I'm dating a marathon runner!

I wrote this up last Monday and then forgot to publish it!

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I can now officially introduce my boyfriend as "Phil, the marathoner"!!

We had a great day at the London Marathon. Phil was really positive in the morning before the start - probably a combination of feeling physically ready and pre-race adrenaline.

We arrived at the starting area in Blackhealth in good time. It was situated in a huge park near a beautiful church with three huge blimps hovering over the different starting areas. Everyone was in a party mood. Lots of people were having their pictures taken with their fists raised in the air as if they'd already won the race!

As Phil entered the marshalling area, I headed off to catch the train to the middle of the course where I met up with the Wimbledon Windmilers support squad. They had chosen a spot where the course doubled back on itself, so we could see our team go through the 13.5 and 21.5 mile marks. I spent the next couple of hours cheering on the runners and enjoying the spectacle.

Phil looked good at both 13.5 miles and 21.5 miles, although he did shout out that the last bit was going to be tough. It wasn't until afterwards that I found out exactly how tough he was finding it!

I was trying to follow his progress on a website which was showing split times, but I couldn't get through to the site, so I was relying on messages relayed from Phil's parents and my parent's who were following online in Australia. There was some panic towards the end when the results upload was delayed and I couldn't make it through the crowds to the finishing area, so we were all wondering whether Phil had made it okay.

When I finally caught up with him - flat on his back in the shade in the runners "meet and greet" area - he had a story to tell.

He'd gone out hard for the first half of the race hoping to come in under 4 hours, but hadn't been able to sustain that pace as his body chewed through all the glycogen it had stored up. That made the second half of the race really tough - he was literally running on empty. Barely able to stand in line for his finishing medal and goodie bag, he checked himself into first aid where the nurse told him "Yes - it is expected that you feel nauseous - you HAVE just run a marathon!".

His official time was 4 hour 31 minutes. I'm so proud of him - he has been really dedicated to his training and has pushed through injuries to make it this far.

(I am possibly the only Aussie who can get sunburnt in London when it is only 16 degrees!)

Three cheers for our champion - hip hip hooray, hip hip hooray, hip hip hooray!

Carb loading

Our house is quivering with nervous energy today. Phil is resting his feet, hydrating and carb loading ready for the Flora London Marathon tomorrow. I've never seen so much spaghetti consumed!

We're scheduled for an early wake up call, so we can join the masses swarming into central London. Phil will have to peel off to the starting area in preparation for his 9:45am start, while I go on to the centre of the course where I'll be eagerly waiting for my first glimpse of him. The Wimbledon Windmilers, Phil's running club, have a support squad station around that area as the runners pass it twice - once at 13 miles and again at 21 miles as the race loops back on itself.

Once I've seen him safely past the second time, I'll make my way to the post-finish meeting area to carry him home. Hopefully, he'll be feeling okay, so we can stop in at the All-Bar-One pub in Wimbledon for the post-marathon Windmilers party. He's been told that if you walk in with your medal round your neck everyone cheers!

As inspiration, we attended a fantastic talk by ultramarathoner Chris McDougall on Tuesday night. He was promoting "Born to Run" - a book he has written about our natural ability to run. It was particularly interesting to hear a number of opinions about how all these fancy designer running shoes actually make people more prone to injury than running barefoot. I'm definitely going to order the book, as I really enjoyed reading Ultramarathon Man by Dean Karnazes.

I'm so proud of Phil. It has been months of hard work, pain and dedication. Despite the foot problems he's had, I'm super confident that he's going to make it. And I think this is only the beginning - he's already talking about a half marathon in September and is keen to sign up for next year's marathon on Monday when entries open.

My bike tire has a puncture from my last support ride, and so I'm wondering - is that a sign for me to dust off my sneakers too?

Last stop Keukenhof

Like many amateur photographer, I love flowers because they make great photos - lots of colour and detail. That's why tulips were the main draw of Holland for me and why I was disappointed that we didn't see fields of brilliant colour on our day trips through the Dutch countryside. I had made sure that we were there in tulip season (March to May) so I was expecting it to be like France and the sunflower fields where Phil could lose me for a day or more just happily taking pictures of the big bright flowers.

