Hell over Hamburg

Yesterday night hell broke out over Hamburg. While I was enjoying my book and wine in perfect peace in the hotel restaurant, the city was tormented by intense thunderstorms. A whirlstorm hit the southern part of the city. Two construction cranes were blown down, killing two people. Flying iron made the highway a place to stay away from. Greenhouses were turned into open fields. 300,000 people were cut off of electricity for the whole night. (See the ravage in the picture.) I slept peacefully. I heard the news while I was dressing up this morning after a relaxed (my legs still hurt from last weekend) run around the Alster lake, in peaceful dawn. An elder man explained that he had seen many storms in his long life, but nothing to compare this. When I left Airbus yesterday evening, the sky was dark already, thunder could be heard and a short but intense hailstorm hit the employees waiting for the ferry to bring them across the Elbe. At that moment I fortunately was shelterd by the small waiting box thing, but its size dit allow everyone to enjoy that privilege. The unlucky ones had to withstand the thick hail, no-one complained. Joggers could still be seen trotting along the Elbe, undisturbed. Apparently, there's nothing to worry about, I thought. Could this be blamed to ourselves? Is this one of these transition shocks of mother earth on her way to a new climatological equilibrium? It's hard to tell. Nevertheless, it's a pitty that it's these doom scenarios that quickly become boring when used to blame the public for burning fuel in cars or airplanes. I hope we'll manage to picture an alternative, a positive future how we 'want' it to be, instead of being lead by 'what we want not'. This doesn't change the fact that the reason why we need to picture a new future is because else we'll run into one we want not...

36:18

I'm tired. This first spring weathered weekend's been a physically challenging one: the 10km race in the City-Pier-City event in Den Haag on Saturday*, a wedding in the extreme East of the country that same evening from which Merijn and I returned only at 3:15 am this morning, but since the clock switched to summer time this night, it was 4:15 already, and then the last long run (37km) in preparation for the Rotterdam marathon at 11 am this morning.

The 10km race on Saturday went quite alright. Here's the result:

http://www.ad.nl/cpc_uitslagen/?resultKey=10km

And here you can find photos:

www.aktiefoto.nl (enter my number as search query: 2140).

I finished 14th in 36:18, which, considering the non-specific preparation and the sub-37' split time in my best half-marathon race, shall be improved in the future.

The long run today, in the windy dunes around Zandvoort, didn't result in any frightening pains, which I'm very happy with. The weekend was a good test; I look forward to Rotterdam with increased confidence.

Tomorrow I have to go to Hamburg again for work, for the last time in this project: organizethe files, hand over the deliverables, select a new, caring host for the plant in our office. My legs hurt, my eyes are heavy, my head starts acheing; it's time for recovery, let's go sleeping.

the wrack is back on track

“A small inflammation of the bursa,” the specialist said. “I have a little injection for that.” One minute later I felt the needle penetrate my heel. A small amount of infection fighting liquid flowed into me. If it wasn’t needed physically, it does help rebuild my confidence in a responsible physical condition at the start of Rotterdam marathon. I’m very glad that the infection is not in my Achilles tendon itself. With a loosened ankle (physiotherapist), a modified heel cap (podologist), some gel to treat the trouble spot (doctor) and an injection (specialist) I feel like a weak wrack, which wasn’t exactly designed for reliability, but nevertheless, I consider myself back in the race! Now let’s get back on track, too. In the evening I explored the course of the 10km race of the City-Pier-City half-marathon event in Den Haag this Saturday. It's good last test and speed work-out for the marathon. Besides, I just cannot miss this top event, which is practically in my own back yard.

