AMSTERDAM MARATHON 2011

My older son Miro is born in Amsterdam fifteen years ago. Since we live in the US we went back to Amsterdam a couple of times and I promised we would back when he would turn 15. We did go back when the was 13 on a lark to watch the Soccer World Cup Final on Museumplein (we were in France already). The Dutch lost…

And one day we became aware that the Amsterdam Marathon 2011 was one day away from his birthday (some years exactly on his birthday) so I asked him if he would be interested to run  it. And he said yes! A perfect example of someone who jumps into their first marathon and doesn’t know how painful it’s going to be and that’s great! I did my first marathon when I was about 16 and I actually walked the whole time – and I couldn’t walk for one day!

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TRANS SIERRA EXPRESS

Or how to run across the Sierra Nevada and beat the car – introducing the Trans Sierra Express! 

This summer I thought about the following challenge: I bet that I could cross the Sierra Nevada range running and go faster than a car which would have to drive around it! And I won (kind of)!

I decided that the race would start from Cedar Grove / Road’s End on the west side of the Sierra Nevada and end on the East Side at Onion Valley Campground. By foot (running) it’s a 22 miles trail run (with 7,000 ft of climbing eastbound, less westbound). By car, it’s a 354 miles ride taking 7 hours according to Google maps (not counting pit stops). I thought I could beat that both ways so I got started with preparations.

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born to run – book review

I usually don’t read books about running. A little while ago I had read a book about running by Haruki Murakami, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running… and I found myself disgusted by his self-importance, exhibitionism, and vanity. I’ll never read a Murakami book again, while I was quite a fan of his fiction work. In other words, I don’t care why one of my favorite writers ran or had a snotty nose or slept on the right side of the bed. Not interesting. I just love running! However…

Because I run “barefoot“, I usually end up recommending that people read Born to Run by Christopher McDougall although until recently I never read it. It was something to offer as support for the cause of barefoot and natural running. I never read it because I felt I didn’t have to be convinced of anything while at the same time I wanted to read it… I finally got the book. It made it to the top of the pile pretty fast: I was very curious about the Tarahumara tribe and the journey of the writer. And a question I had: how can someone write so much about running?

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INJURY RECOVERY

I can’t remember the last time I got hurt running. I’ve been injury-free for years, the only hurt came from bike crashes. It’s easier to recover from blunt trauma than from an overuse injury. An overuse injury is a cumulative trauma disorder, tissue (or bone) damage that results from repetitive demand over time. I hurt my right calf muscle/tendon almost two weeks ago and I’ve learned a lot in the healing of such an injury recovery.

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ULTRA RUNNING BAREFOOT

After signing up for the North Face Endurance Challenge San Francisco  (50 mi) I realized I wanted to also sign up for the Ultra Trail Marathon du Mont-Blanc (100 mi) in 2012. While the NFEC is in December 2011 in San Francisco I need to accumulate 5 points to qualify for the UTMB. This means that I need to run (and finish!) the NFEC and probably a 100 km run (62 mi) or a 100 mi run (not quite ready for that yet – eventually ran Rio Del Lago 100 mi). This post is about Ultra Running Barefoot! 

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