Singelloop 10k

Last Sunday I ran the Singelloop 10k in Utrecht. It was a nicely organized race and the route through the city was great. It started in the park right by our house(so awesome!) and it ended on a pretty street in the city called Malibaan. The street is lined with trees on both sides and was such a great way to end the race. An even better way to end it was with a personal best time for me! I was not expecting that since the race was the day after we got back from Istanbul.  The route went right past our house so Brent and Elliot were outside cheering for me and then cheering again at the finish line. It was so great to be able to spot the two of them as I was coming up on the finish! You can't really tell in the pics but there was awesome crowd support along the entire race. They had multiple races going throughout the day and the 10k was the last one so I wasn't sure if there would still be people out cheering. Thankfully, people were still out. It always helps to make races a little easier when lots of people are clapping for you.

Headed over to the start

Running right past our house

My two favorite spectators :) 

Great view of the street

Still smiling even at the end

Walking back to the after race party in the park

Next up is the Amsterdam Half Marathon in 2 weeks!

We Own the Night 10k

On Saturday night I ran the Nike We Own the Night 10k with 2 of my friends. The race was scheduled to start at 10:30 pm in Amsterdam. I was thinking I was going to be exhausted by that time but thankfully being with friends kept my energy level up! The race ended up starting about 20 minutes late which was frustrating but once we were on the course we could understand why things got delayed. The course was through the Vondelpark area and Museumplein which are two really busy areas so coordinating the road closures etc. must have taken some time. The course was really nice and considering it was a late race there was a lot of crowd support. The hardest part about the race was the heat. It had been about 85 all day and did not cool down much at night. Because of the heat they thankfully added some extra water stops which we all ended pouring over us instead of drinking. We all really enjoyed doing this race and are already looking into doing other Nike women's runs throughout Europe!

Pre race photo at Daina's house

        

My name on the runners wall

The race started and ended in the olympic stadium. Pre race warm up

Waiting to start

Running through the Rijksmuseum 

Showing off our race bling!

Instead of getting a race medal we got a necklace. It is actually a really cute necklace! We also got Dutch chocolate, coconut water(one of the sponsors), frozen yogurt and the dry fit shirts that we al had to wear

I'm looking forward to doing this race again next year along with hopefully some other women's runs!

While Brent's Away

Brent is gone this whole week traveling for work(Germany and Italy) and I have gotten asked by quite a few people what I am going to do with him gone. So here are my plans/goals for this week

- Get long runs in. My goal is to run 40 miles this week.  Typical weeks I do around 35 so hopefully the extra 5 miles will be easy :)

- Eat a TON of leftover Mexican food- Brent and I hosted a dinner last night and instead of cooking for 5 people who would be there, I cooked enough for probably 10 :)  Thankfully Mexican is my favorite and I can mix the ingredients up a little bit.

- Finish my Christmas shopping- I need to get a move on this since we will be in Minnesota in 9 days!!!

- Continue my search for a new apartment for us and a job for me- Neither of these are going very well

- Dinners with friends- I have some lunches and dinners planned with some friends here so I will enjoy the girl time!

Needless to say I am going to keep myself busy!

This past weekend Brent and I went to the St. Maarten Festival of Lights parade with friends of ours.

Anyone who had a lantern could walk in the parade and it was really cute to see some of the lanterns that the little kids had

The Parade started with a St. Maarten(he is the patron Saint of Utrecht) lantern.

Saxophone leading the band through the parade 

The parade ended in the Dom Square and they had the children's band from St. Maarten's school playing.  

It was a cute parade and most of all a fun night out with friends!

13.1

Yesterday I ran the Amsterdam half marathon!! Unfortunately, so did 20,000+ other people.  It was so busy I didn't cross the start line until a half hour after the gun went off.  But let's back up to why I decided to do this.  

I have been running since college, but never long distances.  3-5 miles was always my comfort with 3 being the distance I ran the most often.  When we moved to Utrecht, I started running more and get the itch to do a race.  I wasn't sure if I would do a full or half marathon but knew that I would do one.  Then when this happened my running got set back by a good month.  Once my ankle was healed I looked at my timeline, which included a 2 week trip to MN 2 weeks before the race, and decided on the half marathon in Amsterdam. 

The day before the race we met up with our good friends Tom and Amy at the race Expo.  Tom was also running the half.  After we got our race packets we all went out for some pasta and carb loading :)

 Tom and I before the race

Inside the Olympic Stadium before the race 

Vendors outside 

In my corral waiting for the start 

It was cold!!

Walking to the start.  Brent was at the start and finish line cheering me on.  With the way the race was set up it would have been almost impossible for him to get to another spot to see me and still make it to the finish. 

Coming in for the finish inside the Olympic Stadium 

 Crossing the finish line!

Celebrating our finish with beer :)

I finished the race in 2:05.  I was hoping to do 2 hours but my start was really weak.  There were a lot of people in my corral so my first 5k(3.2 miles) was SUPER slow.  Overall I am happy with the race and I am already looking for the next one!

Have a good week!

Mindy