More marathons...

Right, as if one marathon wasn't enough I went and ran the marathon in Amsterdam. Cold weather, shitty legs, low energy, and not ideal motivation led me to finish in 4:42 hrs. A piss poor half hour slower than Berlin and pain for the next couple of weeks. The only reason I finished was that I ended up raising €1400- for a charity in India. Even the last kilometer was too far for me to run. Unbelievable, the stupidity of myself still astounds me every time.

But I'm back to training for some half marathons for next year. Maybe I'll run another marathon in a couple of years, Berlin, London, and New York are on my list. However, first I have to forget how much it hurts to run a marathon, and be better prepared for the next one....

Berlin and other things...

First things first...excuses for not writing for so long. Secondly, I am proud to be a contributor to the global warming problem with my car. And thirdly, one marathon down, one to go...

Its a f*cking long way a marathon, and what a stupid sport, but its the most satisfying feeling I've had in a long time when I ran over the finish. I ran it in 4:28. Not too bad for a first marathon. Got wise words from Heike saying that I should become a participant and not a competitor during the marathon. I refused of course, its nothing for me to be a participant. But a marathon can do strange things to you and by kilometer 35 I was officially a participant and feeling it in every muscle in my body.

Truth be told, I loved running the marathon. Pain, pain, and more pain. But what occurred outside the marathon was in the end more painful for me than the marathon itself... You find out who your friends are and end up realising that you just haven't run enough yet... Honesty is the key, yet the hardest to stick too...

F*CK!!!!

Change...

The question that I faced today was whether I should accept certain things to be set. For example, are norms and values to be accepted without argument? Secondly I was told that certain things can't be changed. For example, norms and value can't be changed.

This idea is in my view the death of society. At the point where we accept that everything is fixed and we should not bother to try and change those factors we might as well not bother doing anything. Secondly, this argument has been destroyed many times over, and the people that advocate this idea have a significant problem with accepting that change is happening. Without changes in believes and norms Russia would still be called the Soviet Union, apartheid would still be an accepted government policy, and more importantly, we'd probably never have evolved beyond the loincloth. Why would we stop wearing loincloths and animal skins if that was the norm at the time?? Why bother inventing the wheel, we're perfectly capable of transporting ourselves by foot, and everyone does it that way so why shouldn't we? Ignorance is stupidity disguised, and everyone is guilty of it in some way or form.

It comes down to how we treat people. The norm is to treat people differently in different situations. Break the norm and you are not accepted, or looked at funny. Once the norm has evolved the idiot that came up with the idea is long forgotten. More importantly, the idiot is probably holding a grudge because the norm by which he was treated was unfair, has been identified as unfair and changed, yet no apology is made. Why? Apologising is seen as a form of guilt, which means that the person apologising should be held accountable, and everyone hates accountability...

That's my rant of the month... Hope you enjoyed it...

Have a good one...

Running for Charity...

Yes, I am another one of those idiots thats running for charity. I'll be running 100 kms (2,5 marathons) for a charity in India that helps build schools and kids pay an go to school. All very noble and everything.

Obviously I should now be instantly more attractive to the female species as I am doing this for the kids...

Or have I ruined the moment now by making that comment???

Have a good weekend...

Drink...

Fridays have been good to me, the saturdays have not been good to me. That might be due to me drinking a little too much and not enjoying the saturdays with a head ache...

Some more pictures from Canada:



PS: Only dutch people could be so fascinated by a dam... What is it with the dutch and water??

Training...

Went for a "short" 15 km run through the dunes yesterday. It went well and all except for that I was held up by 3 girls cycling the same route I was running. Of course it is a well known fact that we have plenty of cyclists in Holland so I'm quite comfortable running and looking out for cyclists. Only this time the 3 girls, who were probably on their way home from the beach or shopping, were having a little trouble getting up the dunes and coping with the wind. Although as a runner I too have a little trouble once in a while with steep inclines and wind, rain and other disturbing weather conditions, I was surprised to find that I was overtaking the 3 girls on the way up the dunes while they were overtaking me once more going down the dunes. This continued over a stretch of about 5 kms. I finally wished the 3 ladies a pleasant trip and took a right while they kept going down the road. I guess its just a weird feeling as a runner to be overtaking people on bikes. The whole reason that bikes were invented was that people could get somewhere faster than on foot. These girls have proven to me that foot power is still a viable transportation form and have restoreed my motivation to keep training.

I ran the 15km in 1:17:00. Not too bad...

Have a good one...

Yes, I'm a spoiled brat...

I think the picture speaks for itself...

Canada Part 4...

The vacation is over. Back in the Netherlands now and fighting against the jetlag. My eyes are closing as I write, so I'm going to keep it short.

The last couple of days have been characterised by the statement: "A room with a view". Going for a 10km run at 7:30 in the morning in Stanley Park, Vancouver, was great, eventhough I am definitely not a morning person. Vancouver is a lot like Sydney, very multicultural, relaxed people with a young population and a sea climate to die for. You're never more than 20 mins drive from a beach in the summer and an hour drive from the ski slopes in the winter. Not too bad, eh!!!

So here a final couple of pictures from the room with a view at the last hotel on the 8th floor and my little room with the view in the plane back.

Canada Part 3...

Bears, Bears, Bears...

They are not half as cuddly as they look... Thats a dead sealion he's standing over...

The sun is shining again... yeah, yeah... Its been a good day...

Canada Part 2...

It can rain in Canada. We've had rain for the past 4 days, might have stayed at home if I wanted to experience rain. Oh well, I've kept myself busy by buying new running shoes. Very cool, and they run great. So, back in training and enjoying the experience. Interesting experience, a bear sighting on the golf course. He just came ambling down the driving range in Whistler. I missed the foto opportunity though, was too much in shock. These things happen, very disappointing.

So here's a few pictures that I did manage to capture. Oh yeah, I'm in a town on Vancouver Island now that has as its motto: Half the speed, twice the pleasure... A good motto to live by and do stuff I think...

Canada Part 1...

In case you didn't know, I'm out enjoying a 3-week trip in Canada. Travelling from Calgary to Vancouver going through the Rocky Mountains is the plan, and so far has proved a success. The Rockies are such a different landscape compared to the Netherlands. Obviously, we're above sea-level here, and there are lots of mountains etc. but the vastness and ruggedness of the area is scary sometimes. Kilometers followed by kilometers of forest and mountains. Unbelievable, and nothing that I've seen before. Deer walking in front of your hotel window, bear sightings on the golf course, it just doesn't stop. The best mountainbiking I've experienced in a long time over tiny trails up and, more enjoyable, down the mountain. Plus going for a swim in a bright blue lake where there's no one to be seen or heard for miles is a refreshing experience (in more ways then just the swim). The lakes in the Canadian mountains are such a bright blue, and completely clear. The science behind this phenomenon is that minerals from the glacier melting water in the lakes absorb all the colour out of the sunlight except for blue, so the blue colour is the reflected. It left me to enjoy the beautiful cool water in the 30 degree heat (yes, it's been 30+ degrees every day this week), and be able to see my shadow on the bottom of a 6 metre deep lake.

