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It was very windy today, which is always odd when you run: with a headwind you have to struggle to move ahead, and when you have the wind in your back a bit later, it feels like you just have to lift your feet a bit at regular intervals.

No, I did not age at a remarkable rate suddenly, this is not me and has nothing to do with running. It was just an elderly lady I saw today, clearly (still) rather fond of the Rolling Stones. Which I found rather cool.

Today is Prinsjesdag. In case you are wondering what that is:

“Prinsjesdag (English: Little Princes’ Day) is the day on which the reigning monarch of the Netherlands addresses a joint session of the Dutch Senate and House of Representatives to give the speech from the throne (Dutch: Troonrede); setting out the main features of government policy for the coming parliamentary session.

The occasion is prescribed by the constitution, article 65 of which states: “A statement of the policy to be pursued by the Government shall be given by or on behalf of the King before a joint session of the two Houses of the States-General that shall be held every year on the third Tuesday in September or on such earlier date as may be prescribed by Act of Parliament.”

After the speech from the throne, the budget is later presented to the House of Representatives by the minister of finance.” (Source: Wikipedia)

For some reason, the female guests at this occasion wear hats. Which attract a lot of (media-) attention. So I thought it would be fitting to draw myself running with a festive hat today! (Mind you, I didn’t really run with a hat, nor do I actually own a hat like that. Or any kind of hat really, I don’t have a head for hats.)

Medals. I love medals! And I have quite a few of them. Not the kind that you get when you win something though, but the ones you get for joining and finishing a race. I have a mannequin in my room which wears them around her neck, but I am going to have of alternative ways of displaying them, because I fear she will collapse soon.

Today I did a race that was really more of an organised training run. It took place in a park with many paths. And we didn’t wear bib numbers. The route was marked by tiny signs, so I really had to pay attention, and I couldn’t just follow the person in front of me, because I wasn’t sure they were also doing that training run. Confusion! Made it to the finish line though 🙂

I usually don’t get overtaken when I run my usual round here, not because I am that fast, but everybody always seems to run counter-clockwise here, and I don’t. So it was a bit of a surprise today when a girl stormed past me to catch a bus. Odd.

I feel like an 80 year old today! Perhaps I pushed it a bit too much yesterday, still proud of my PB though!

I did a Ladies Run today, where, as the name suggests, only women can join, and (almost) everybody wears something pink. It was great fun, and I even managed to run a new 10k PB (50:24)! Apparently it is a running gag (pun intended) with runs that women always need to use the bathroom (several times sometimes even) before the start of a run. So they often put these portable toilets near the start. There were a lot of them also at this Ladies Run, though not as many as I’ve drawn here 😉

I don’t know if my running shorts are worn out or if perhaps I lost more weight than I thought I did (I did lose a few pounds since starting this, so that could be it), but they don’t stay in place any longer. Which is very annoying. So it seemed like a good idea to wear suspenders! At least it would be original, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody do that!

Perhaps this is the solution! No mouthpieces with patented systems needed, because gravity would pull the water down!