all, So we're well on our way when it comes to training for the Dam tot Damloop and after that the Nike Women We run San Francisco half marathon. And so it happens that this week it wasn't all fun and games. This week I endured both very hot 'n sticky runs as very wet 'n muddy like today. I met some pretty awesome people and I met a horrible guy. I've literally had some real highs and lows and it all began with last tuesday. OH NO YOU DIDN'T As I was on my normal route for a not too long run I nearly got pushed off the road by a dude that thought it was okay for him to call me a fat dumb ugly bimbo. He got to me, admittedly so, for an hour or so. I mean seriously. Calling me fat, dumb and ugly is about as disgusting as it can get.It is low and uncalled for and I decided it just wasn't right. Hurray for me. I decided enough is enough. Just because you think it is okay to call me whatever it is you'd like doesn't A. make it so and B. rig...

Hi y'all, Woot woot for summer vacation's first weekend. And on that note: remember as you read along we are talking SUNDAY MORNING. Okay so here it is. Me and the love of my life have both been living in Amsterdam out entire lives. We were born here as were our parents. So we can honestly call ourselves the real deal when we say we're Amsterdammers. Now living in the city has it's pro's and cons. A few pro's ofcourse is the wide variety of cultural things to enjoy, the many many restaurants, bars. coffee places and such that are open almost 24/7 and the well stocked and not too expensive supermarkets that are scattered around through town. Cons? Oooo that list is growing by each passing year and since I'm 42 ...well...one of the cons is the endless noise of people that do not come from around here and are under the distinct and unfortunately shamefully wrong impression that everything can and therefore should be done in our beautiful city. let me shatter t...

Hi y'all, Yesterday was the day of all days...yesterday I found out. I AM IN! I'm running the Nike Women Half Marathon in SAN FRANCISCO October 18th. We are flying out on the 16th. I am over the moon and seriously scared and looking forward to it. My nike+ training app will help me get ready in 12 weeks however I have already started training with the schedule from Runner's world that has been on my fridge since june 21st. Just a short update to celebrate this amazing news. Yesterday runner's bootcamp was fun and as it turns out one of my running buddies is in too so we're sharing this experience. Coach Franklin - bless the man for coaching us in his own time and free of charge- decided that this celebratory outcome of this random draw meant we started hill training instantly. So now my butt hurts like a thanksgiving turkey gone bad and eaten at christmas. But I have to say that I have missed my sneaker wearing sweaty friends. But I get to make up for that thi...

Hi y'all, Well. I can honestly say that I'm not a very faithful blogger. However since I'm officially back in training for the half marathon since jun 21st I decided to blog again. Especially since so many of you have already donated money for the cause I'm running the Damloop in september for. This year I'm running for maag lever darmstichting. Between january 2014 and februari 2015 the love of my life has been hospitalized 4 times of which 2 were so severe that I was near that point of having to let him go. Luckily he's able to tell his story and I'm blessed with what we hope will be a lifetime together. I know now that many people suffer from disfunctioning bowels. My love suffered a volvulus 3 times, got operated on and they removed a huge piece of his bowel and than he still got hospitalized again nine months after surgery because he had some scar tissue that blocked his entire bowel. Before they finally got his bowel to work again properly he was v...