There is one negative to this story, the mosquitos... No further explanation needed... And I'm falling behind in my training...

Enjoy a selection of my pictures...

The Genius of Economics...

Why I like economics... Reading an article in the Economist of July 7th made me realise once again why economics is so interesting. Its the question of whether all economic decisions taken are rational decisions, and in particular those that concerning the splitting of a pot of money. The example is from the ultimatum game where the first player proposes how to divide a sum of money with the second party. If the second player rejects this division, neither gets anything. If the second accepts, the first gets his demand and the second gets the rest. You'd think that the second party would always accept the money offered, who would reject free money?? However, this often doesn't happen when the offer is low, usually under 25% of the stash of money. Of course, the rejection of money is often done by people not trained in economics.

To continue along these lines a doctor from Harvard University tried to understand why even economists would reject the offer of free money. The study looked at only male subjects and found that the respondents that rejected the offer of free money had a 50% higher level of testosterone than the average level of the accepting respondents. In fact, in a final offer game (where only one offer is made) 5 of the 7 men with the highest level of testosterone rejected a $5 ultimate offer (out of a pot of $40), yet only one of the 19 others made the same decision. The explanation for these results? People strive for relative instead of absolute prosperity. They would rather accept less themselves than see a rival get ahead. This behaviour is more likely in individuals with high testosterone levels, since that hormone is linked to social dominance.

The question remains whether this behaviour is irrational. It is not irrational per sé, but it is differently rational. The things that money can buy are merely a means to an end, in this case social status, which consequently brings desirable reproductive opportunities (yes, SEX!!!). If another route brings this status more directly, the money becomes irrelevant. Therefore, the money isn't important, the sex is!!! (would this premise also hold for women??)

If you really want to wreck your brain, think about what effect oestrogen might have in this economic game.

Information and theory found in the article: "Money isn't everything" from The Economist of July 7th 2007.

One Training Partner Less...

Back in training for less than a couple of days and I've lost my favourite training partner, Max, the family dog. He's going on 12 years old now and unfortunately he can't keep up with me anymore. It makes running that much more of a lonely enterprise. I enjoy the loneliness though, sometimes... In many ways Max has been a perfect training partner. Always gave his best, no matter what, never complained, doesn't talk continuously (which implies that you have to talk back), and always had a grin on his face. I have seldomly seen a more content character on this earth.

I've therefore decided that its better if max doesn't join me for my runs in the dunes on the Dutch coast. He slows me down, and comes back a broken dog. Who ever said running was healthy? Its a shame though, but has been good fun while it lasted. A sentence that can be used to describe so many things in life...

If you want info. on what breed Max is, check: http://www.drentschepatrijshond.org/
The site is in Dutch, but the pictures are good...

Update on me: injuries are under control, everything else is doing fine, jobsearching is exciting...

Have a good one...

Things I have to remind myself about...

"I have to remind myself that some birds aren't meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright... and when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up does rejoice. Still the place you live in is that much more drab and empty that they're gone. I guess I just miss my friend..."

- Red in Shawshank Redemption.

Great music tip...

Ben Westbeech - Welcome to the best years of my life

Great jazz-funk-dance sound... Check him out on myspace.com

http://www.myspace.com/benwestbeech

Fathers, Mothers, and a cool quote...

"Do you want anything from the shop?"
"Cornetto" - From the movie 'Shaun of the Dead'.

Brilliant writing can be so simple.

Happy father's day to all the fathers. I bought my dad socks this year, haven't seen him that happy in ages. Absolutely brilliant...

Had a busy weekend. Planned to go have a drink with some friends in Utrecht on Friday. We came up with the plan to go play poker at the casino, but this plan was disturbed horribly when we heard that all the tables were full. Very unfortunate, yet we decided that we weren't going to give up so easily and we jumped in the car and drove to the casino in Amsterdam. We got a seat at a no limit Texas hold 'em game at 11pm and got to it. As usual I lost my 10 euro, another massive disappointment to work through... But, I ended up winning about 60 euro at the blackjack table. A good night out. We got drunk till about 4 and then I got on the night train. For those who have never been on the night train, don't bother, it is the longest train ride that you will experience. After getting off the train I walked for 45 minutes to get to my parents place in The Hague.

Which brings me to my mum. Funnily I scared her shitless Saturday morning when I came in at 6am when they weren't expecting it. Plus, an old dog is a bad guard dog. Our dog is so old he barely raises his head to bark at the person at the door before he goes back to sleep on his pillow in front of the stairs. Brilliant!!!!

So that's it. Weekend gone with little sleep and another week of studying and writing continues...

Have a good one...

Its been a week...

Its been a week and nothing drastic has happened. Life seems to take its course and throw a roadblock or two in front of me, but no serious car crashes yet. Although I have found out that I need to learn to time my performances on the golf course a little better. Finished 4th in the club championships strokeplay over the weekend, but really let the championship slip out of my sweaty hands by screwing up in the second and third rounds. Its the MOST FRUSTRATING sport I have encountered in a long time. And its a good thing that I don't have to earn a living by playing golf, or I be more broke than the bum down the end of my street, although he's probably earning more money by getting the dole off the government every month. Typical...

So life on the links is frustrating, but the weather is great. The ice cream I buy melts in my freezer, thats how warm its been. I've got the standard golfers tan. A 'v' on my chest and sleeves on my arms. Hilariously unattractive of course. But unavoidable, since I'm sure I'd drive the other golfers gagging off the course if I'd walk around topless. And there's a whole summer ahead of us. I've said this before and I'm going to say it again, Long life global warming... The only shitty thing is that training is really tough in a 25 degree heat, been waking up early to go and train...

So spare a thought for the lonely morning runner when you're drinking your coffee in bed...

Have a good one...

Some good music...

Here's some good music I'm listening too:

Keane: Under the Iron Sea
Bløf: Umoja (Dutch band)
Röyksopp: Melody A.M.
The Shins: Chutes too narrow, Oh, Inverted world, Wincing the night away
Bloc Party: Silent Alarm (their first album)
The Strokes: Is this it
Muse: Black Holes and Revelations
Koop: Koop Island (great relaxing jazz music)

Good week of Golf, Bad week of Running...

Its been a bad week for running. The weather and niggling little injuries led to the worst training run since two months. It has to do with the injuries, but also with a lack of motivation. Since I have no plans to run any meets until August it becomes harder go out every other day to train. Its really frustrating when things don't quite work out, and a training session that doesn't go well leaves your body hurting four times as much the next day. It makes you question the reasons you're running the many kilometers per week. Will give it a go again tonight, see if it goes any better. If not, I'll be taking a week off.