In a last ditch attempt to capture some spectacular flowers on film (or chip these days), we spent Monday at Keukenhof - a huge estate that is run by the Keukenhof foundation who organise tulip wholesalers to put on magnificent displays of their flowers in the 42 hectares of parkland for the two months of the year when the weather is perfect for tulip growing.

It was there that I discovered that a single tulip bulb can produce five "baby" tulip bulbs, but to provide enough nutrients to do so, they have to cut off the flower just after it blooms. Since most of the fields in the area are producing bulbs for export (7.5billion bulbs are exported each year!), you have to be at the field almost on the exact right day to see any flowers!

Keukenhof was fantastic though. The park is split up into all different sections - a petting zoo, 9 small inspiration gardens, a grain mill, a Japanese farmer garden, gardens through the ages, etc. We took the free guided tour, but Phil can only take so much "flower talk" so after an hour we agreed to meet up again later and he piked out on the grass. What we hadn't counted on was having a super enthusiastic guide, so it was about and hour and a half before I caught up with him again!

I could have spent the rest of the afternoon taking photos there, but we wanted to move on to Rotterdam for dinner, so we jumped back on the southbound train.

I'm sure Rotterdam is usually a hip and happening city, but at 6pm on Easter Monday there really isn't much going on. We did a bit of a city tour by tram hopping... we wasted some time... we walked along the docks near the maritime museum... we time wasted some more... we looked for a restaurant or supermarket... some more time wasting... finally we decided to move on in the hope that we could board the ferry early.

The ferry ride back was uneventful and we were back in time to catch the train straight to work. Weekend over. Although, I do have that round of cheese to demolish now!

PS: I know! After all that discussion about photographs I haven't included any in this post. They'll appear once I've found my camera in amoungst my luggage :)

Labels and a lynching

Today's photo is a picture of the pope peeking out of Saint Peters Square in Rome. The cool thing is that it is all made from cigar labels! This guy made all sorts of pictures using up 7 million labels
over his lifetime.

This afternoon we visited a number of small fishing villages, a cheese farm and a clog factory.

The sweet shop lady in Volendam was very excited when we bought one of her left over Easter bunnies. She still had quite a number to sell and was hoping for more customers like myself who weren't prepared with eggs for their partners on Easter morning!

Holland is famed for its cheese - Gouda and Edam are particularly popular in this area. I bought a round of goats cheese that has a nice sharp tang, but managed to resist the pesto cheese and the tasty smoked cheese.

Phil almost got us lynched when he jumped the line at the Dutch pancake shop using the (true) excuse that we were running late for our tour. If looks could kill, the lady in front of us would be awaiting sentencing in jail tonight!

Amsterdam is definitely growing on me. I found it a bit dirty and chaotic to start with, but I've relaxed into the casual, fun city feel and am really enjoying the beautiful surroundings and fabulous architecture it offers.

One more day to go, then we're back on the ferry for the overnight trip back to real life. Goodnight.

Duck a la cheese

Cheese anyone? We bought this block at a small market in a very picturesque town north of Amsterdam. It was a bit more than we had intended to buy and at lunchtime we discovered the tempting tidbits mixed into the cheese were caroway seeds which we both detest!

Today we drove out into the Dutch countryside in the hopes of seeing fields of tulips and lots of windmills. The day was disappointing on both those fronts, but we did enjoy the green open fields split by peaceful canals and dotted with tiny lambs, shaggy minature ponies, and a great variety of ducks, geese, herons and birds of prey.

Holland is quite incredible architecturally - the whole country (or at least the north western side) is pretty much afloat. We heard that the houses in Amsterdam have to sit on pylons 25 metres long to ensure they don't subside. Some people must have miscalculated though, because there are heaps of tilting houses. Perhaps that is where the saying "tilting at windmills" originated?

