2018: The Glass Is.

 

While I would love to force myself to have the glass be “half full”, I’m going to just stay realistic, not be negative and say…

 

I had a glass this year. There was something in it.

 

I had a few goals:

Friday Five – And We’re Off!

 

Really have a savings account. – I actually was adding to my account each month and it was going well and then… a friend of mine and her son were on the brink of homelessness this summer and I contributed quite a lot of money to help her out. I just couldn’t stand the thought of her and her son being on the street. It’s a long story and involves an abusive ex-husband who hasn’t paid any child support in years and for her own physical and emotional well-being she had to leave where she was to get away from the situation. In a nutshell: the money I put away up until that point is gone. I don’t regret it. I would hope that if I was ever in such a dire situation someone would help me out.   I have a plan in place for next year, to at least cover travel-related costs so that I can really stick to a budget AND do the things I love.

 

De-clutter our apartment – we made HUGE headway on this and I’m super happy about it. There are still a few things to do and arrange. I have my exercise room now, and we have a fresh, cool spare room that Ron can make all the music he wants in (he also plays the keyboard and likes to unwind by tinkering around and making cool remixes of songs he loves). Full disclosure:   he did have a small inheritance that paid for our new furniture and home improvements.   Without it, we still would have de-cluttered, but we would not have new storage solutions and new mattresses for sure.

 

10K steps EVERY DAY – good one. At the time I started writing this I have a total of 3.972.373 steps recorded. That’s an average of 10,883 steps per day. However, I have not actually done 10K steps each day. But it’s good to see it in this way and at the end of the month the average will be higher to include all of December.

 

No Junk At Work  – not a success, not a total failure. I have a colleague who says “no” to everything junky at work. He doesn’t even drink tea or coffee from the machine! He also had a weight problem and lost about 30KGS a few years ago. I literally just need to have a rule for myself that I don’t eat junk at work and not break that rule. I don’t think it’s a big deal. I’m not saying never have any treat again. But I can say no at work.

 

Get back to 70KG – I got close; in October (after Warsaw and before Amsterdam marathons) I was 72.6KG. I’m up again. My weight has to come down and it will next year.   As much as “numbers don’t matter” they actually do when you are trying to achieve running goals.

 

Try new classes at the gym – I’m still going regularly to RPM (spinning), I’m now doing BodyPump and starting up BodyBalance again. So this goal I actually achieved.

 

My word of the year was “FOCUS” and I do feel like I was somewhat better focused on my overall goals than the previous year.  I’m not unhappy with my year in general, but I am not 100% satisfied either. I went through tons of appointments for my foot and that was a real downer for me. Now that I have an answer (sort of – I mean “nerve damage” is an answer but I don’t really have more of a solution than to take medication).   I start the process a bit again in January but I’m not going to let things get dragged out again. I don’t want my foot issue to cause me to lose focus – it is what it is and there may never be a better solution.

 

 

High- and Lowlights

 

January

We celebrated Ron’s 50^th birthday and took a trip to Naples.  We LOVED Naples.  Hope to go back again at some point!

Running:  57KKM

February

Training began for what was supposed to be the Liverpool Rock’n’Roll marathon, but as we know that was not meant to be. We went to Poland for the first time also in February, to see Depeche Mode.  We also went to see Suzanne Sundfor  in February, but at home in the Netherlands.  Unfortunately in February my mother-in-law died and that took a huge toll on us (Ron more than me, which is obviously to be expected).

First race of the year:  Mid-Winter “Marathon” Apeldoorn (I did the 10EM / 16KM)

 

Running:  106KM

March

We celebrated our 9^th wedding anniversary fairly low-key, but did get to Amsterdam to see Gary Numan.   The Girl (who is now a grown woman, I should add, but she is still my “girl”) and I went to see the Script in Amsterdam together.

 

Race:  Stevensloop Half-Marathon DNF (ran 10.5KM)

Running:  130KM

April

Boston marathon month! And what a marathon it was.  I don’t think I’ve ever experienced anything like that, not as a runner or a cheer-er.  I started WW at the end of April since trying to lose weight with very little guidance wasn’t working very well.

Race:  Natuurmarathon Duo  – I ran 17KM and then biked 25KM (while Ron ran).   I apparently started a theme of falling as I tripped over a stone within 2km of starting.  

Running:  97 KM

May

Liverpool Rock’n’Roll weekend – what a blast!! I love doing this race every year but I really think it’s the people that make it so special.   I dropped down to the Half Marathon which was really the best decision.