Like the title says, its been a good golfing couple of weeks. It seems that although the running form is not going well, I'm finally hitting a bit of form on the golfcourse. It helps that the course is looking great at the moment and that the weather is okay, but I tend to give myself the credit when things go well and blame other things when things are not going well. Typical sportsman I guess. With the club championships coming up its the best time to get a bit of form, not to mention about time to get a bit of form. Its been an extremely frustrating season so far. My last couple of rounds: 75, 76, 74 (Par 72 course, www.nngcc.nl). Even won some prizes, a second place and a best bruto score, I now have a complete set of engraved whiskey glasses, yeah, yeah.

On that bombshell, I'm off for a run...

Have a good one!!!

One more thing: Want to congratulate a friend of mine on reaching 30!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ULRICH!!!!!!!

The Rabbit...

The rabbit has a charming face:
Its private life is a disgrace.
I really dare not name to you
The awful things that rabbits do;
Things that your paper never prints -
You only mention them in hints.
They have such lost, degraded souls
No wonder they inhabit holes;
When such depravity is found
It can only live underground

Half Marathons and Gorilla Attacks...

What a past couple of days its been. First of all, the half marathon last Thursday went exceedingly well. Unfortunately, the time-keeping geniuses in Groningen have screwed up and not been able to post the official results. Going on a clock about 500 metres from the finish which said that it was 8:20 pm and us starting around 6:30 I think I finisheed in just under 2 hours, which is definitely an achievement I wasn't expecting. But the best part is that I ran throughout the 21 kms which is much more important for me. It means that my fitness is at a level that it is possible to run a marathon semi-comfortably and my body can take the continuous pounding that you receive when running. Ofcourse, there is no such thing as pain free running, and there are few pains in places that I dare not share with the world, but the running world will know what and where I mean. One prblem, my motivation to train is at an all time low, there are no races planned till August and that is a long way away...

"Having a Bokito", that's the new catchphrase for having an anger management problem in Holland after a silverback gorilla in Diergaarde Blijdorp (zoo in Rotterdam) had had enough of people taunting and making fun of him and jumped over a 4 meter moat and taught them a lesson. He was tranquilised and he's behind bars now. Its our fault that Bokito is not afraid of humans, he was raised by keepers in Berlin Zoo and fed pizza by hand...not the most natural way to grow up. But Bokito is not the one to blame, its the stupid people that go and visit the zoo on a daily/weekly basis trying to "connect" with the animals by staring at them and banging on the glass. Funnily enough a gorilla attack is the most exciting news we've had in Holland over the past couple of weeks. These things happen...

So what have I learned over the past couple of days:
I've reached a state of fitness that I can run a marathon...
Don't taunt animals at zoos...

Following from that a word of warning to all you goldfish owners. DON'T TAP THE GLASS... The fish might just jump out of his bowl and maul you...

Have a good one...

Memories...can they be relived...

Sydney Church of England Co-Educational Grammar School Redlands...

That, my friends, is the full name of the high school I attended and finished in Australia over the period 1997 to 2000 that I lived in Sydney. Why does this subject come up? Because over a dinner conversation during mother's day the subject of the countries we lived in came up and eventually the conversation got stuck on school life in Sydney. First of all, of the three countries I've lived in, other than Holland, Australia was by far the best place, and SCECGS was by far the most fun I had at a foreign school. It was definitely the people that did it for me at SCECGS. The sports that were offered there were good as well. Since I'm 2 meters tall, and my brother is only a few centimeters shorter, the introduction day at SCECGS ended with the coordinators of cricket, rowing, rugby, and basketball coming to us and trying to sell their respective sports to us. I found out that training for rowing was in the mornings at 5 or 6 so that sales pitch fell on deaf ears with me. I didn't quite fancy the prospect of standing in a field for up to 8 hours waiting for a rock hard ball to come towards me at 110 km/h so cricket was a no go as well. Rugby was considered as an option but my mum was having none of it. Alas, no rugby glory for me. I ended up playing basketball, football (soccer), and hockey and had a blast.

The sports were not the only thing that made Sydney the place to be for me. The people were fantastic. Social, kind, fun to be with, great parties, the guys made the uniforms somehow look cool, and the girls made the uniforms looks good (and that was not an easy task). In short, they were just beautiful people.

The best thing is that I still have a record standing at SCECGS. I have the record of the most places dropped in the scholastic table of students. I dropped from around the 12th place in the class to the 120th place. Never had so much fun at a school as I had in that year...

So if anyone from SCECGS class of 1999 is reading, greetings to you and send a mail, would love to hear from you...

Have a good one...

The Royal Ten...and mothers day...

Happy Mothers Day to all you mothers out there!!!!

As a present to my mum I went and ran the The Hague Royal Ten, a 10km run through the Haagsche Bos (The Hague forest) and past the Queen's palace (Huis ten Bosch). A good event with about 2900 people participating. I ended up running it in 52:20, which isn't a bad time considering I spent all day Saturday on the golf course playing two rounds in crap weather. A guy from Rwanda won the event by running the 10 km in around 28 minutes. I saw them speed past me going past the 6 km mark while I was still on my way to the 5 km mark. Crazy stuff...

Anyway, I'm gearing myself up to run the Groningen half marathon on Thursday. Should be a blast, and I'm hoping I'll be able to beat my time of 2:09 from the last half marathon I ran.

Have a good one and keep posted for more news at the end of the week.

Flames

Smokey the Bear heads
into the autumn woods
with a red can of gasoline
and a box of wooden matches.
His ranger's hat is cocked
at a disturbing angle.
His brown fur gleams
under the high sun
as his paws, the size
of catcher's mitts,
crackle into the distance.
He is sick of dispensing
warnings to the careless,
the half-wit camper,
the dumbbell hiker.
He is going to show them
how a professional does it.

Poem by Billy Collins

I'm Back

My computer has been down and this is the first time I've had a chance to write something. Not a lot has happened over the past few weeks, besides me buying a new laptop that is. Training has been going on same as usual, 4 to 5 times a week, in between weekends where I've spent my time on the golf course playing competition. Next to that I've been getting on with my final thesis research and data search. Boring work I have to say, plus I need to start almost from scratch as I still haven't gotten my old hard drive back and haven't (don't know if) been able to extract my old files and pictures and music.

The next running events I'll be participating in are:

The Royal 10: 10 km run in The Hague, on Mother's day, 13th of May.
De Nacht van Groningen: half marathon in Groningen (my home town), 17th of May.

Stay tuned for more news and times for the above events...

Have a good one...

Rest and Relaxation...

The above statement is nothing for me. I still feel I need to rest after Saturday's run, but I want to really get back on the road. Luckily the weather is crap at the moment, as we are getting lots of snow and hail storms across the country, so sitting inside is a lot easier than expected. I posted the wrong time yesterday, the right time is a bit quicker: 2:09:19. Yes, those 20 seconds make all the difference for my self-confidence.

