My Monday Motivation: Warming Up with GirlsLove2Run

My Monday Motivation@happyfeetnl

"A champion is not made when he succeeds, a champion is made when you look back at the seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks and months he has spent preparing." 

- Eliud Kipchoge

Today, I completed the first week * of my new training cycle with the help of Girls Love 2 Run's:  NEW Instagram challenge in cooperation with Loopreizen.nl : 
#WARMLOPENMETGL2R! (participation is exclusively for residents of Holland)

*(my training week started last  week, Tuesday 
and my LDR will be on Mondays - more about this, later!) 

First (build up) run of the new training cycle!
Tuesday, 17.010.17

Fourth (LDR) run of the first week
Monday, 23.10.17

If you live in the Netherlands and you need running motivation, there are a lot of running groups, communities, crews etc,  you could join, be a part of, and get the support, cheers and motivation you need!

GirlsLove2Run

One of my go to source of online motivation, and the bloggers I follow since 2012, are the Girls Love 2 Run.  One of the reasons I joined Instagram in 2014 is to be able to follow the fun challenges they create to get the running community moving!

I've been lucky to meet the GL2R founder Francien Regelink in person, shortly after my Berlin Marathon experience and before I ran Paris Marathon. They invited me together with other followers of their blog to join a core stability work out and I participated in a mindful running session with them.  The afternoon with GL2R was a great boost and kept me going and not give up on  my Paris marathon goal.

Core Stability and Mindful Running with Girls Love 2 Run
2nd of February 2013

In 2014, I was struggling yet again to keep motivated.

Once again, GL2R had a community challenge, and the lucky ones were invited to join GL2R to work out with them.

The meet up, working out with a group of enthusiastic ladies,  helped me get started positively for the year, 2014.  In Spring, still inspired by GL2R's spirit, I created my own personal challenge to make sure I focus on goals, which will keep me moving.

Commit2Fit Finale
26th of January, 2014

Since 2015, GL2R has been making sure the year starts actively for everyone with their #JaNUari challenges.

In the end, whether you win the major prize or completed the challenge, they make you feel like a champion, each and every time!

courtesy of

Girls Love 2 Run Facebook page 

GL2R has gone through many positive transitions, great changes and the running community continues to grow with them.  The efforts to motivate everyone to be active, stay active in their pursuit to improve their health remains the core goal of GL2R.

Next Stop: Iceland?

If I am lucky, I might run my next major half-marathon in Iceland with the help of GL2R! It will be an awesome highlight and an amazing motivation to my  #13HappyHalves adventure!  Wish me luck!

Better yet, go visit @GirlsLove2Run, join in the fun of their challenge! :D You are already a winner by stepping out of the door and going out for a run!

Fueled by Goals: Running 14 10Ks in 2014

This post is the 4th entry to the blog series Every Blog is A Beginning...

proudly and happily showing off my
Rotterdam Marathon 2014
 relay marathon finisher's medal

Happily Running towards my #SocialMile
 @Meeùs Run Club team mate to pass on the relay ribbon, ecstatic to finish my lap of the marathon

from left to right, Ron (Pinky's better half), Chantor (creator of Social Mile), Pinky, moi and Kim (Chantor's partner)

Participating in Rotterdam Marathon's 34th edition was very memorable for many reasons.

First memorable reason is Pinky, a good friend, and blogger behind Run Laugh Eat Pie, invited me to be one of the members of her relay team!  We finally ran together! I'll be writing about our "running connection",  the spirit of sisterhood we share, and about how our friendship grew in another blog.

Second, this is the first time I ran with the Social Mile crew.  I will write about this running crew in another blog. All I can say for now is that they are an awesome, inspiring, positive group of people!

Third, we were all there as moral support to Ron, Pinky's better half, who ran his first marathon ever and smashed it!

Fourth, we all ran via the Meeùs Run Club, which is always a great experience because of how organized their runs are, and how pampered runners feel before, during and post run! This is the third time I ran a sponsored run via Meeùs.

Fifth it was my second third 10K for this year!(25.04.14 EDIT: I realized that I miss counting the 10K in Vondelpark I ran in January! I will still be publishing a blog with the list of all the 10Ks I ran for the past 32 months of running)  I'm overjoyed about this because it's been tough since my injury, going back to running, and motivating myself to keep running.

Running to be strong for daily life has always been my main goal but as time passed by, this goal often conflicts with the growing need to be faster.  The latter is influenced by outside factors more than it being a personal need.

This brings me to the core of this blogpost, which is about how I found a new energetic fuel to keep my love alive for running free from outside factors.

When I say, new energetic fuel, I meant of course new goals!

Recently, I switched my 2014 running goal of running 14 half marathons to running 14 10Ks.

