As I mentioned in my last Blog I was in extreme pain after the race. The pain in my lower back over the next 4 days was excrutiating to say the least. I won't pretend for a minute to compare it to child birth, which obviously never know about, but it was the worst pain I have ever experienced in my lifetime. It probably didn't help that I'd caught the train from Rotterdam and gone to Paris and was intent on seeing the sights, no matter how much pain I was in. The 700 metre walk from the train station in Paris to my room seriously took more than 30 minutes to complete. I was actually passed from an old lady with a walking frame.
I've never been to Europe before so I wasn't about to sit about the room and twiddle my thumbs, so I forced myself to walk around Paris. What an amazing city! So beautiful! As for the locals, well, exercising diplomacy I'll just say that I've never come across so many arrogant individuals in 1 place.
I didn't see much for the first 3 days in Paris. I could only manage to get to Sacre-Couer, Notre Dame, Versailles Palace, The Eiffel Tower and the local laundry. After 2 weeks abroad, I had run out of clean clothes and had to do the washing. I had no idea how to use the machines and the instructions were in French. Luckily there was 1 other person in the place and he knew how to operate the machines. Nice to come across a helpful local.
I'm very partial to cheese and normally I refrain from eating any at all. However, I do allow myself to indulge a little after each marathon. Cheesecake washed down with a few beers is usually my favourite post marathon dinner. I wasn't in Rotterdam for long enough to get the lay of the land, so I just settled for mushroom risotto and a few dutch beers. I was too sore anyway to go looking for pizza & cheesecake. The beers tasted good though. I made up for it in Paris though, nearly every meal I could find there seems to contain cheese whether I wanted it or not. Cheese toasties, pizza, panini's etc etc. I never did find any cheesecake and it wasn't until I got home that I tucked into a slice. I sampled some local beers in Paris but switched quickly to Dutch beers, which along with Belgian Beer is more suited to my palate.
I must say that the French girls are the prettiest I've ever seen.
Versailles Palace was a highlight for me. The gardens are out of this world. Unbelieveable! The extravagance of the place certainly explains why the French revolted against the Royal family.
11/4
I didn't do much my first day in Paris. I went to Sacre-Couer and sat through most of a service there. I wanted to stay the whole time out of respect, but my back was just to sore and I couldn't understand a word spoken anyway, so I discreetly left. The Catherdral was beautiful inside and out.
12/4
Day 2 in Paris involved a trip to Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower. It was quite ironic that I should visit Notre Dame when I was hunched over with a sore back.
13/4
On my 3rd day in Paris, I went to Versailles Palace with a German guy & Cypriot guy that I met at the hostel. My back was so sore and I couldn't keep up with them and ended losing them.
14/4
AM - My back was slightly better on the 4th day in Paris, so I decided to go for a jog. I think the scenery took my mind off any pain and I ended up jogging 9.5 km's in 47:36. I had only planned on jogging 20 mins and catching the metro back, but the scenery was so spectactular I just kept going. Ran past Moullin Rough, down to the Arc De Triomphe, along the Champs Elysees, past the Louvre, over the River Seine and finishing at Notre Dame. Definitely one of my favourite ever runs, despite dodging a lot of traffic.
15/4
AM - 7.9 km's - 38:08 - Still in Paris. Again ran to the Arc De Triomphe but caught the metro back from there. Felt pretty good and didn't notice the back pain much.
Spent the rest of the day and until late in the evening checking out the sights of Paris. Most of which I had already seen, but wanted to see again. The Eiffel Tower at night is pretty special.
16/4
Back to Holland and into the city of Amsterdam. I couldn't help but notice all the buildings that looked like they were falling over in different directions. The red light district was something else. I've never walked past scantilly clad girls in shop windows before. Mostly ugly one's but a few eye catchers. Whilst I've never been to Amsterdam before, obviously I had an idea of what it was about. I must say though that the smell of hash was far worse than I had expected. I'm a pretty nerdy type and have never touched any drug in my entire life, but I reckon one could get high just passively taking in the smelly air whilst walking around. Amsterdam was without doubt the most expensive city that I stayed at. Still I liked the canals, the parks, the architecture and was amused at the red light district etc. The one thing that struck me was the number of bikes around. I knew there would be a lot, but hadn't expected so many.
Anyway, on the subject of running, I put in a really nice run on my first day in Amsterdam. Surprisingly I was feeling great and ended up running 14.3 km's in 1 hour. I started off very easy and without really trying to or noticing it, I'd picked up the pace to low 4:00's and was still feeling fantastic. I ended up picking the pace up to marathon pace and putting in a 3:24 second last km just for the sake of it.
17/4
PM - 10.3 km's - 50:06
Second last day in Amsterdam, spent the day walking around the canals & parks.
All up just 42 km's for the week.
18/4
PM - 8.3 km's - 38:02 (around Schipol Airport, Holland)
Last day before heading home. I spent the day wandering around Amsterdam with Sugi, a Balinese guy I met at the hostel who is living in London. We headed to Ann Frank House. Whilst being there was undoubtedly profound, sad and moving, it also reminded me of how lucky I am to have been born free in Australia. For the past week, I was quite homesick and missing the kids, my family and my g/f Sammy. I really enjoyed my time in Europe and marvelled at the things I saw over the past 3 weeks, but without doubt, there's no place like home.
19/4 & 20/4
No running these 2 days as I was in the process of flying back to Australia. I had considered a jog in KL, whilst in transit but I was so sleepy that I crashed on a lounge at the airport and slept for 4 hours. Spent the next 2 hours in the priority lounge gorging myself. Had a few beers, 2 mains & 5 servings of ice cream plus other sweets.
Home Sweet Home on the 20th.
21/4
PM - 13.9 km's - 1:01:29 - Progressive effort.
22/4
Back off again, but this time with the kids to my parent's place on the South Coast (Kianga).
Rested again. Tired and stiff after the 5 hour drive. Ended up falling asleep within 10 minutes of arriving and not getting back up for another 5 hours. By that time it was too late to jog. Still getting over the jetlag.
23/4
Still getting over the jetlag, but actually put in a really solid run over hills. One of my favourite runs that I alwasys like to do when I go down to Kianga. I start at Mum & Dad's place on the beach, head out to the forest and then up a steep hill. At the 7 km mark the road levels out involves an underlating section for several km's before heading back downhill. Cross over the highway and then a nice 7 km beach run section back home. All up 23.7 km's for the loop, with over 500 metres of ascending.
Covered the distance in 1:44:51 progressively picking up the pace and getting down to low 4:00's over the final few km's and quicker than marathon pace at the end. Average pace was 4:25's. From memory, I think this is probably the quickest average pace that I have ever done for this particular run.
24/4
PM - 9 km's - 40:18 (progressive effort again)
All up 54.9 km's for the week in 4:04 hrs.
So there it is. 2 Blogs summarising the past 5 weeks. I'll update the current week in the next few days and will make more of an effort to keep up to date.
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