Yet rest and relaxation is not all good for me, it gives me way too much time to think. Especially since I'm up at 8 to walk the dog anyway, and you can only read so many academic articles on leveraged buy-outs before you fall asleep, or the mind drifts off. Working is a lot easier because there is a sense of urgency behind each bit of work that you do. So once my mind starts wandering to places, some completely silly, and others way too serious I came across one question;
Wrong time, wrong place, right person, what can you do?
Think about each section and split it up into many different points of view, and the question becomes a real brainteaser. For example, wrong time does not have to mean the specific time, but can also mean your personal time or stage of your life, etc. This is why people warn me about thinking too much, and having too much time on my hands.
Besides, the question used to be; Right time, right place, wrong person, what can you do?
Its a small but extremely significant difference...

The Official Time...

The official time it took me to run the half marathon today:

2:09:34

But the best part is I came in 4835th place... yeah yeah...

And to top it all off I have pain in places you cannot imagine...

Have a great weekend everyone

The Day Before...

Its been a couple of days since I've last written anything down, but with the start of my "running season" less than a day away I thought I'd write a little. The weather looks like it'll hold up, and even if it rains, it's no like I'm made of sugar, so I'm kind of looking forward to it. My motivational worries are gone for the moment and all that's left is to get a good night rest and be ready for the afternoon.

The reason I haven't written anything is that I'm at my parents place taking care of our elderly dog. There is nothing like an 11 year-old dog to get you out of bed in the morning and walking come rain or shine. And I've been a bit too lazy to write and busy with my research proposal to write an extended review of whats been happening the past couple of days, primarily because there hasn't been much happening in the past couple of days. In my case the saying "no news is good news" holds I guess.

Watch for tomorrow's announcement on how quickly (or slowly) I've run... For those of you going partying this weekend, have a good one...

Spring has come at last...

Its a beautiful day, the sun is shining, I feel good, no ones going to stop me now...

Well, that's one way of enjoying the first real spring day, 15 degrees and sunny. Yet still I have a feeling that everything is not sunny and beautiful. I trained for the last time before this weekends half marathon. Went for a 10 km run and feel like I won't be ready this weekend. But I put that to nerves. Its funny, according to my schedule I have to run competition/matches/ runs every 4 weeks. That means running a half marathon every one and a half months if I want to be ready for September. Today is the first time I actually doubted what I'm doing, and wondered why the hell I want to run two marathons. I've convinced myself that it's because I tend to do things the hard way. Almost everything I try I do the hard way, I try sports even though I might not have trained for ages. I pick thesis subjects that prove to be almost impossible to find data for yet still I want to pursue them. I tend to get into relationships that only really have a 10 per cent chance of succeeding... Life sucks doesn't it...

I'm still angry at the world once in a while. I talked about it over the weekend with my friends and I was told that I shouldn't think too much. Its something that I've heard before, but an active mind is hard to slow down. In many cases this is not a bad thing, as long as I apply my thinking to the right things, but I don't do that 7 out of 10 times, and I'm probably better for it. Its easy to put things away just because you don't want to think about it anymore, or its something you don't want to confront. It may take me longer to get through things that are difficult to accept or deal with, but at least I deal with those things. And I have a firm belief that a lot of stuff is worth remembering, which apart from leading me to remember the most stupid little facts, gives me the privilege of remembering a lot of fantastic things that others feel are insignificant. When it comes to other people, nothing is insignificant...

Enjoy the start of spring, and the birds and the bees, blah, blah, blah, etc...

An interesting and disturbing couple of days...

Its Sunday again, which means for most of you that the working week is set to begin again tomorrow. For me it will be just another day sitting behind the computer and academic articles researching my thesis. Life is good... The weekend has been good, I had a beer with friends in the inhabited area of Holland, the western part, and it was good to catch up with them. Its good to be able to talk about absolutely nothing once in a while, and enjoy it, which makes life so much easier to cope with. For example, a couple of my friends have a passion for motorbikes. Their girlfriends disapprove of course, and we came to the unanimous conclusion that women/girlfriends are not really that interested in the hobbies of men. This point is further illustrated when I say that I have never been able to turn a girl on by telling them all about how fantastic my 58 degree lob wedge is the more it rusts, because then I get more grip on the golf ball and more spin. And I doubt that any girlfriend will find it cool if their boyfriend is out of bed and gone at 9 on Sunday morning, which mean no breakfast in bed, and gone for most of the day. I have definitely chosen the wrong hobby, its a shame I enjoy it so much.

The disturbing part of the last weekend was actually just before the weekend. I saw a documentary on TV called "beperkt houdbaar" (translated: limited shelf-life), and was about the plastic surgery industry in America and how magazines and fashion models influence our self image. What shocked me was that a plastic surgeon basically sat down, looked at a woman as a piece of meat which doesn't conform to a certain image, and tells her that her body looks like crap and has to be completely rebuilt. The women are not seen as patients, but candidates for surgery. But hold on, the most shocking is still to come. At the moment there is a huge trend in plastic surgery called labia corrections. Basically, the vagina is operated on so that they look like so-called Playboy vagina's. Incomprehensible that this is done. I can understand that in some cases this type of surgery may be medically necessary, but to have this type of surgery because you want to look like a photo-shopped model that appeared in the Playboy is unbelievable. Its an ultimate form of putting aesthetics over function, because some feeling is lost if parts of the vagina are removed. Crazy, nuts, unbelievable, and shamefull that men try to convince women to get that type of surgery. How hypocritical is it to be outraged by female circumcision in the Islam culture, but then let your daughters go and get a labia correction in the name of aesthetics? Just so that you don't understand me wrongly, I feel that female circumcision and these labia correction should be banned outright, outside of purely medical reasons. But its been a long time since I've been shocked in such a way and I sat in front of the TV with my mouth open in horror. Unbelievable...

Nothing more to add for the moment, just want to get across that we should be aware what kind of effect magazine covers, models, actors, movies, etc. have on our self-image and confidence for both women and men. Hell, I get horribly insecure about how I look and my self-confidence picks up a huge dent when I pick up a copy of Men's Health, GQ, or other men's magazines. I know I'll never have the six-pack, massive arms, and make women drool when I walk down the street, but there's nothing wrong with that. Is there????

Happy International Women's day...

As if I haven't made it clear enough that women rule the world in yesterday's post I'd just like to say:

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY!!!!!!!

Yes, women have their own day. Do we have an International Man's Day??? No, because women rule the world. Can't live with them, can't live without them, love them anyway...

Self-destructive behaviour...

