Day 4 - I need a break

(still back blipping my trip to the vierdaagse in nijmegen, walking 160km with blipper pippiline. It started on sunday 13 if you are curious)

All right I am annoyed, it is the 4th time I write this blip. The first time blip logged me out while i wrote. The second time my laptop shut down as the power supply had been pulled out and it ran out of power. The third time opera mysterioulsy crashed.

So I dont feel like writing for the 4th time how we got better at getting ready, how wet the weather and our shoes were, how lots of people dress up silly for the last day and we will try to get a ninja costume next year...

I won't write again how the cheesy music grows on you and helps you walk, how pipp's blister got worse, and how my mysterious "bruise like pain" on my lower calf turned out to be tendinitis, making the last 10km rather more of a test than I would have liked. I remember singing "awww awww awww" and "if i were a masochist this would be heaven" amongst other things.

I wont write about how wet it was that day, how people got creative with how to rest without getting wet. How we saw this young kid with a british army group (he looked 13, the other soldiers were all adults, what gives?), looking a bit like a statue in this odd position. The others had to sit in the wet grass but he found the hydrant. This was about 8km from the end, if not less, so this must have been the final rest to look good for the last bit.

Neither will I wax lyrical about stopping for a dutch pancake (/me likes!) in a little restaurant which must make half their yearly income on that one day it was so busy, or how we listened to an older walker tell us how they walk on alcohol (5dl brandy and a dozen beers iirc).

I wont write all those things because the browser will crash again and it will all get lost. So I will save this blip text and maybe come back and edit it after it's been saved.

I will say that I might have to give up 4km from the finish, which would have been horrible, but the dutch army physiotherapist put some ice on it and told me it might hurt but i wouldnt do any more damage so could finish. Phew! We kept walking, slowly, and made it, and got our pretty yellow and green medal. It is tough to walk in pain when you have a public, at least for me. I tried to make it as if i was cheering but it was more like screaming every few hundred meters. Stupid tendon, poor pippline, I'll be better next year, promise!

We finished, we got our medal and a huge sense of accomplishment. In spite of all the pain I enjoyed this, and the lovely madness of the dutch. I want to do it again.

Then we went off to have an evening of laughter and friendship as some friends came to visit. Happy endings all around.


Links
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Sunday 13 (travel) my blip - pippiline's blip

Monday 14 (waiting) my blip - pippiline's blip

Tuesday 15 (walking - the easy day) my blip - pippiline's blip

Wednesday 16 (walking - the tough day) my blip

Thursday 17 (walking - the better day) my blip - pippiline's blip

Friday 18 (walking - pain and determination) my blip - pippiline's blip