what does it take...

since i've just started back to running (my half marathon in amsterdam is exactly 2 months away!) - you might be wondering "what does it really take to get out of the house for a run these days?"

in the picture above - you can see graham on the scooter, helen on her loopfiets, jayden on his bike, and jillian in the jogger. but as i'm sure you can guess - it doesn't take long for helen to get tired and ask to ride in the jogger..... it doesn't take long for graham's one leg (from scooting on the scooter) to get tired... and finally it doesn't take long for jayden to agree to switch with graham for a bit to give his "tired leg" (yep - just one leg) a rest! it's no wonder my overall pace time is so slow for my runs! but at least we're all outside together and i'm getting SOME training done.

as you can see from the picture - we have beautiful paths to ride and run on here... truely a runners dream! (this path is literally right next to our home - you can see the fence on the left that borders our grounds) the path that the kids are on in this picture is actually a formal bike path (running, walking, etc is also allowed on this path). however to the right of the path is a place specifically for horses. yep and i'm sure you know what comes along with horses....... poop! it's kind of nice that the horses have a separate path though - that way when you are riding your bike or running - you don't have to worry too much about dodging poop. so the kids know to stay clear of the horse path for sure!

happy girl ready for a ride!

yep - helen got tired and is riding in the jogger ALREADY!

these signs are all around the area near the bike paths. the sign states the distance between the different towns (in kilometers, of course). it also helps the bikers follow the paths without a tomtom :) we believe the bike paths used to be actual roads (perhaps for horse drawn carriages) because many of them have actual street names that can be found on a map and the trees that line the bike paths are very tall - planted many, many years ago. pretty cool!

i snapped a picture of a farm along our running route.