November 22, 2011

Great run in the Dronten fog

When my parents picked me up from Schiphol on Sunday morning, a thick fog had already descended over the Netherlands. I was lucky that it only delayed my plane by about 10 minutes. The mist was still there the next day when I went for a short run. My plan was for an easy 30 minutes as I am still in recovery mode from the 50 miler I ran on November 5.

Last week, I did four easy jogs of between 20 and 30 minutes. My body and mind are both keen to resume a training routine. Yesterday I immediately hit my stride as I headed out my parents' door and I enjoyed the steady pace my legs chose almost immediately.

I planned to do a lap around my parents' neighbourhood, finishing off by running through the Wisentbos, a pretty small forest along the Lage Vaart canal with a myriad of walking paths on the outskirts of Dronten.

It is hardly big enough to get lost. But I did, as I lost my orientation in the thick fog. I didn't mind as I knew I couldn't be too far from town and thoroughly enjoyed the run. The condensation had formed little beads of water on my eyelashes which gave the already-mysterious views of wet trees and paths in late fall an extra pretty view.

However, after I had been running for nearly an hour and bumped into the same group of hikers for the third time I decided to swallow my pride and ask them for directions.

It took less than 500 metres to realize where I was and I was home within five minutes. My accidental run of a little over an hour at a decent pace was a great way to realize my body is ready to slowly gear up my training again.

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