It's finally stopped raining in Groningen, which means I might actually get to play some golf this weekend. What a relief, I was starting to get really bad withdrawal symptoms. Playing golf is my natural relaxant. However, it also meant that I went for a run tonight, and that can be seen as self-destructive behaviour for me at the moment, due to the niggling sours and pains in the body. I shouldn't be running at all and stretching and resting so that I'll be able to run the 21 km next week, but no, I go and run 9 km today. Very smart on my part. I have a bit of a history of self-destructive behaviour. I'd start smoking again if I didn't want to run the marathons, because one pack of cigarettes will put me back 3 months of training. I'd rather feel pain in my body at the moment than anything else. I drink too much, but not excessively, if that makes any sense. I barely know what it feels like to go to sleep sober, and I still sleep like crap. I just tend to do certain things to extremes. I rationalise to extremes because then I can cope with the situation even if its not the right thing to do. I want to push my body to extremes this year, I think I'm actually punishing myself in this way for some reason. I think about things to extremes, and I want to get things right even if the situation doesn't allow for that at that time. Now this characteristic is probably my worst, as when the things inevitably go wrong I tend to put the blame on myself. I cling to what I want to achieve even if I know the right thing is to let go and cut my losses, and be happy with the stuff I did achieve and still have. Let's just say that this kind of behaviour is not always the best. Okay, to call my behaviour self-destructive is another extreme, because I'll never go that far, I'm too stubborn and don't want to give up. In my own way I'm impossible to live with.

I'm going to keep running I guess.

Nothing I didn't already know: Women rule the world...

Its been women in the news today in Holland. The prevailing message has been that men are screwed for the future, and that's nothing new to me I guess. The first bit of news is that girls are finishing their university degrees earlier and with better marks than men. This should inherently mean that the women should get the top jobs in the future, and if that doesn't happen then there is something seriously wrong with the system. Women are usually better at multi-tasking, organising, languages, making a personal connection with customers, and as good at analytical thinking as men. All these skills are essential in modern business, so we're screwed. I guess the only reason there is a glass ceiling is that women let us pretend that we make the world go round, which is of course absolute bullshit. Plus there is continuously more attention put towards child-care provision for mothers so they can go back into the work place if they choose to. All good things, now we should also see more equal pay between men and women. If the super stiff and unchanging Wimbledon Tennis organisation offers equal pay for men and women, why shouldn't the rest of the world?

The second bit of news is something I read in the Economist. Men beware where you get married, because if your wife decides she's had enough of you (which is certain to happen since there is always something better out there) she is almost always on the winning side financially. Men, do not marry in England or America. Women, marry in England or America. Get married in Germany or France or somewhere in continental Europe. Why? Because in those countries there is a limit on the amount and the number of years men have to pay 'maintenance' fees. Germany is high on the divorce "friendliness" list which is a list that shows how a divorce is arranged for a "non-adulterous high-earning man hoping for a speedy exit from a ten-year marriage concluded without a pre-nuptial agreement". France is second, America definitely last. So there we go, women have more "earning potential", should be more successful in business and get the benefit of the doubt when it comes to divorce settlements.

The third bit of women's news is that women should start with having children earlier in life. Why? its more dangerous for the woman to have children at ages 35 and over, there is more of a chance for complications. Many women might disagree with the idea of having children at a younger age because they feel they lose the option of having a career. At the moment this is a valid point, but not for the next generation of mothers. Think of it this way, women are more highly qualified, more willing to work, and there is better child-care these days (if you can get your foot in the door). This means that if women have children earlier, the sooner they can get back into the workplace, and the longer they can enjoy a career. Gender is no longer a barrier in business, but age is the universal discriminator for men and women, so the sooner women get back in the workplace, the more they can enjoy a career. Plus it has the benefit to strengthening the gene pool because the babies will probably be healthier if the women are younger when they get pregnant. Now of course I'm not advocating teenage girls to go out and get pregnant, don't get me wrong, but the average age of women having children should not go over the 35 years old, if circumstances allow that. But its an individual decision of course...

Men Unite, For We Are The Breeding Stock Of The Future...

Its not like we picked who we want as a girlfriend or wife now anyway, so what's new. The meek will not inheret the earth, women will and have...and that's another reason why nice guys will always finish last, but I'll explain that statement some other time...

After the fit...

Life sucks at the moment...I've gone and injured my calf muscle, or the tendon attached to the muscle above the ankle on my left leg. And that sucks... As if I don't have enough shit to deal with besides a body breaking down two weeks before the half marathon. At least I've found someone to run the City-Pier-City with, which should keep me going. I have to try and rest the leg, and that's quite easy when it rains all day, but I feel like a caged animal in a zoo pacing along the boundaries. DON'T FEED THE ANIMALS... But I'm stubborn and stupid enough to not fail, always have been, always will be. Everyone warns me that there is such a thing as responsible running, which is bullshit, because there is no such thing as doing things in such extremes and doing them responsibly...The body is weak, yet the mind is determined.

The sum of our past...

Who am I? Am I just a sum of what I've done and seen? If you read my CV will you know me? We think we can see what a person is like by first impressions, and first impressions are important, but not conclusive. I tend to scrub up pretty good, and if I wear a suit you probably won't write me off at that moment. Yet still you will never be able to know me at that moment. We are profiled, prodded, questioned, judged by people who want to know us for whatever reason. All the answers I give will not let those people truly know me. I doubt whether my parents truly know what goes on in my head, and who I am. Leaving the house at 17 I've spent the most important and forming years of my life out of the parental radar. I've lived alone and independently for the past 7 years making my own mistakes, so the question remains if they really know me. Sure, I talk to them often enough, and ask advise on different subjects, and sometimes I even follow their advise, but the choices I make are mine to make and I get to hear often enough that they would have done things differently. So be it, choices made are consequences accepted. And do we ever really let our parents get to know us, do we want to? What if they don't like what they see?

One of the most common things I hear about my personality is that people find it hard to get a feel for who I am. It took my friends, those who stuck it out anyway, 7 years to get to know me. They'll tell you that I don't open up to just anyone, which is true, but if you have the patience and interest then you'll get a fairly good idea of who I am and that you won't regret having to wait. I don't think I'll ever let anyone to truly get to know me, it's just not worth their disappointment. But that doesn't mean that I won't let people try, and I don't let people down if they put in the effort. Can I accept it if people rule me out because they judge me on my past or on first impressions? Not really, but do I have a choice? And have I done that in the past? Definitely, but I know plenty of people that I shouldn't have come close to or bothered with (even with a long stick) based on their past or who they are related to. I shouldn't be friends with my brother based on his family, but we're friends nonetheless.

I am not purely the sum of my past. More importantly, although there are parts of me that may never change and I can't change, there are parts of me that are yet to come. It's up to me to find those out, and up to others to bother to see and find that there is more to me than meets the eye. I'll let you see who I am if you're interested in knowing me for a long time. Try me...

Cheated by Life...

I feel like life has cheated me out of some of the best things out there. Life has been cheating me out of stuff from the day I was born. A simple example, Life has made and decided that I should be tall, which has cheated me out of wearing certain types of clothes, and means I have to search through massive amounts of stores before I can find a pair of pants, jeans, shirts, jumpers, etc. that fit me. I have size 46 shoes, which means I went to three cities to find a pair of sneakers that fit me in the model I wanted to buy, and means that my feet don't fit in certain makes of shoes because they are a different shape. Those are simple examples of me being cheated by life.

