Ally in Amsterdam! by Ally_R

for a wee while any way, but first to let you know how Amsterdam went.

On the Thursday before I left I got out of my bed and couldn't put either of my feet flat on the floor without feeling a horrible pain in both my calves - which I found very odd as I had no recollection of doing anything different which might have caused a problem. Wondered if it had anything to do with all the driving I'd done that week, but it's not unusual for me to do a fair bit of motoring and then I thought that it had something to do with the taper and my muscles were seizing up - (daft I know). I hit big dozes of ibuprofen and icing the area in a bid to make it go away, but I had the same problem on the Friday morning when I got out of bed - I couldn't believe that this was happening at this late stage of my training. Not to be put off me and the family headed off to Amsterdam - wearing my running shoes (me that is)! and carrying the rest of my running gear in my hand luggage - can't take any risk that my gear may end up in some other country - not unheard of, but so far has not happened to me. Arrived in Amsterdam and was on one of those moving floors in a downward manner when I felt a wee jolt which reminded me that on Wednesday I had been in Asda in Hamilton, coming down the moving floor when I got a jolt and felt it, yes you guessed it, I felt a pull on my calves - now I had an explanation for my problem - but what damage had I done, I wasn't sure, although the muscle was a bit achy I was able to put weight on it which was a good thing. So until Sunday I iced the area and took ibuprofen.

We went to the expo - what a disappointment - there wasn't a great deal to see, there were very few freebies and everything was very expensive.

We then went into town and ended up in what seemed a seedier part of the City - not a place one wants to be with a 10yr old who was wanting to know why the cigarettes smelt as they did and checking out if I saw what he saw in one of the windows - needless to say I picked up the pace and wheeked him out of the area as quick as my calves would allow me and OH got a telling off for suggesting we get off at the station we did - was this coincidental I ask myself!!!!!! I was a bit worried as to what small child would tell his teacher when he returned to school!!!!

Visited the Anne Frank house on the Saturday - very authentic, just glad it wasn't a miserable day as we had to queue for a good half hour before getting in.

The big day arrived - I took my own porridge with me and the chef kindly cooked it for me with skimmed milk, unfortunately it arrived at the table looking like a bowl of soup and tasted very creamy - I ate it any way. It was a lovely morning, sunny, blue sky and quite warmand we headed over to the olympic stadium, it looked quite tired, the gun went off and 4minutes later I was off as well. The legs felt good this morning, I had food in my belly and felt quite positive, I had a feeling that today was gonna be a good, good day!!! The crowds were small compared to FLM as was the running field - seemed like a serious race, I never say any chickens, super heroes, men dressed as women, I had on my kilt and one guy found that strange as he thought it was only men who wore such an outfit! It was a great idea wearing the kilt as the crowds recognized my place of origin so I got a great deal of support from the spectators and then at one point I saw my family - what a boost, at this stage I was running well, I took water and the isotonic drink AA on at all of the recovery stations as well as bananas, one downfall being that the drinks were in paper cups - hopeless, I had to walk in order to drink - pain in the neck, but needs must! I came to the half way mark and still feeling fab, checked my time 1:52 - woo hoo me thinks I'm on for a sub 4 time - but need to pee - only one toilet and a queue - had to keep going - pain in the calf at 23k - bugger - quick stop for a stretch and off again, calf feeling a bit tight, but at 25k pain was a good bit more intense -s o out came the sachet with icing lotion stuff and a quick rub with that - seemed to work and off we went again - spotted a hidey place to pee - good thing wearing a kilt - I'll spare you the details!!! Tough getting going again, so had to do the rest of the race in a walk, hobble, jog style it took almost an hour to complete 5k - bad news and recognised that sub 4 was a no hoper, never mind, had to get the medal though and carried on and finally finished in 4:47 in the olympic stadium - fantastic feeling to get there in the end. The sky by now had turned quite grey and soon after the rain came down.

A lovely race and one I recommend, although I'm not such a great fan of Amsterdam itself.

I've seen a physio this week who confirmed I have a wee tear in my right calf and I need to take it easy - no running for a few weeks - I have no problem with that. Yesterday I decided to get back into the gym and do some upper body weights - not a laughing matter today - I ache!

I also met Tina today - I went down to the local park where a 10k run in aid of Cancer research took place - great to meet you - you looked good and strong when you came across the finish line - you were up against it with the wind and rain - well done - Now you need to find a training plan for the kilomathon next year - let me know if you find one please.

Well that's about it folks - I'm not sure what I plan to do next - I'd like to run New York marathon next year, I've signed up for the kilomathon in October next year, I will probably run a few half marathons and some 10k's. I'll log into realbuzz from time to time to read about what you're all up to - so what more can I say -

Merry Christmas!!!