I feel very privileged to have been given a regular ‘slot’ in the Dash by Simon, our hard working, silver tongued editor. At first I wondered how I would find something to write about every month but after a bit of thought I realised I can always find something to say that is loosely running related, so here goes….
Last year I read an article in a magazine about a running tour in Copenhagen. Barry had already suggested we have a city break to celebrate my BIG birthday so we decided to investigate further. Copenhagen looked nice but we decided to look at other European cities to see if they offered anything similar. We found www.touristrunamsterdam.com which appealed to us for all the following reasons:
Neither of us had been to Amsterdam before
It involves running around the city with a local guide seeing things you wouldn’t notice just wandering about on your own.
It’s a good introduction to a city that’s new to you as it offers the opportunity to have a quick look at things you might want to visit at a more leisurely pace later in your stay.
Photos of the event are supplied by your guide.
A short run is very welcome in between all the eating, drinking and merry making that’s generally involved in a city break.
At 25 Euros each it was a good value sightseeing tour

We left home at stupid-o-clock on Thursday 22nd March for our 7am Easyjet flight. The advantage of going so early is that we were in Amsterdam just after 9am (even with the 1 hour time difference!) The disadvantage, of course, is that it usually takes about 3 days to catch up on lost sleep, unless you’re with Barry ‘king of the cat nap’ Shackleton. Since meeting Barry I have learnt to fully embrace little sleeps at every available opportunity so it didn’t take us long to be recharged sufficiently to fully enjoy the colourful and cultured delights that only Amsterdam can offer.

We arrived at the 5 star Grand Amrath Hotel fully expecting just to leave our bags and go off and explore the city until our room was available. However our room was ready and we were able to check in – whilst sitting down! (It’s proper posh) We were also upgraded to a superior luxury suite. As you can imagine, we were off to a good start on what turned out to be probably the nicest city break either of us has experienced.
Our guided run was booked for 9am on Saturday. Tourist Run Amsterdam also operates on Sunday morning at 10am but we decided to go for Saturday so that we could go back to places that caught our eye before we came home on Sunday night. Our guide, Hans-Peter, met us in the foyer of our hotel having pitched up on the ‘compulsory-for –Amsterdam-residents’ bicycle. The weather throughout our stay was unseasonably glorious, even warm enough to sunbathe, as demonstrated by Barry with his rather ‘over done it a bit’ suntanned face. Saturday morning was no exception and the sun shone brightly as we headed out on some of the lesser trodden tourist trails of Amsterdam. Hans-Peter informed us that a little over a month ago skating was permitted on some of the frozen canals. This confirmed that waiting until a month after my birthday in the hope that the weather would be better was a wise decision. It also allowed the birthday celebrations to continue even longer.

Hans-Peter used a little video camera to film and take photos of our tour. We took in many famous sites including; Tower of tears, Amsterdam museum, Rijksmuseum, Begijnhof, Square, Oude Kerk, Dam Square, and more canals and bridges than you could shake a stick at. We also ran through the red light district – yes there were lots of scantily clad lovelies (and some not so lovely) standing in the windows even at that time of day!
Hans-Peter showed us sights we wouldn’t have seen – the hand on the boob sculpture is the one which Barry asked me to mention. Apparently, in Amsterdam, various artists have left pieces of their work around the city and the ‘hand on the boob’ is a bronze sculpture set in a cobbled street that alledgedly just appeared overnight. We informed Hans-Peter that this was unlikely to happen in England, it being more usual that statues and sculptures are stolen rather than donated. Whatever did happen to the Voyage statue in Hull which marked years of trade between Hull and Iceland and disappeared last year? It weighed 300kg, how on earth did anyone pinch that without getting caught?
We arrived back at the Grand Amrath about 70 minutes later feeling quite self righteous having run around 8k and learnt a lot more about our host city. Hans-Peter was a knowledgeable and friendly guide and we would highly recommend that any runners visiting Amsterdam book on the Tourist run.
Once again we enjoyed the delights of our lovely hotel which served late breakfast until 11am (smoked salmon and scrambled eggs for me), then a couple of hours relaxing in the spa before Barry insisted we went and checked out the ‘hand on the boob’ and other such masterpieces again.

Karen Atherton

What the hell is Alpe d’HuZes? You spelled it wrong! No it is a combination of ‘zes’ = 6 and Alpe d’Huez.

Alpe d’HuZes first edition was on 06.06.2006, 66 men / women cycled 6x up the Alpe d’Huez to raise money to fight against cancer. Since then Alpe d’HuZes has grown into a mega event, which in 2011 raised more than 20 million Euro. The target for 2012 is 30 million Euro. There is no lack of ambition. Many goals have already been achieved, but ambition is high to achieve many more. The long term objective is for cancer to evolve from a deadly disease into a chronic illness and to allow cancer patients to lead a happy and healthy life in harmony with cancer.

In 2006 Paul participated. This year it is my (HP) turn. And it is not going to be a ‘Tourist Ride Alpe’. Cycling up Alpe d’Huez 6 times on one day is not an easy task.

Why do I participate?