Life has cheated me because the thing I wanted most over the past year, and in the future, I can't have. Circumstances can be worked with if you want something bad enough, which I did, yet still it wasn't good enough, I wasn't good enough. Still the effort I put into it wasn't good enough for life, as life decided that I wasn't going to get what I wanted. Life didn't bother to think that what I wanted, and deserve, was right there. Life screwed me by not having a little patience and giving me the time I deserve to have what I wanted. I can't change what I've experienced over my life, and I can't change what point I have reached in my life, but to screw me over because I couldn't show who I really am, what I stand for and why I made my choices, most importantly what I'm capable of, and not bothering to find out, is a punch below the belt. Why is it when I want to be happy and make those choices that make me happy (however much they change me in the future), Life decides that those choices aren't good enough? Why? What is it about me that gives Life the right to screw me over? And would it have been any different if I had a little more experience with Life? Don't the choices you make for your future form you as much as the choices you've made in the past? Don't the things you want to see and experience in the future count as much towards who you are, as the things you've seen and experienced? The past can't be changed, and just because you've seen and done things in the past doesn't mean you're fixed to be that person. Life seems to have decided that there is no such thing as potential. Even though potential doesn't always show up, it should never be ignored, or taken away.

WHO IS LIFE TO CHEAT ME OUT OF SOMETHING I WANTED, IN THIS MANNER, WITHOUT GIVING ME THE CHANCE TO REALISE THE POTENTIAL IT HAD? I DESERVED THAT CHANCE...I WORKED HARD FOR THAT CHANCE...

Life seems to have hidden four aces up its sleeve while playing poker with me over the past year, and that makes not having what I had all the more difficult to accept.

SCREW WITH LIFE, BECAUSE IT WILL CERTAINLY SCREW WITH YOU....

My Top 5 women's fashion hates...

I love women but there are just some things I can't accept and are instant turn-offs for me:

1. The short tight bermudas/trousers that are worn in the winter or while going out.
2. The skinny jeans: Just the thought that you've spent I don't know how long squeezing yourself into those tiny jeans, and the thought that they're a bitch to get off doesn't appeal to me.
3. The pointy toe flat shoes: Those stupid flat type shoes that have the pointy toes. Made even worse if they have a small thin pointy heel (not a deal breaker though).
   
4. The furry boots or ugh boots: Based on the Ugh boots, they look stupid and they were originally made for indoor use only, they only looked good on the person that made them all that at the start, Elle MacPherson (lets face it, she looks good in anything).
5. The Gucci or any other super tacky designer bag: lets face it, you'll either be way too high maintenance or way above my standards...

But a cool, funny, interesting, and intriguing personality will definitely always turn me on, even though you might be wearing the above fashion atrocities...

Lists...the expert's answer to everything...

It doesn't matter what you're asked to do there always seems to be a list involved. SWOT analyses are glorified lists. Excel files are also all glorified lists. There is very little that can't be defined as a list. A problem with lists is that they can backfire. It's as simple as with statistics, if you put in the wrong type of stats and try and find relationships between two variables which are completely unrelated, for example rainfall and visits to the toilet, you might find a connection but it will not really mean anything. What's even more frustrating is that when we're asked to list something because the list is supposed to help us in some way, and we do so, but the list ends up showing something completely the opposite and we end up even further from home. Not only is this frustrating, but it sends the wrong messages. You're so focused on the fact that you'll get a definite answer from your pretty list that it hits you twice as hard if the list fails to give you meaningful results. It is equally frustrating when your fantastic list gives you different results to what you were expecting. After compiling several lists on particular subjects and not getting the results I was hoping for, I have all but given up on lists and their results. The problem is obviously me because I should accept the results as truth, according to experts, but maybe its better to find out how we can use the results to gain some sort of benefit.

These expectations that we attach to lists are equally important in other situations. When you play a sport that's primarily a one-on-one sport its best for your mental resolve to always expect that your opponent will pull off that one crazy shot or action that will win the game. It smooths out the mental roller coaster that we go through. But can we do this for other situations besides competition, sport, and lists? Can we smooth out the highs and lows we experience that are common to the expectations we and others have when it comes to the choices we make in our life? Can we cope with others and our own expectations? And in what way are our own expectations formed by the expectations that others have of us? There are enough examples in the sports world where the parents expectations break up the person that has to live up to those expectations. The suicide rate of Japanese teenagers is the highest in the world because they are expected to perform to crazy standards by parents and institutions alike. I'm not saying that we should set goals and expectations to a low level which we can achieve easily, I wouldn't be running if that was my opinion, but we should become more aware of how expectation influence us.

What is more difficult is to make a choice while expecting to get negative results even though there is a chance that the results might be great. However, I still need a little more time to think on this subject. It's a subject for another time and for the Comments column...

A comment on Happiness...

After another sleepless night with a nagging question in my head I got to thinking about whether there is such a thing as being 100% happy. I use being happy in the context of being content with what you have in life, I don't care whether all the money in the world or living in the street makes you happy, as long as it's what you want. I take the position that there is no such thing as being 100% happy, there are always little things that I'm not satisfied with. However, it is my goal to be as happy as possible in the situation I'm in at that moment, and grasping every opportunity that may be out there to be that little bit more happy, without losing the stuff I've got unless the sacrifice is worth it. Now this may mean being satisfied with 75% happiness. The problem with this is that when you've tasted a period of 90% happiness (I believe this is about as high as you can go on the happiness scale), it becomes extremely difficult to accept the 75% you have at that moment.

Another problem is the humans insatiable desire to be happy. We want to reach that 100% mark all the time, every time, and the question is whether we lose sight of what we have at that moment that made us so happy. It also leads us to wondering whether there is something better out there. There's a Dutch proverb: Andermans grass is altijd groener, which translated freely means: The other guy's grass is always greener. With modern society being focused on success, money and living up to the expectations of others, it's fairly easy to look at the guy next door and ask yourself why it is that he's so much more better off than you are. This leads to wanting to find the other person's level of happiness or means to happiness without looking at ourselves and what makes us happy. The problem this creates in our search for happiness is that we may take one step forwards towards happiness after having taken five steps backwards searching for someone else's level of happiness. Not an ideal situation. I tend to do this particularly when I'm in a bad mood and feeling sorry for myself. I start asking myself why I can't do stuff others can, like getting the 0.3 extra points to get a higher mark. Mostly I tend to ask myself why I can't play golf like Ernie Els, and what did I do to not deserve that sort of talent so that I could make my hobby my profession. Inevitably I snap out of that and concentrate on what I have got going for me. I'm not the most stupid person in the world (being a Master's university student you automatically fall in the top 20% on the "smart" scale in Holland), I'm half decent looking, I've seen and learned more about the world than most others, I've achieved the goals I set for my studies, and I have a good set of family and friends. In the end when I think about it I will never fall below that 75% happiness mark, since that's basically my base level, and I'm fortunate to have such a high base level.

