Excusi excusi, way too long since my last update! I’ve been busy racing, training, having a little bit of a birthday, welcoming more Aussie visitors and some more racing and training.

Getting diamonds for your birthday is always good, so I was happy to stick two #14s on my hips for my first real Diamond League experience in Lausanne…on my birthday :) Good thing some people were kind enough to remind me it was my birthday, since my birthday suit was still sitting in my suitcase somewhere in departure hall 3 at Amsterdam airport. At least it gave me a good excuse to explore the city by taking metroline M2 (which was more like a space-mountain-variant) about 5 stops up the hill and get all the ‘necessities’. Thanks to putting my spikes, racing kit and running shoes in my hand luggage (pat on the back) and the hotel giving me some toiletries (including a rubber duck) this little shopping trip didn’t get too complicated and by lunchtime I felt all organized and ready to go.

Unfortunately the callroom-people didn’t agree with me; no name on the startlist, which resulted in an entertaining French walkie-talkie discussion. Finally they printed off a bib with my name and I found myself getting a working chip stapled behind my front bib about two minutes before going on the track.

All together an interesting experience, as was the race. Although I had some trouble positioning myself in the first 800m of the race, my split was still fast enough to run a good time. In the third lap I lost too much ground on the leaders though. In the last 200m I managed to pass a couple of girls to finish 9^th in 4:07.09. A solid time and finish, but more than anything another useful experience.

This past weekend I ran the 800m at Nationals to give myself a bit of a speed workout and serve as a last test for Europeans. The plan was to push the pace from the start, which I did with a 60s and 1.30min split. In the last 100m Yvonne Hak (800m runner & Barca roommate) past me, which meant I finished second once again. This time it was a satisfying second place though, because my test went better than expected and by leading 700m of the race I finished in 2:02.81min, only about half a second off my pr.

So I feel more than ready to head south on Sunday. Until then I won’t be doing much else than a little bit of training here and there and lots of relaxing. The hard work has been done, time to make Hollish proud!

Ps. Thanks for all the birthday wishes and the ongoing support, my fans are the best!

Ps2. For all the Dutchies also check out my new Rabo-blog (for the Rabobank youth website) in off the track/projects