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Cheese And Other Thiings For Lunch

Not long after establishing base at the hotel, I headed back out to find the Expo, which will also be where the marathon starts tomorrow. To my relief it is pretty much on the same road I am staying at and no more than 15 minutes slow walk, which should equate to five or six minutes easy jog to the start tomorrow.

The Marathon Expo, compared to the behemoth that is the London Marathon, was also a quaint village affair in comparison. What this meant was that it was blissfully hassle free. I didn’t remember what my race number was but there was someone on hand to let me know. My race number and t-shirt collected, there was a cheesy photo opportunity to have myself superimposed onto a race finish for the New Balance Facebook page. At home I would baulk at such an opportunity, but for a moment I was in tourist mode and I couldn’t resist changing into the race t-shirt, grabbing my race number and grinning inanely for the camera.

Rotterdam Cheesy Expo Picture

That done and a couple of quick laps of the stalls at the expo, which yielded much of the same tat  you’ll find at an Expo in the UK but with funny Dutch signs and their love for the word kunt, which, to my juvenile mind, makes me giggle every time I see it, and I was outside looking to kill time. Some very slow walking to and fro and I settled on lunch – a bagel and a cup of tea, followed by exploring for pizzerias for the evening meal.

Stocking up on drinks from the almost local Spar (One thing you’ll miss here compared to Britain is our love for the corner shop – few and far between round here) and it was back to the hotel, catching up on Football Focus thanks to having the BBC on the TV, then a quick doze and this before some stretching.

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Day 116 – There!

Well that was the easiest, least stressful trip I think I’ve ever made. A reasonable night’s sleep, as good as could be expected. Hot shower on the boat, a quick coffee before leaving the ferry and pretty much straight onto a train. Half an hour later and I’m in the centre of Rotterdam and it’s not yet 9 am. A helpful tourist information desk pointed me in the right direction for my hotel and twenty minutes later and courtesy of a little free WiFi to guide me on the final stages of my trip and I’m at the hotel.

I was perfectly willing to leave my bags and return four hours later when I was sure to check in. But no, my room was already waiting for me, free early check in, a result! Even better is that, without even paying any consideration to it, I’m only about ten minutes walk from the start of the marathon. The guys at the desk wished me well for the race even though I didn’t mention I was running it.

It’s all gone too smoothly so far. Off to the expo!

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Day 115 – Getting There

Months ago I debated how best to get to Rotterdam. I didn’t want the hassle of flying, didn’t fancy the long old drive to Dover and beyond, and so stumbled upon the Dutch Flyer. For £45 you get a train from Liverpool Street to Harwich, the ferry to the Hook of Holland and a train ticket to anywhere in Holland – for me Rotterdam, naturally. Add thirty quid for a cabin overnight on the boat and thirteen pounds for the train from Grantham to London and that’s the whole trip done.

I now sit, with the one pint of overpriced Strongbow I will be consuming before bedtime, on definitely the most immaculate ferry I’ve ever sat on. After a pain free journey on the trains where I got to stretch the legs and enjoy the scenery, I’m beginning to feel this was a very good choice and quite an undiscovered bargain in terms of getting to Europe in comfort. My cabin is small, but perfectly formed, with everything you’d expect in a budget hotel but an awful lot cleaner.

We arrive in Holland a little before eight am, the fun bit is going to be trying to find the hotel, of which I have no idea where it is other than it is in Rotterdam. But I’ll save that worry for tomorrow and for now enjoy this big gem of a ferry and hope for a good night’s sleep.

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Day 114 – Nothing More To Do

Tuesday’s run was prescribed as eight miles mostly easy with a couple of quick bits thrown in. Ultimately that’s more or less what happened. A club run with a mix of runners who’d just run a marathon, those who were competing at the weekend and so were tapering and a few who were just there for the ride.

Most of the run was very casual, the left thigh nagged and ached but it wasn’t unbearable. We spent some time in the middle of the run deciding exactly what route to take. In the end we decided to just turn and retrace our steps back along the canal path. This suited me fine as I’m finding downhill sections the hardest to handle at the moment.

Easy paced all the way back along the canal path I allowed myself around 1km  of fast paced running once back on the main path. It felt easy and pretty quick, albeit with continued nagging ache in the thigh. Once home I stretched extensively and again the following morning, putting in some minute long stretches. These seemed to be doing something to the left thigh, at times I thought my phone was vibrating in my pocket; instead it was my  leg in a weird spasm.

I’d debated whether to run on the Wednesday; at the last moment I headed out and did just over four miles. The outward leg was mostly uphill to Gonerby, then coming down, once past the steep downhill, I ran around a mile and a third at marathon HR, which was coming in at near dead on six minutes per mile.

So aerobically I am ready to race on Sunday. The leg – well I am relying on three days rest, a productive massage this morning, and more stretching and massage building up to Sunday. I don’t really like this position of not knowing if I’m going to even make it on Sunday. I think I will; I think it will be painful; whether it will be quick – that I just don’t know.

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Day 111 – Just Need To Lose The Pain!

Shortly before heading off to physiotherapy, I put in a short run, which was planned to be six miles but, because I was running out of time, because I was suffering the annoying aching pain in the left thigh and because I could use the final week taper as an excuse, I cut it down to five miles.

There is little to report on this run other than, as mentioned above the left thigh was back to aching again. The Physio worked some ultrasound on the inner thigh where I reported the miracle cure occurred on Friday, hopefully that will do the trick, although I pin more hopes on my last minute massage on Thursday. As it is, for the rest of the evening the right hip hurt more. Oh and my throat is sore. Pre marathon taper hell. I hate it!