The question remains, when I'm in that bad mood or not sleeping because I'm thinking about my happiness and cursing myself for the choices I've made to achieve a form of happiness that is not my own, will I be big and brave enough to admit my mistake of letting the things go that made me 90% happy. In the end everyone deserves their own high level of happiness, and that can be achieved by recognising those factors that make you happy, and holding on to those, or getting them back if you feel you've let them go, probably the hardest thing to do. The things that are most important are always the most difficult to achieve and hold on to, and I guess there is no right or wrong way to achieving happiness.

Top 5 niggling injuries you get from running...

This is my second Top 5 list. Although I'm not much of a fan of lists they can be good to warn or show stuff more clearly. So here's my list of niggling (small) injuries that you might get when training for a long run:

1. Bleeding nipples: Maybe a little too personal, but this injury is extremely irritating and caused by your shirt rubbing against your nipples while you run.
2. Nails falling off: If you wear shoes that are too small, you're going to get stubbed or blue toes, and eventually your toenails might fall off, buy running shoes that are a size larger than normal.
3. Shin splits: Its an injury thats caused by the constant pounding on your shin bones from running on hard surfaces, 4 times your bodyweight goes through your heels and legs at impact.
4. Whiplash: Not the whiplash in your nek, but in your calves. Can just shoot down your calf muscle if you don't warm up or stretch properly.
5. Nagging pain caused by tight muscles: As you train your muscles in your legs get stronger and bigger. If you don't stretch properly those muscles pull on your tendons and joints causing a continuous pain. STRETCH, STRETCH, STRETCH, is the only remedy.

From personal experience all these small injuries really stink and are extremely irritating. Warm up and stretch is the only remedy to keeping injury free. You can prevent injury number 1 by using vasaline. Enjoy your running...

Choices made are consequences accepted...

It irritates me that decisions have to be made without realising the consequences of those choices. Life would be a whole lot more easy, although a lot more boring, if we could see all possible consequences of the decisions we make. Of course this holds less for the more simple decisions we make. If I decide to kick a tree bare foot, I've accepted the consequence of having a fair amount of pain and a splinter or two in my foot. However, if I decide that the happiness gained by kicking the tree is greater than the pain I will experience, I will kick the tree, even though some others might not agree with me. This reasoning also applies to me running two marathons in quick succession. It's guaranteed that this is going to be the most unpleasant activity that I can go through physically, but the happiness gained from achieving a goal will far outweigh the pain. In many ways this is how I tend to make decisions that affect my current and future happiness.

However, going through the process of pitching the idea of running a marathon, let alone two, to others, I became more aware that people give the reason for not going through with it as that I would be happier if I make a different choice. Thinking back, the same thing occurs throughout the choices you make or the situations you face while living your life, and it pisses me off that people presume that their choice or advice is best for your happiness. I make the choices, with the cards I'm dealt, that make me happy and its frustrating to feel that others have taken that choice away from you by saying that certain things are best for you. Whether the choices I make involves education decisions, weekend plans, summer plans, relationship ideas or career choices, the primary person affected by the choice I make is myself. Although I am the type of person that thinks a lot on how my choice will affect others (not always a bad thing), the person most affected by my decision is me, and the decisions I make are the ones that make me happy, and should not be doubted when it comes to their intention. From this perspective the decisions made by others, that involve me, should be based on their own happiness and not on mine, and not presume that their choice will make me any more or less happy or let me not miss out on something.

So far my choices haven't backfired on me yet, there is no choice that I have huge regrets about. Additionally, I have no doubt that my choice to train for and run two marathons this year will not be a choice I will live to regret. My succes in decision-making can be shown through one clear example: I have yet to kick a tree.

The Natural Highs Gained Through Exercise...

In a world filled with drugs few people realise that any form of exercise creates the best high on a budget. Just to get some politics with drugs straightened out. Holland has a tolerant policy towards soft drugs, they are not fully legalised. Basically, you're allowed to have 5 grams of soft drugs in your possession at any one time, and each household is allowed to grow 5 marijuana plants in their backyard or greenhouse if they want to and only get arrested if the policeman is in a really bad mood, or you're causing some form of unrest. I'm sure that neighbours with little kids aren't going to be too pleased with you growing your weed outside their kid's bedroom window, and the "oregano" excuse doesn't work as well as it used to, so don't piss off more people than necessary when growing your own stash. This gedoog (tolerant) policy has made drugs (at least soft drugs and other 'natural' drugs like magic mushrooms) much less of a problem in Holland, and contrary to belief we are not a generation thats permanently stoned because drugs are easily available. If anything there are less problems with drugs because its not that special to smoke a splif in Holland.

Back to serotonins...formally known as 5-HT, its a neurotransmitter or chemical made by the brain and affects the body temperature, mood (its an anti-depressant), sleep, appetite, and sex drive. To get an extreme rush of serotonin take an XTC pill because XTC stimulates the brain to produce massive amounts of serotonin. The production of serotonin in the brain during exercise leads to a so-called "runner's high", one more reason to run. The second drug produced through exercise is dopamine. Dopamine is a "feel good" drug or chemical which other drugs such as cocaine, heroin, and marijuana induce or copy. Dopamine can also be copied by using coffee, cigarettes or alcohol. If you haven't experienced a dopamine rush through exercise or any of the above drugs you've probably experienced it through engaging in a different form of exercise, sex. Unfortunately, the levels of dopamine and serotonin decrease the longer you're together, after about 3 months of great highs you're less likely to experience those fantastic rushes. So get exercising to keep those drugs circulating and the libido going.

So remember, while its raining outside and you're laying on the couch or any other place with your significant other experiencing dopamine and serotonin highs, spare a thought for me running in that same rain trying to get a little high as well.

Communication

Communication between people is a funny thing. We have a million different ways to communicate with each other but that doesn't always make it any easier. From letters, e-mail, mobiles, texting, msn messaging, skype, to sign language and body language, I still feel a simple call is the most difficult thing. When do you call? Am I disturbing a person if I want to call? How do you start a conversation? What do you talk about after you said what you needed to say? Maybe more importantly, what don't you talk about? And how can it be as (or more) difficult to not call someone as it is to call a person? And why does the thing I really want to say always pop into my head 10 minutes after the conversation has finished? Especially this last fact makes me feel like such a fool.

These questions run around my mind even when I'm making simple calls, although I am pretty good at ordering pizza without experiencing these nagging questions. God help me if I have to call someone I actually like. Adding to this, have you ever thought about what your voice sounds like over the phone? When I'm home and answer the phone I get repeatedly mistaken for my father. So I decided to tape my voice over the phone by leaving a message on my own voicemail through a pay-phone. Yes, I do have way too much time on my hands. The results were quite a shock, I sound like the most boring person to have graced this planet in a long time. Now I'm quite sure that this is not true. By going through some simple logic...my father is not boring, I sound like my father on the phone, therefore I am not boring, simple "kromme logica", I can come to the conclusion that I am not boring.

