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Running
772

The Gulpener Brewery Winter Trail had been noted in the calendar for a while and after meeting Dave at the Schneeberg Trail, I was reminded of this event again. So upon returning home, I decided to register and prepare to participate in another trail race in South Limburg again, the second one in two weeks' time. And happy about it, because that's where the most beautiful altitude differences in the Netherlands can be found for trail running.

Distance and conditions

There was only one distance to run, the 25 kilometers, and the start was on Saturday afternoon, December 17th at 3:00 p.m. Regardless of when you are reading this, you will understand that you will finish in the dark if you are not a very, very fast runner. It was therefore mandatory to have head light with you. Arriving at the Gulpener Tasting Room *, the start and finish location, Patrick (the organizer) came to meet us. A few weeks ago we already saw eachother in North Italy and now we were participating in a race of his. Of course it was briefly chat, since more participants are dropping in. Therefor we put away our drop bag and prepared for the start.

The race begins!

And off we went! The sun was brightely at/after the start and I quickly got warmed up and unzipped my jacket. Iit was about -4°C, and I wore a thermal shirt, a short-sleeved shirt, and a jacket because you will also finish in the dark so it would be colder. With this clothing, the training that week went well at those temperatures, but now in the sun it was a bit warmer.

And of course, as soon as we left the village, there were some beautiful views over the area. It was really enjoyable. Meadows turned into forests and back to meadows. Paths became narrow, turned into single tracks through the forest, and then became paths again. And since it had been freezing for a week, the ground was frozen everywhere. So no mud this time, I am a bit disapointed because running through mud is of course lovely. Maybe a spring, summer, and/or autumn edition with a start at 10:00 p.m. or so Patrick? ????

What is wisdom?

I ran the entire route with Dafne, I had briefly considered running at my own pace but it was also nice to be together. Along the way, I had a few moments of recognizing the area, then we passed a part of the Dodemantrail, as I had not run hard on this part of Limburg before it can only be from this trail.

Suddenly, Dafne was startled and shouted something like "You again!", it turned out that our fast friend Dave, who we have known now for 5 weeks since Italy, was running up from behind and making a weird coughing sound. We kept on running together from there, talking a lot. At the first Aid Station I grabbed a handfull of winegums and shared a cup of cola with Dafne and we went on running. There Martijn the tail runner joined us. He was discharged of his tail running duty and coudl run at his own pace. He is quite a fast(er) runner and has big plans for next year. And so our couple became a group of 2, then 3, then 4 and eventually of 5 people.

Chilling

It was nice this way, just chatting a bit and enjoying the last bit of the sun. I already put on my head light for when I would need it. And at a dark descend I turned it on, so I could see the the surface and the rocks on it. After this descent we came to the second Aid Station, which is in fact also the first one. Some cola that was spilled on the table was now already frozen. Yeah, it was a bit cold at that time.

Finally

It was a really nice trail that Patrick put together. It was beautiful in daylight and also in the dark. Patrick mentioned he likes to organize trails for smaller groups and that is the way I like it. Not hundreds/thousands of trailers, just 50/60.

* Gulpener is a beer brand in the Netherlands. The brewery is in Gulpen and they have a "tasting room", or just a pub there.

Details
Running
1100

Sonsbeek Parkrun had launched! It was finally there at the 21st of August, the launch of the Sonsbeek Parkrun. It had became a lengthy start due to COVID as the first talks were already in early 2019.

What is Parkrun?

Parlrun is a worldwide initiative where everyone can walk or run a 5 kilometer route and it takes place on every Saturday. You can register at the Parkrun website where after registering you get a personal barcode. You need this barcode for the time registration.

Barcode-, Time registration?

After you have crossed the finish line at a Parkrun you will get a token from a volunteer. The next volunteer will scan your barcode and the your token (which you hand over). This way your time and name will be registered in the system and after the race all timings will be uploaded to the local web site and you will receive an e-mail with your finishing time and even more information, and link to the results page.

Extra finishing data

In the e-mail you receive next to your finish time you can also find more information, just lovely for poeple who love numbers! You can find your age index, gender index for example. I tend to just read it but only take it for notice. and of course it also has a link to the results page of the Parkrun you visited.

Personal page

You also get a personal (profile) page where you can find your most recent results but also which Parkruns you have already have visited before. Also you (not)Parkrun results as your volunteer results.

Becomming a volunteer?

All Parkruns are organised by volunteers. Together we try to give the participants the best experience we can offer. And becomming a volunteer is easy, there is a page with all the information. Some tasks are:

  • Marshall - pointing the participants in the correct direction
  • Tail walker - walking/running with or after the last participant to make sure all participants have finished
  • Pre-event build up / Post-event close down - building the course or cleaning it

Useful links

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Joomla
29461

Somewhere in december 2019 I was invited to join the Joomla Forum for the Future 2020 being held in Marbella, Spain. The purpose of this Forum was to discuss and make plans to get Joomla a sustainable future and thus helping people earn their living from the project. I was delighted to be invited and was looking forward although I didn't know exactly what to expect from it.

Day 1 - Arriving and working

There were about 70-80 people from all over the world present. I arrived with 6 other Dutch Joomlers from the same flight at the hotel and got pulled away from the checking in towards my first meeting. The Marketing meeting. This because I am the Assistant Team Lead of the Social Media Team of Joomla and all members who were present attended the meeting. It was good to talk in person instead of chatting online or using a conference call. After this I could check-in and be amazed by the comfortable room. Little did I know I needed the sleep hard that weekend.

Details
Running
3088

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.

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Joomla
2335

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).