We also learnt on our fabulous candlelight canal cruise last night that there are 750,000 inhabitants in Amsterdam and 600,000 bicycles! It's amazing to see so many people on bikes - particularly the kids that are barely old enough to sit up precariously perched on baby
sized seats on the front of their parent's bike. Phil thinks it must be like swimming in Oz - you get children in the water as soon as possible there and on the bike here.

We found a national park in central Holland that offered free well maintained bicycles to use within the park, so we abandoned the car for an hour and took in some fresh air and a bit of exercise. I think Phil now has a better appreciation of the pains (in the rear end) I have endured while riding as his running support!

Tomorrow is a designated sleep in day with more fun planned for the afternoon.

Have a happy Easter everyone :)

PS the title of this post refers to the running joke of the day - that if we couldn't find a suitable lunch replacement we could use the cheese to knock out a duck to eat or trade... It was one hefty block!

Tombstone of the month

A post about Amsterdam would be incomplete without a bicycle photo - or a multi-story bicycle park in this case!

You'll be pleased to know we haven't been flattened by an unexpected cyclist yet, but I did throw myself at the pavement in front of a very busy bar. No real injuries - just scraped knees and a bruised ego.

I am nominating the The Oude Kerk (old church) as possibly my favourite church ever. Phil and I were at little appauled at the extravagance displayed in the Italian churches, knowing that there were thousands of people who could have benefited from the wealth on display there. For that reason we much prefer the simpler stone churches in England (although I imagine they weren't cheap either). The Oude Kerk is a graceful mixture of stone and wood with a few
beautiful stained glass windows. However it was the floor that catapulted this church into our favourites. Each slab of stone is a separate tomb and they had amazing carvings identifying those that lie beneath.

Best notice on the church board: The tombstone of the month is...!!!

We weren't long out of church and suddenly we were passing windows full of nearly naked ladies. Being someone who feels a bit awkward about the ladies at my gym treating the changing room as their personal bathroom, I didn't really know where to look!

I have definitely reached the travelling point where I no longer want to visit every "must-see" tourist attraction, so we are carefully selecting the places we are truly interested in and are bypassing the rest. I know we might miss something amazing, but we're much more likely to feel well rested and refreshed from our time away. Also, I feel that I spend my life in the London crush, and as much as I enjoy that buzz, on holidays I want to get away from that.

We've booked in for a candlelight canal tour tonight - touristy but we love to see these European cities from the water. Tomorrow we're thinking about going out into the countryside to soak in some green fields and cute cows!

Time to go and watch the ferries tracking back and forward across the harbour in front of our hotel...

Yo ho ho!

I remember now... These ships make me feel very claustrophobic. Probably just a case of having seen Titanic too many times! (I think you'll all agree that twice is too many times no matter how you feel about ships, right? ;) )

We did a quick tour of all the ship's attractions - the cinema, the casino and numerous restaurants - before escaping out onto the back deck for some fresh air.

Our cabin is compact but very clean and quiet. I expect it won't be long before we'll be lulled into dreams of life on the open waves with a soft background accompaniment of HMS Pinaforte.

Sssh... can you hear it...?

Smooth sailing

We're on holidays!!!

Phil and I are sitting in the Harwich ferry terminal awaiting our overnight passage to Amsterdam. Although it will take us much longer to get there, it's a much more relaxing start to our holiday than facing the chaos of a London airport at Easter.

Ohhh! We are boarding now. Time to find our cabin and bed down for our (hopefully) smooth trip.

See you all on the other side :)

22 days until the London Marathon

Only 22 days until the London Marathon. I'm counting down now - only 23 days until it's over and life returns to normal... no more grueling Sunday rides, no more getting up ridiculously early for the Kingston Breakfast Run (that's tomorrow's activity), no more boxes of weird gels and recovery shakes to trip over in the living room, no more talk about feet soreness, physio appointments and carbohydrate loading. What are we going to do with ourselves?!!!

Police barricade

Peaceful protests

We are currently locked in our building as the climate change protesters have camped out outside our building. We've been spending time watching the fun from our office windows and we all want to be out there with them!

It does look more serious around the corner at the Bank of England from what we've seen on the TV, so who knows what it will be like when we want to leave tonight?!