Although the idea of me not being boring has strengthened my resolve when calling, communication is still a difficult thing. Give me face-to-face talks any day. At least then they're too distracted by my ugly shoes or jumper to notice my lack of communication skills.

Top 5 dogs you don't want to meet while running...

Its every runner's (and mailman's) nightmare top 5:

1. The Beagle: Definitely the scariest thing out on the road (besides axe-wielding truckers).
2. The Jack-Russell terrier: Small and persistent, an excellent motivator, keep running.
3. The Rottweiler: Much too protective of their owners.
4. The Sheep-dog: Their herding ability takes over and they give you the 'evil-eye'.
5. Anything small: Must be compensating behaviour...

Lets hope you don't come across these dogs while you're out running.
But if you come across this guy, say hello and give him a pat on the head (his name is Max):

A comment on Retail Therapy

Of course, in my quest to bring a little sun into my life during these dreary winter days I went and tried retail therapy:

Retail therapy is shopping with the primary purpose of improving the buyer's mood or disposition. Often seen in people during periods of depression or transition, it is normally a short-lived habit. Items purchased during periods of retail therapy are sometimes referred to as "comfort buys."

Retail therapy was first used as a term in the 1980s with the first reference being this sentence in the Chicago Tribune of Christmas Eve 1986. "We've become a nation measuring out our lives in shopping bags and nursing our psychic ills through retail therapy."

In 2001, the European Union conducted a study finding that 33 per cent of shoppers surveyed had "high level of addiction to rash or unnecessary consumption'." This was causing debt problems for many with the problem being particularly bad in Scottish young people. (wikipedia)

Retail therapy doesn't really work for me. Why? because I'm 2 metres tall and therefore nothing fits me properly, since it seems that clothing manufacturers tend to forget that there are poeple taller than 1m80 in this world. Secondly, my shopping experience was ruined by the shopping attendants/helpers in the stores continuously talking about (male and female attendants alike):

• Their boyfriend.
  
• Their friend's boyfriend and how they can't believe they're still together because they saw them kissing such and such in this, that, or the other place.
• Their pants and whether they look good in them.
• What happened on X-factor the other night, and how the candidates looked horrible in their dresses (again men and women candidates alike).
• Whether they should get their hair dyed another colour for the upcoming spring season.
• The beauty of bubblegum ("look how big my bubble is...")
• Their friend's friend's boyfriend.

Finally, my retail therapy experience never really made me happier because once I looked in my wallet I kept finding out that I don't have any money to shop with. I'm really glad we can buy stuff over the internet...apart from anything else, it enhances my shopping experience.

My other Love...

Friends and family may look a little bit funny when they try and imagine that I'm running. I have led most of them to believe that I absolutely hate running in the past. Lets say that I don't hate running as much as I used to at the moment. My other love, and the sport that most people associate with me, is Golf. Golf is still my first and only true love when it comes to sport. I have a handicap of 4 (which is a playing level, the lower your handicap the better) and am a member of the first men's team for my golf club in Holland. Golf takes up most of my weekend mornings, rain or shine, so I am a bit of an obsessed golfer. I guess runners and golfers do have one thing in common: their obsessive-compulsive behaviour. Golfers and runners need to do the same thing: set their mind to 0 and keep going...

My golf club: www.nngcc.nl
A good golf site: www.golfdigest.com
My greatest golfing moment:
http://www.pga.com/news/pganews/pgaofamericatournamentnews/pgacup092505.cfm

Why am I running?

Since I'm not earning any money whatsoever from running I must have some ulterior motive. My motives for setting the goals of running two marathons this year are three-fold. Firstly, I want to achieve something that I've chosen to do without anyone coming to me with the idea or nudging me towards that goal. No one would think up this idea because it's quite stupid. Secondly, the goal of running two marathons this year is replacing the goals that I wanted to achieve in a relationship that didn't reach its potential. In short, it's a way to clear my mind and try and process my thoughts about what I want to do with my life after finishing university this year, what went wrong in the relationship and why, and what I can do to avoid losing a good thing in the future. This Blog is also part of that process. Thirdly, training to run two marathons is good for my body and fitness, although I'm under no illusions that I will become more attractive due to the running. All these aims point to me wanting to learn about and improve myself, bring some form of discipline in my life, and struggle through some ideas...

The question remains: Why run when there are so many bikes in Holland?

It's Raining Again...

Rain can be a blessing or a disaster. When it rains you are able to run and breathe easier with your body taking up oxygen more easily. Of course the negative side is that you get wet. Should it stop you running? No, because if I decided not to run every time it rains I'd never get to running, since it rains about a third of the year in Holland. Plus, like many mothers over the world say, you're not made of sugar so you won't melt if you get a little wet.

For info on weather in Holland:
National weather center site: www.knmi.nl
Central bureau of Statistics: www.cbs.nl

What irritated me most is that my game of golf got washed out...

What's NEXT?

The next (or first) official run for me will be the CITY-PIER-CITY half marathon on the 17th of March. This is a 21 km run from the centre of The Hague (Den Haag) to the beaches of Scheveningen and back. The time limit for completion is 2,5 hours. My goal is to run the CPC within 2 hours...

Check the site: http://www.fortiscpcloop.nl/

The english version can be found by clicking on the Tab 'English' on the menu.

A Kilometer TOO Far

Welcome all,

I'll be keeping you up to date on my progress as an amateur runner, also known as an idiot runner, since no one in their right mind would start running for any rational reason other than bags of money, over the next couple of months. My mission for this year: To run two marathons in the space of a month. Yes, I know this mission dwarfs in comparison with people running a marathon a day for charity, or running marathons in animal suits, or diving suits, or any suit whatsoever, but its a mission. Why, I hear you ask. Well, my primary reasoning stems from pure boredom, and a mission to forget. What do I hope to achieve? A little self-discovery. I'm not planning to experience an epiphany while I'm running, but you do find that you think a little clearer after a run. What can you find on this site? Basically I'll be posting my training schedule, results, running updates, and any other generally useless info I think might be interesting. In many ways I'll be using this site to vent my frustrations, feelings and thoughts that have come to me over the day. Plus, there will be links to sites I think are cool or worth visiting, pictures I've taken, and the other usual things (its so hard to be original these days). One last question. Many friends of mine will probably ask themselves why I'm writing this Blog in English even though I'm Dutch. Well, thats because I want to reach a larger audience than the puny 17 million Dutch speaking people in the world (the Flemish don't really count), and most Dutch people speak English anyway. As a last thought...Enjoy my journey, as I'm not sure I'll be enjoying it as much all the time (they say a marathon is the worst thing you can do to your body)...