Day 4

Tut mir Leiden, originally uploaded by Ryan Runs Europe.

40 Kilometers.
That's a marathon for those who don't know. Definetly a bit of a shock to the system. I'm wiped out now. At least it isn't that far to Den Haag from here.
I woke up around 6 and left a little after 7. I ran about 20 kilometers and stopped for breakfast in a small town somewhere in between. I have a photo of what I ate on the photo map. Key features included a sausage broodje (the delicious Dutch equivalent of an English sausage Pastie) and two small "smoothie" type fruit drinks. The Dutch seem to have a tendency of putting cubes of fruit into their smoothies...maybe to make it feel like you are drinking real fruit...but really it makes you feel weird because you are drinking while also having to deal with juice-saturated cubes of some chewy material. Every sip I wonder: chew or swallow?
Anyways, I hung out for a while there and stretched, and then started walking in the direction of Leiden to let the food settle a bit. After about 5 k of walking, I did the rest of the running and got into Central Station feeling quite dreadful. Let me say: running with a backpack sucks, my hip is still acting up, and I'm starting to chafe...AND I just can't seem to get my bangs to look right.
After a very draining run I had an incredibly motivating day, which served to neutralize its effects. First I ran into an awesome German couple who had passed me earlier in the day on bikes, and we ended up getting into conversation and went to a cafe for a drink. They are biking/driving around the area and gave me some pretty good advice.
From there, I wandered around a bit more, going by the birthplace of Rembrandt and the oldest university in the Netherlands (and maybe in Europe). While trying to find an internet Cafe, I went into a Runner's World shop that I randomly passed by and ended up striking up a conversation with Peter, the head of the shop...who donated some Body Glide to help fight my chafing problem. He gave me a proposed route for my run to the Haag tomorrow, and said that he would pass the word on about my run.
Then...upon leaving the shop, I heard someone shouting my name (and thought, "that must be a mistake...keep walking")...but turned to find a man running towards me that turned out to be a friend of Ernst's who recognized me from my blog. Small world.
People here are awesome. I'm so excited for tomorrow.
I'm currently waiting to pick up my laundry, sitting in an internet cafe, commando in my running pants with an outer top on. Come to think of it...I've got to go pick that stuff up.