Category: general

With three days to go to the Marathon, I’ll try and collect my thoughts and analyse the challege ahead. Today, I have done my last run, 4k around the block at my estimated marathon pace, just a short little run to keep my body moving but still hungry for more. When I set out on Sunday I want to look forward to a long run because, indeed, I am going to be running for a very long time. I know I can do it – I have done it once before – but I also remember how hard it was.

My favourite distance for running is the half-marathon, I enjoy it and I think I do it well. I’m fine up to 26-28k actually, then it gets harder, after 30k it is really hard. A marathon, of course, is a lot longer than that: 42k. I estimate that it is going to take me 5 hours to complete, my first Marathon I completed in 5 hours 12 min. At my estimated Marathon pace, 6:45 min/km, I belive I can manage to beat that time and then I have taken into acount that I’m likely to need to walk parts of the latter stage when my left legs start getting numb due to my nerve problems.

Always when I go for a long run I tell myself “you love running, now you’re going to enjoy this for several hours, how lucky you are!” A positive mindframe is more important than strong legs, at least after 30k or so – if I can tell my body to continue running even though it hurts, I will be able to finish. As my friend Sapna put it: “it is mind over matter”.

When evaluating the route I’m pleased to see that the half marathon and full marathon routes split up at 11k, I should still be fresh and strong by then and not too jealous of those returning to Leiden old town. There, I will head out into the countryside, hopefully the run along the canal will be pretty and then I expect between 15-23 will be a bit harder, if the fields are not very interesting I will need to let my mind wander and entertain myself. Then, hopefully, there will be some people out supporting in the little village. The return towards Leiden may be harder, running between the fields again but the last 5k will be done on the streets of Leiden and hopefully there will be crowd support.

The weather may be chilly, 14 degrees or so and a possibility of rain. Being precious about the newly printed running top, I’m worried I’ll be too cold, but at the same time I do want to display our WIMA Ride and Run logo. I have not yet decided if I’m wearing long or shorter trousers but all other bits are planned for; plasters, gels, socks etc. All is tried and tested in training and indeed there has been a lot of training. At this point, I would again like to acknowledge the great support I have received from Sudbury Court Running Club. I have been a member for a very short time but I never felt new in the club, it always just felt right. The Sunday runs especially have been very useful for me, covering longer distances going places. Nothing brews a good coffee like a long run, Uxbridge has such nice coffee after a 21k run up there along the canal.

This is the first time I run for a charity and I highly appreciate everyone who has donated to the Motorcycle Outreach and all the supportive messages that have been posted! If you have not yet donated and want to be part of this great cause to help bring healthcare to remote villages in Tanzania and Indonesia, please visit the giving page: WIMA ride and Run: Leiden Marathon 2016

I hope I will be able to make you proud – for sure I’ll do my best!

 

 

I’ve had a full weekend, complete with everything good in life, and I needed that after a stressful period with a heavy study load, too many commitments and an unstable housing situation. It’s all changing now, thankfully. In a few weeks we’ll be packed and ready to leave London for a summer of riding and, eventually, a new home somewhere.

This weekend started with an outing to Karen at Zenith Motorcycles for a very needed chain adjustment. Although I live on the other side of the city now, compared to when I started going to Zenith, I prefer to go back there because they are so friendly and competent. We got the chains adjusted on both bikes and, since I had not been able to loosen the nut for the wheel myself, I told the mechanic that I wanted to look and see how he did it, so I knew for next time. Instead of just showing me, he kindly instructed me on how to do the chain on both bikes, and let me try myself as well. That is just the kind of service that makes Zenith special, not to metion that Karen scolded me for taking Christopher onto the North Circular and kindly suggested another route back. Christopher appreciated the sympathy and we negotiated another return route, which got Karen’s approval. That is customer care. In my defence though, I didn’t think there would be any traffic in the middle of the day… well now I know that there is always traffic on the NC.

So that was the start of a very good weekend and it just got better. Yesterday, I took Lazy Cat to Ryka’s Cafe, a famous biker cafe in the south of London. I fancied checking it out, besides I could pick up the latest magazine of Women on Wheels, which features my article about Australia. After lunch and a stroll I headed back and, again, was amazed how much traffic there is out and about in London – even on a Saturday. That, for sure, is one thing I won’t miss about London.

Finally back home, I had time for some reading, for leisure, which doesn’t happen that often these days. It is, of course, a great privilege to be a student and to study something interesting as literature and linguistics, however, it is not reading for leisure and my brain needed the relaxation. I could now finally read a book I brought with me last summer from Sweden, it is by Johan Ajvide Lindqvist, the author of Let the right one in and several other horror stories, one of my favourite authors. So after reading for a while about zombies I had plenty of energy for my run. I did my last 10k by the river and kept marathon pace, preparing me mentally for the marathon next Sunday. Feet felt light, legs felt strong and mind was clear. I believe I am ready, finally after weeks of tiredness everything has fallen into place. Leiden Marathon here I come!

The fundraising for Motorcycle Outreach has kickstarted again this last week as well. After some dry weeks several donations came in over a few days, both friends from the running club, family and other friends have showed their support. The running community is amazing like that, I always thought running was a solo sport and that was why I liked it. I have found out that I was entirely wrong. Today, we held our local race, Run Wembley. With ours, I mean Sudbury Court Running Club‘s. Despite being a member for just a short while, I have made such good friends and it will be one of the things I miss the most when leaving. So today we put on a fun run for kids, a 5k and a 10k. I was marshalling and it was my first experience marshalling a running event, only having marshalled at the MotoGP on Philip Island before. This was slightly less eventful but I did have to concentrate fully to determine the speeds of the runners and stop cars since I had traffic coming from 3 sides at my post. Time passed very quickly though, just 1 1/2 hours and then it was over and time for bar, band and burger at the club house where the afterparty continued well into the afternoon. If you fancy a friendly race and find yourself in London this time next year I would warmly recommend it. Plus, proceeds go to Saint Luke’s Hospice which supports terminally ill people so there is a great cause.

This pretty much wraps up my weekend, the best in a very long time. Tomorrow I need to take up my studies again, but this week will be a short one, on Friday we’ll be off to The Netherlands!

I kind of like to do new things once in a while and although I have done plenty of running and even more riding, this was the first time I took Lazy Cat to a race.

The race was south of the River Thames in Wimbledon Common. Friends from my running club had recommended it and when I saw that the route went along Beverley Brook I knew I had to go and see her. For those of you who have read Ben Aaronovitch’s book series Rivers of London, this will make sense. The rest of you are missing out on something good.