HIERBENIKTHUIS

Finally a trail run with a little bit more altitude difference. On the Posbank we already touched the 500 altitude difference but that was a 30 kilometer trail run. I entered the half marathon and it has about 690 altitude difference. So the question I asked myself was, will I notice that and how hard will the course be.

I was in the back at the start, together with Dafne. We both were not aiming at a fast finish time. The first 500 meters already were setting the tone for the rest of the distance, up hill in the town towards the meadow at the town border. I said goodbye to Dafne because the meadow was going downhill and I like going downhill! Most people stayed on the muddy path created by the runners before us but I went to the side where there still was no mud and only grass. Perhaps I was making a little bit more distance like this but I could go faster and easier.

Read more: Drielandenpunt trail challenge

For some years now I've been interested in visiting the Joomla World Conference or the JandBeyond conference. But since my Joomla work is only volunteering and a trip like that costs some money I always decided not to go. But since december 2016 I became a member of the Joomla Social Media Team (SMT) and have been chatting with my other team members online. So now it makes more sence to go to an event like that and I bought myself a ticket to the Joomla World Conference held in Rome.

So there I was. Just arrived and greeting some fellow Dutchies who arrived before me and meeting Rowan (member of the organizers). I had dinner in a small restaurant with Peter Martin, a lovely place filled with Italians and not tourists.

On thursday I was invited to the Marketing Team Sprint wich, since SMT is a subteam of the Marketing Team it makes sense. I found the sprint useful, besides meeting the members in real life I also could help in certain topics and also making some useful notes for my team. The day ended with the official start of the JWC, a welcome party. Here I met lot's of people I've seen before and also meeting new faces (but know from online). The one example of not recognizing someone was when I walked by Nicky without recognizing her (sorry about that again).

Read more: My first Joomla World Conference

This year I'm planning to run the first marathon in since the last 5 years. I've already run two marathons en both times I've said after the finish that I would never run a marathon again. With my second marathon I've reached all goals I had set and why would I do something I really don't enjoy that much? But last year I was running more longer distances, doing a 25 km run on a thursday evening for example. In the dark because it was still winter at that time, that smell of the freeze starting, just loving it! But after two hamstring problems in the last year I discovered trail running. Well, actually I already liked what's considered as trail running. Running in the woods, at the heath but now I was (also because Dafne her enthoussiasm) participating in trail runs. Loving those about 30 km trails and I did them as a training for a marathon!

Another marathon

Okay, another marathon. Dafne was already doing the Berenloop, a well known run on the island of Terschelling, and I decided to run the full instead of the half marathon there. So after the summer holiday I started my training for this. My last marathon was already 5 years ago, Eindhoven 2012, and I couldn't fall back to my experience then. It was already too long ago. But I decided to use the same schedule as then because I liked that one. The only thing different would be that I wanted to run for about a hour on fridays on a easy pace to get my week total a little bit higher.

Read more: The berenloop - marathon

Since a while now there is a trail route available that goes from train station Dieren over the Posbank to train station Arnhem. With a total of about 28 kilometers this is not a trail most runners will do, luckily Dafne and I are quite busy training for our marathon so that 28 kilometer is about what we should run in the weekend.

After seeing the Berlin marathon on TV we took the train from Arnhem towards Dieren, a 11 minute ride, but the route back to Arnhem will take a little bit more time. But first we took a picture of us with the train station clock in the background, mandatory if you want to participate in the results of this trail from MudSweatTrails.

The first part was getting out of Dieren and then also we were in the forest and the route wasn’t totally flat anymore. We both enjoyed the route and it looked like we were at the Posbank in no time. Here we could enjoy the heath, although it was no longer in bloom. Soon after the Posbank we entered the Veluwezoom and came across a large area of tall grass. This is where I sometimes run from Arnhem, so beautiful and early in the morning it’s still almost no people there.

Read more: Running training - Dieren-Arnhem trail