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...