early steps

Hamburg – Got up a little bit earlier today to run around the Alster lake before breakfast, which I had agreed to take with my colleague at 7PM. Still a bit sleepy I hit the road at 5:50 AM. It was the first time since long that I ran the course by daylight. The light made me feel much slower than when I run in the dark. The city was waking up, people living in their magnificent villas on the lake shore were taking switching on lights in their bedrooms while the street lighting was switched off. The legs were a little stiff, the sense of freshness at the birth of a sunny morning was great. I ran around the outer Alster lake counter clockwise, then clockwise around the much smaller inner Alster lake to return to the hotel for a shower, shave and fueling up for another day at Airbus. In the subway stations, on the way to Airbus, the signs above the platforms count the days until the kick-off of the 2006 Soccer World Championships: “Noch 79 Tage!” What was meant to be a count-down towards a world class event, now is scaring time-ticker to a frightening pay-off for the Germans: the performance of their national team is a major concern and federal priority. Even in federal parliament questions have been asked addressing this issue; public confidence in an acceptable result for Germany is evaporating like water in a desert. The coach, Jürgen Klinsmann, promised a good result in the next test match against the US, which is today…let’s see what happens. I personally have great confidence in Jürgen Klinsmann, but I admit that it’s based on pure irrational sympathy: he speaks with the same accent as my grandmother who lives in southern Germany and I liked his style of running when he was still a football player himself. So I blame the players, not the coach. A crucial meeting with our Airbus client this morning. He’s always hard to catch, but this morning he took two hours for a wrap-up of our work of the past few months. It felt good that he was satisfied about what we did. For determining the way forward and our role therein he requires some time, so next week is going to be my last trip to Hamburg within this project. A new project is waiting for me already. More about that later. On the plane back home I enjoyed a very nice view over the northern German and Dutch coast with the Waddenisles just in front. Frieslands lakes like scattered mirror pieces. The whole flight I tried to concentrate on my book, but I failed as I couldn't help following a conversation among two young professionals in advertising.

goede moed

Het is lente, maar in Hamburg ligt nog steeds een beetje sneeuw. Met deze temperaturen blijft het nog wel even liggen ook, want het is nog steeds koud. In m’n hoofd is het voorjaar wel een stuk dichterbij; gisteravond heb ik, na een ruime week inactiviteit, weer hardgelopen. Ons hotel ligt praktisch aan de Buitenalster, een prachtig meertje midden in Hamburg (zie foto). In de zomer wordt er gevaren, ge-BBQ’d, geflaneerd, hardgelopen. In de winter vooral hardgelopen, een sport van alle seizoenen. Van ´s morgens heel vroeg tot ´s avonds heel laat zie je ze langstrekken, alleen of in groepjes, rustig keuvelend of heftig hijgend, de joggers, tegen de achtergrond van de donkere waterspiegel. De omtrek van het meer meet 7,5 km, ideaal voor bijna iedereen, en dat heeft bijna iedereen ook begrepen: het is er altijd druk. Ik vertrok met het motto ´rustig weer eens proberen of het gaat´ i.v.m. mijn onstoken achillespees. Maar mijn lijf bleek gretig na de gedwongen rust; voor ik het wist zat ik race modus. Weer terug waar ik begon kon ik tevreden vaststellen dat (1) mijn achillespees niets mankeerde, zolang je er maar niet op duwt, en (2) dat ik het nog wel een beetje kon. Ik heb weer moed voor de marathon.

De zon komt weer naar ons toe: vanmorgen met collega Derk voor het eerste weer in een stralend ochtendlicht met de pont de Elbe overgestoken naar Airbus, tussen aan- en afvarende containerschepen door. Het blijft een mooi plaatje. De laatste training verzorgd voor de specificatiestandaard die mijn collegae Henry en Pieter en ik gemaakt hebben voor Airbus. Er moet nog het een en ander aan geoptimaliseerd worden, maar de basis staat en wordt goed ontvangen. Bijna alle beoogde gebruikers hebben nu een training gehad. Zij hebben nu ook een verantwoordelijkheid om de standaard verder te optimaliseren. Daarmee is het leeuwendeel van ons werk achter de rug. Morgen praten we met de opdrachtgever over hoe onze bijdrage aan Airbus er in de komende maanden uit moet zien. Belangrijke uren dus, morgen.

