Orange Shirts for a Red, White and Blue Flag?

Ireland wasn’t bad, but why not head to Amsterdam for a bit? I have no idea why they wear orange jerseys (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands_national_football_team#Colours, a quick wikipedia search can answer that for us), but I like them. And I love the fact that the town is painted in orange – not literally, but there are flags everywhere and blow up soccer balls hanging above the streets. And now I’m pumped up for the game tomorrow evening, where I’ll definitely try to visit a pub to check it out.

The first race wasn’t a great one, but it was a good rust buster (the common term used by runners when they’re not so sharp, or maybe its just an excuse for not running great), and I’m pretty excited about the possibilities of the rest of the races I could be running in. I ran 3:44.2 and took 8/9th place (still no official results online). I didn’t feel terrible, especially considering that I thought I was going to feel terrible after flying in the day before, but also didn’t feel that sharp and ready to roll. It wasn’t that quick of a pace—probably through 1200 in 3:01—which should have been nice for me, but couldn’t get the gears going once every one else in the race did.

Overall, the experience of the race was great. I got to hang out with my teammate from Columbia, Erison, who won the 400 at the race in 45.9 into a stiff headwind. We enjoyed a Guinness after the race (Erison hated it) while we watched the Spain/Paraguay soccer game.

Now, I’m sitting in our apartment in Amsterdam, and the place is NICE. Its small, but has a kitchen and is right near everything we could ever need (grocery store, all that jazz). I’ll post some of the pictures from Ireland right now (including the girls signing shirts – those girls then proceeded to make fun of me for calling a Lolli-Pop a Sucker, and even if that is the way 12-year-olds flirt, it was disheartening to say the least. Those will be on the blog’s page...) And then tomorrow I’ll probably post TWO times with some Amsterdam updates…the track we go to is real cool.

Let’s Go!

Elizabeth and Maggie: Irish Celebs

Murph-Dogg...

Irish Highs

It’s noon Ireland time. I’m on a bus from Dublin to Cork. I’m running on 2 hours of restless sleep and fumes from the cup of coffee I just gulped down. And like my Dad says: “I have to pee like a racehorse.” (Without fail on every drive home from Fraser to Bath after a trip to my Granny’s he’d be in the driver seat squirming around like a fish out of water situating himself to subdue the urge of the bathroom break he so desperately needed.) I writhe some, but then decide to sit still, thinking that if I move, my bladder will act in the wrong way.

Finally, the bus comes to a stop in a town center to pick up some more passengers. One of my travel partners and I rush through the aisle and ask the bus driver where we can go to the bathroom. He looks around hopelessly, then tells us to try the black door of the pub to our left. I racewalk to the door. I rush through and a man at the jukebox can tell exactly what I need and points me in the direction of the bathroom. The urinal is the wall, one of those ones with water rushing down at all times like a trough. I start going to the bathroom and then hear the music playing over the speakers.

I figured my first experience in an Irish Pub would include sipping on a Guinness and listening to Dropkick Murphy’s. Instead…it’s peeing against a wall while listening to Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing.”

And with that, welcome to “runLBP’s EuroTrip 2k10”! Posts will start appearing daily (given Internet cooperation) and you can follow me all around Ireland and Amsterdam and Belgium. I’m pretty excited about it, and definitely pumped to get some more races in.

I’m traveling with two Georgetown girls: Elizabeth Maloy and Maggie Infeld, and we’re going to hopefully have some fun while running fast. I’ll be around until the 22nd and they’re staying over until the 28th or so.

We start out our European season with a 1500 tonight in Cork, Ireland. They have been plenty kind to us so far by putting us up in dorms and feeding us our every meal. They like my name, and hopefully will cheer for me tonight. You can check out results here: http://www.corkcitysports.ie/viewpage.php?memid=133&parent=133

I go off at 3:05pm Irish Time (10:05 EST). Let’s Go!

Party In The U.S.A.

USAs 2010 did not go to plan. I was in a perfect situation to make the final and failed to capitalize. I knew going in that being in the 3rd heat and having Pifer leading the way, I would have a very good chance to run fast. Exactly that happened, but I made some stupid moves and did a little too much forcing/thinking and found myself without anything in the tank as the track straightened out for the final 80 meters.

I was able to handle the 59lows that Pifer was leading us through, but I was forcing the situation a little too much. I didn’t flow out there like I have been doing so much in practice. This made it so that when I needed to move, I had used a little too much energy maintaining the pace and just didn’t have much left in my legs. I was too tense before the race and was really trying to make something happen. A lot of times that leaves you in trouble. I run best when I’m relaxed and having fun, this was a run where I was trying to make too many things go right.

It wasn’t all bad though. I still ran my 2nd fastest time ever, and given a few different moves, probably wouldn’t have tied up. Now, its time to try to go over to Europe and have some fun over on that side of the pond.

And I hope we all know what that means…Another EuroJournal from LBP! I’ll be doing the daily updates while I’m overseas so that you can all check in to see how I’m doing. I’ll be starting up over in Ireland with a race at the Cork City Sports Invitational this Saturday, the third. From there I’ll be traveling with running buddies Elizabeth Maloy and Maggie Infeld and we’re heading to Amsterdam to set up base. From there we’ll be running in some races in Belgium, the Netherlands, and who knows where else. It should be a blast, and even though I’m heading out in a few days, I’m pretty excited about the trip.

Look for a bunch of updates throughout the month of July. I’ll be heading back home to Michigan on the 22nd for the Ryan Shay Mile on July 24th in Charlevoix, so if you’re around, make sure to check that one out!

As Always, Let’s Go!