 

Races:  Rock’n’Roll 5K, Half-Marathon and 1 mile fun run

Running:  87KM

June

We went to Malaga to see my parents! Also a fun trip.  Glorious weather, amazing food and of course seeing my parents was priceless.  I also started marathon training again in June, this time for Warsaw.

Race:  Midzomer Apeldoorn 7.5KM with my friend Gerrit.  Ron ran the marathon and it was probably his worst to date.  This race started very late afternoon / early evening so his nutrition was all over the place and he was unwell during the race.  Luckily he bounces back quickly.

 

Running:  105KM

July

Room Renovation began! We took a few days off work to at least get started on decluttering, cleaning and painting. Still a slight work in progress but I can now use my exercise room (when it’s not looking like a walk in closet/ the laundry room) and Ron has been playing around with his keyboard and drum computer much more the last few months.

Races:  Westervoort 5K and 10K.  These were both really good runs for me – I was using them sort of as a long run training.  If I’m not mistaken this was my fastest 10K of this year if not of the last couple of years (PR is from 2015).   I ran with my BRENG group.

Running: 139KM

August

Ragnar Relay!   Wasn’t sure what to expect and was nervous to be on a team with mostly people I didn’t know, but I’m so glad I took the plunge!

Total Ragnar Mileage:  22.7KM

Running:  136KM

September

End of August/ beginning of September, it was my turn for a 50th birthday trip!  We went to Palermo and it was glorious! Then we had spontaneous trip to Berlin to meet up with and cheer on friends running the marathon.  It was an amazing weekend with great people and great weather!    Also Warsaw marathon weekend –  unfortunately a DNF for me, but still was a fine trip away with Vincent and Wendy.  Odd that I ran my fastest 5K to date at parkrun the day before the marathon, but was not well at all during the marathon.

 

I also went to see Garbage in concert with my friend Sam.

 

Races:  Bridge to Bridge 5KM and 10KM (another back to back – used for marathon training), Warsaw Marathon DNF (stepped out at 25KM)

 

Running: 135KM

October

Revenge –  Ran the Amsterdam marathon (was already signed up for the half and decided to not waste my training) and finished it.  Not my fastest, not my slowest.  Glad to have made a comeback.  Super grateful my feet (my left foot in particular) and my legs were able to make it around 42.2KM.

Races:  Hoge Veluwe Half Marathon, Amsterdam Marathon, Doetinchem 7.5KM

 

Running:  120KM

November

As far as meeting up with people goes, this was the highlight of my year!  Meeting Tina in Las Vegas for Rock’n’Roll weekend!  We’ve known each other for years online and “talk” to each other regularly on messanger and SnapChat.  She’s my Canadian Sister from Another Mister!  We had a blast!   This trip was also slightly spontaneous but because I won’t be applying for Rock’n’Blog again I figured I better take the race entry while I still had it.    On this trip I also got to see one my dearest childhood friends, which was amazing.

The race itself was “ok” – as in I’m glad I did it, but I wouldn’t do it again.

Races:  Las Vegas Rock’n’Roll 5KM and Half Marathon

 

 

Running:  45KM

December

Ran a “test” 5KM to see just how fast I could go and already broke my 2013 PR (that was a goal for 2019, now the bar is set pretty high!)  For the rest it’s been a low key month, even though I’ve run more this month than last month.  Thinking about and planning the year to come.  Staying active.

Races:  Kerstloop 5KM (course was short, still have a PR), Bruggenloop 15KM

Running (to date of writing):  76.5KM

 

 

I set a goal on Strava to run 1,100 KM this year and I already am at 1,225.  Usually I’m scrambling in December to reach my yearly goal!  This means I’ll have to think about a goal for next year that’s not just doable but maybe a bit more challenging.  I don’t think this will be an issue because I have some goals in mind that I will be sharing shortly.

 

All in all I can’t complain about this year.  We got to travel, we did a whole lotta races, we saw tons of friends and had a pretty good time.  I think what made this year less fun was that I was constantly going from one specialist to another regarding my foot.  And I’m still not ready with this topic.  Accepting that I will have to live with chronic pain has actually made things less difficult the past few months, but I would be lying if I said that I completely accept it and I don’t ever think about it.

 

I am kind of excited about 2019.  I have plans!  And I can’t wait to share those with you really soon.

 

I am very grateful for my blogger friends and thank you all for your support and being with me on this journey.  Wishing all of you a very happy new year!  Let’s go out and smash it!!