2014 Running Challenge via Jill Conyers

Since running the 5K in Zandvoort, I have been going through an emotional roller coaster - too many rapid highs and lows, which has not been helping me personally in regards to my resolve of training more consistently to be a stronger runner.

Most of the source of my highs and lows are personal stressors, details of which I can't discuss openly.

What I have openly, and recurrently discussed here in my blog is my general daily battles with manic-depression, which is one of the many reasons that I started with running.

I strongly believe in the strength of empowering one self through healthy active lifestyle: keeping things simple, balanced and being mindful of how one lives.  Following all these, I feel empowers most.

I am not always successful keeping things simple, balanced or being completely mindful. Learning to have them as guidelines has been an enormous help in my daily life.

What I have learned from my most recent extreme high and low phase -  I can utilize my mental disability to take better care of myself.

I love what running has given me. It has given me so much hope to a more stable, fulfilling life.

IF I make healthier, simpler, more balanced and mindful choices, running would further bring me peace.

Each blog in the coming weeks, months will hopefully illustrate clearly what I mean. :)

In this blog, I am recording my choice to run more 10K events this year to not only improve my speed, but reconnect to what brought me to those other reasons why I started with running in the first place.

Below is the tentative list of 10K events I will be running.  The list will be updated as time goes by.

A favorite collage created to remember my "fastest" PR
 in 10K in June, 2012
during Utregse Meidenloop 2012
I have been running almost a year then...

14 10Ks  in 2014 (a tentative list - last UPDATE 23.06.14)*** Last Update made on the list below is the 23rd of June; the future updates will be in the new blogpost - Fueled By Goals: 7 Down, 7 To Go!

01/ 19.01.14 40th edition Vondelpark Run DONE 1:10:25

02/ 06.04.14 Spierenvoorspieren Cityrun DONE 1:08:40

03/ 13.04.14 Marathon Rotterdam (as part of the Social Mile relay team sponsored by Meeùs ) DONE 1:10:30 

(If one is not being technical I would say this is 1:08:30 because I spent 2 minutes in the porta-loo shortly after I started! )

04/ 27.04.14 Enschede Marathon (sponsored by Meeùs) DONE 1:07:52

05/ 18.05.14 Marikenloop (background blog  2 follow!) still PR to beat from 2013: 1:01:40 DONE 1:11:23 (HOT/started stressed because my Nike+ Sportswatch did not start at all. Turned it of at after 1 km, and used stopwatch to manually time my pace)

* 28.05.14 Alkmaar City Run by Night (Wednesday night…3 days before ING europe-marathon Luxembourg still need to think this over…)* update 04.06.14 I won not one but two bibs for this event! BUT something came in between …

(MAJOR PANIC ATTACK  after a marital misunderstanding; it was resolved excellently a few days later) that I was not able to run it. One of the bibs also came 2 days after the race. I would have wanted to run with a friend, traveled with a friend…But somethings are not meant to be.  This is the reason for the phrase, "Better luck, next time!"

06 /07.06.14 WOTN Nike Running Nederland (registered) PR to beat from 2013: 1:03:23 DONE 1:12:45 

(Actually, on the website this is the official result. On my Nike + stats though, the run is longer in distance, therefore also in time. My 10 km is measured 1:10:42, and the 320 meters distance is 2:12, which is a total of 1:12:54)

15.06.14 Marathon Amersfoort (need to register) - update 04.06.14 I might run in Maastricht on this day instead… update: encountered problem with transportation. I plan to run it next year, if starting places are available via  Meeùs Run Club

07/ 22.06.14 Stoomtramloop (registered) DONE 1:07:09 - fastest 10K in 2014 so far!!! Bring on the interval training!!!

08/ 29.06.14 Utregse Meidenloop (need to register) OR Vechtloop Weesp!!! (registered 19th of June after a friendly Tweet chat with the organizer(s) )

July - September train to do 10K/under 60 mins ???

09/ 05.09.14 Muiderslotloop (registration on the day itself)

10/ 07.09.14 Tilburg Ten Miles  (sponsored by Meeùs)

11/ 05.10.14 Stichting de Bredase Singelloop (sponsored by Meeùs)

12/ 12.10.14 Sloterplasloop  (need to register - 79th edition…check it out before the 80th…)

13/ 09.11.14 Olympic Stadium (Amsterdam)loop (need to register)

14/ December 2014 In search of a 10K event to end the year with a #14TenK bang! :D

Share on the comment box below which 10K race we will be sharing. Could you recommend a 10K I absolutely should not miss?

What is your 2014 running goal(s)? Did you set your goal(s) even before 2013 year ended, like I did? Has it changed in Spring, like it did for me?

What fuels you to keep on running beside having goals?

I'm looking forward to hearing from you!

***The list does not include the other distances i.e. all running events (5K, 15K, half and full marathon) I will be running this year***