Mensen

March saw me reach the first quarter of my resolution year and I was headed for the Netherlands to complete a run around the Hague.

There I was to stay with an old nursing colleague- although I use “colleague” very loosely- I met Kate briefly in 2011, when she was leaving her job in the UK to move the Netherlands and I was her replacement. She spent two days teaching everything about the clinic and then left me with her contact details and moved away. Since then I’ve seen her once or twice at work-drinks when she’s been back in the UK, but otherwise its a very loose connection. But we all know with the world of social media, a loose connection is all you need to make some travelling adventures happen! Kate had seen on Facebook that I was visiting the Hague for the race and felt inspired to join me, inviting me to stay with her whilst I was there.

I arrived and was met warmly by Kate, her partner Nic and Rosie the dog. We had a big dinner and headed for an early bed to get some rest before race day.

All three of us had decided to race, although we are all very different runners: Nic is big on gadgets and timing and PBs and heart-rate monitors and tracking, I’m the complete opposite but definitely a committed runner, and Kate had never run in a race before. We had agreed beforehand to all run our own race and didn’t stick together, to be honest with 39,997 other runners we’d have been hard-pressed to stay together even if we wanted to.

Aside from the racing, Nic and Kate also introduced me to bitteballen and took my on a cycling trip like proper dutchies- a great pair those two.