Dutch Runners Run Fast

The first good thing about the race I did today is that I remembered everything I needed to remember. To be honest, I didn't have a bib number yet, so there was no possibility of forgetting that. But still, I didn't forget anything.
At the race, their was frighteningly few people. I never like races with few people. I would way rather do a race with tons of people and not place as high, than do a race with few people and risk finishing last. I was a little bit excited for this one though because it was actually a real "cross-country" race. Also, the weather was the best running weather with lots of leaves everywhere. And it smelled like fall. I love the smell of fall.
We ran the course once through before the race, and it was the perfect race course. There were leaves all over the path, a tiny part with sand, bridges over water, and one steep hill. We had to run the lap twice, and in total the race was 3.1 kilometers, so about two miles.
There was a good half hour after we ran the warm up where I was just kind of standing around, warming up for a few minutes, wondering if I should take my warm up clothes off, and standing around some more. All the confidence that I usually have from familiarity: knowing the runners I'm racing against, knowing the course, knowing the routine, knowing the people watching, and knowing about how I should place was gone.
Right before the race everyone was putting their running spikes on and someone asked me why I wasn't running in spikes.
"Um...." I say. "My spikes are under my bed. In Wisconsin." So I missed my spikes in this race. Who knows, maybe if I would have had them I could have run two and a half minutes faster and won the entire race. We'll go with that!
The beginning of the race was extremely hectic. Everybody stood in this huge clump of people and when the gun went off you just had to push to try and get out of the clump. I ended up finishing in 13:15, which I was pretty happy with. But, I placed 8th out of 11 runners, which I wasn't very happy with. The girl who one ran it in 10:58, and a girl from our team placed third, she also ran a crazy fast time.
And picture this; when we were cooling down afterwards, we ran past a pond with three swans in it. Right then all three of the swans started flying away at the same time. We saw them from behind, and their wing spans were huge, and they were all flying perfectly next to each other over the lake, with water spraying up all around them.

At home, right after I got out of the shower Antea (from Switzerland, remember?!) called me to talk about plans for a few weekends from now, and we ended up talking for an hour or so. She had lots of news from the trip that AFS went on to Berlin while I was in Paris. Then we talked about everything else important, and some things not important. But get this: the entire conversation was in Dutch!

The rest of the afternoon Taiana and I sat at the table and did homework. She was studying really hard for the test week this coming week, and I was studying a little bit, but not very actively. It was dark early and outside it was pouring rain and windy, so it was cozy inside.

Right now the couch, and tea, and the show called "Farmer Seeks Wife" are calling my name. Really, what could be better on a pitch black, stormy, Sunday night?

Tot laater!