For Hans, Guus, Ad, Huub, Wim, Henk, Jean-Luc, … .. who doesn’t have friends/relatives who died from cancer.
Even more so for those who wish to survive
AD6 donates more then 100% of the funds – No overhead cost!
Is it possible to cycle 6x up that mountain. I am going to try. 6000m altitude / 180Km cycling!
I am lucky to be able to join team SURFspot

Help me to raise funds for AD6, you can make you contribution clicking on the image below.

My Alpe D’Huez experience.

In 2005, I rode up the Alp after a long bike ride through the mountains called the Marmotte. The Alpe d’Huez is the last climb. The climb is about 15Km long. After the first few kilometers, I look at my counter, speed 10Km/h, still 10Km to the top, about an hour to the finish. There awaits a medal, a plate of pasta and a certificate. I ride with a triple switched to the easiest gear. I am happy to see the next km marker, another 9 to go. I now cycle 9Km/h, still one hour to go. The slope is a little steeper! I have no more gears, no more power either. The pace drops, I’m going 8Km/h. There is the sign still 8Km to the top. Still one hour to go! This will take forever. Eventually I make it to the top and it didn’t last forever…… On June 7, 2012 I’m faced with this challenge 6x.

On Judgement Day, I am at 07:30 at his hotel. The promised taxis stay away. We wait with 21 men on tram 16 but the first two drive chock full pass. We hijacked a tram to the other side of the road in the hope to catch an empty tram a couple of blocks up the track. At Spui we attemp our change in direction, but this tram leaves in front of our nose. The next stop is just 250 meters away. Here I can prove my value. I pull a sprint afterwich I welcome the ‘laughing’ 20 marathon-runners inside the tram. The group creates a party in the tram and start singing and dancing, ‘Marathon hooligans’. 
 The is a queue at the portaloos, a queue to get into the stadium, a queue to get into the start grid. I remember the Amsterdam Marathon over 20 years back with start and finish on the Dam. Only a few thousand men running the marathon while avoiding trams, dogs and angry “grachten gordel” shoppers.

At the start it turns out I need to pace a lady in the group as well, so now I have two clients fro the price of one. I impose my pace and keep them neatly within agreed margins 6:01, 5:58, 6:03, 5:57. We run like a clock! Ai, it is the first drink station. Energy drink for him, a bottle of water fill for her. That is it. After three minutes the first gel. About 15 minutes the salt tablets. I call the family that everything goes well and shoot some video and photos. The woman is always one meter behind the man. Both are fun and energetic. 10km: first the salt tablets, I get an empty bottle of Miss David. I fill two empty bottles (with screw cap), grab a cup of energy drink and drink one myself, get two sponges and look for my clients who are now 300 meters further down the road. I chase them with shaking cups of energy drink and two sponges . My heart rate goes from 106 to 140. Grateful they accept the goods. Later, I think it better to sprint ahead and get a couple of cups of energy drink outside the masses, hand it to them and then fill the bottles. Then I don’t have to run with the cups. Instead of the cups I now run with two bananas. Halfway through the marathon the lady begins to sing. She has an iPod and even begins to dance. The man starts to look increasingly worrisome. I run in front of him to block even the slightest breeze. My client looks troubled, but is out of the wind. I call the family and give notice that we are still on track. I see that a friend played a word on wordfeud, I send him a chat message “am rwnnwn a mafaton’. My legs do better than my fingers. We are still on schedule. I call the family to inform them whilst running ahead at the most beatiful spot to shoot some video whilst my team is passing by. The man starts to falter more and more as we walk into the Centre of Amsterdam from the East side. Now I have to drag him through. I started by saying: This is our little project 7k and we are going to deliver as planned! “. I throw a little extra “Com ‘on! You got it man! You are a fighter! I can see that. And when he collapses again: Stay with me Mr. Jones, do you loose me! “. In the Vondelpark he really starts to struggle and I yell ‘This is what you trained for! All These Months of suffering and sacrifice were done only for this moment, Mr. Jones! We will not go down without a fight! ”
The stadium is approaching. I call the family that we are coming. At the 40 km point we leave the aid station aside. Nonsense. The last 2 km we let the stadium speaker guide us to the finish. Mr. Jones and Ms. David’s straighten their backs, touching deep into their reserves and giving everything again. End time 4:15 exactly! Mission completed. Everyone makes pictures of everyone while I dive to the feet of Mr Jones to untigh the time registration chip. Service to the bitter end. The life of a pacemaker consists care and unburdening. Only the run itself, I cannot take over.

Biertje

PS The names of both Mr. Jones and Ms. David are fictitious.

Trainingsloop Spijkenisse

De Good Morning City Run zit erop. De organisatie stond als een huis. 40 tot op de tanden voorbereide en gemotiveerde gidsen van onze organisatie brachten toeristen uit de hele wereld veilig door de binnenstad. Ze vonden het fantastisch. De opkomst viel echter tegen. Toch lijkt het erop dat dit een terugkerend evenement wordt. De Amsterdam Marathon organisatie is de gidsen zeer dankbaar. En wij ook

Who Books a Running Tour?

• Competitive runners training for a marathon and who need to get a run in
• New and recreational runners
• Teenagers to retirees, solos, couples and families
• Women because of the safety issues when visiting a new city
• Small corporate groups who want a fitness-based activity
• Those who get their exercise from fast walking
• Business/convention people in town for meetings or conferences