Late night records

Watched an incredible final of the speed skating World Championships last night. Dutch Sven Kramer broke the world record on the 10k with a marvelous acceleration in the final kilometer, promising room for improvement in next season. His most dangerous challenger Chad Hedrick disqualified himself due to an unbelievably stupid beginners' mistake: he forgot to change lanes! This action rendered his spectacular 1500m battle with Shani Davis useless. The latter only had to finish to win the title, which he did. In the women's championship Canadian Cindy Klassen was unbeatable. She won the title through a grand slam, finishing first on all four distances, including a world record on the 3km! And what to think of 18 year old Sablikova from Czech Republic almost taking home the victory on the 5km? The whole spectacle had its prize: I had to stay awake til 1:30AM, while I had to wake up at 6AM this morning to catch a plane to Hamburg again to work for Airbus. Merijn was smarter than me, she decided to go to bed in time. Why do I do such things? If I want to run a marathon in three weeks from now, why don't I make sure I get enough sleep? Gistermiddag met mijn ouders en Merijn op bezoek bij mijn nichtje Renee. Ze vierde haar 24e verjaardag voor familie en kennissen. Als altijd bepaalde de ontspannen Rotterdamse nuchterheid de gastvrije sfeer. Sinds ongeveer een jaar woont Renee zelfstandig in haar ruime woning in Barendrecht. Alles is zo aangepast dat ze met haar rolstoel prima uit de voeten kan. Met veel energie, ook van vrienden, heeft ze er met vrolijke kleuren een frisse, open entourage neergezet. Volgens mij is ze er reuze blij mee.

To run or not to run

"Vogel fliegt, Fisch schwimmt, Mensch läuft", said the legendary Emile Zatopek, but why then, as soon as man does so, he falls apart? It's sunday morning, sunrays on out floor, the smell of coffee indulging my nose, not much to do, but I'm stressed. In three weeks (on April 9) the Rotterdam Marathon will take place, which I signed up for 4 months ago, my firts full marathon. Since then I've been committed to a steady build-up training program; I've overcome potential show-stopping injuries in my knees; I finally got confidence in this mission. But now, in the moment I should be running to give my endurance a final boost and acquire some speed, I'm forced to rest. What happened? Last week, I did a three-hour run. When I arrived back home, I could hardly walk anymore. My left heel was crying out loud. It was swollen where the achilles meets the heel bone. Not again! Here's the trouble spot: Friday I visited the physiotherapist. He is now trying to fix me up very quickly before the marathon will take place. He loosens my ankle and maybe an injection in the infection is recommended. On his advice I visited a podologist yesterday for a second opinion on my shoes. Nothing wrong with my shoes, except that the rim of the heel bolster was probably irritating my achilles, which caused the infection. The guy bent out the pressure spot. I'm glad there is nothing wrong with my running itself. I hope that I will be back in the race soon, but nevertheless, I'm afraid these runless days in this crucial phase are killing for the result in Rotterdam. Running is a great sport. You can do it anywhere, anytime and you only need a pair of shoes. Besides, there are few things in life that can compete with the mental boost running gives you. Then why can't my physique cope with the load it is easily subjected to by my psyche?

Inspiring initiatives

Yesterday afternoon, I visited the Alumniday of the University of Delft, faculty of Aerospace Engineering. As young graduates we were the minority among the grey-haired bulk. It turned out to be an inspiring happening. Several short presentations brought about the success stories of the faculty and its spin-off enterprises. Especially the latter were inspiring, even for the elder public. Let me stress the group of students who design and build their own nano-satellite in the Delfi-C3 project. This 10x10x30 cm ‘milk box’ is going to be launched on a Russian launcher coming autumn. Five students working on this project have recently founded their own company, Innovative Solutions In Space, offering affordable access to space for qualifying space technology. Another inspiring story is that of start-up venture Actiflow, founded by young graduates Roy Campe and Eric Terry, which is getting foothold on difficult markets. They combine their passion for race cars and aerodynamics in their product: boundary layer suction systems to control airflow around cars. This has proven to increase energy efficiency, noise reduction and stability. For high-speed cars this feature increases safety. Major car companies have reacted enthusiastically on the system. It was good to hear that Delft University of Technology is trying to bridge the gap between technology development and commercialization, a gap that is talked about a lot, but hardly filled. With cross-faculty centers founded for this purpose Delft is creating canals to enable its technology to flow towards the society to contribute to the well being of the people.

Hi there!

How are you? Welcome to my blog. This is my very first post here. I created this blog to share the things that I encounter that strike me. For me it's a good opportunity to order my thoughts, for you, I hope, the content will contain informative, fun or inspiring elements. I'll be very interested in your feedback. So please, be invited to comment. All the best and enjoy! Mark