Run event: Meidenloop

Me running...
Last night I ran the 10 km at the Meidenloop (Girls Run) in the city. The parcours went through the city center, so there were many people watching the run event. Especially many men were looking at all the girls in pink shirts running through the streets.

Meidenloop - run event My dad made a special banner for me I made it!
I didn’t think I could run as fast as I did at the run event in IJsselstein two weeks ago, but I did it again! Thanks to the perfect weather (not too warm and light rain) I ran a new personal record: 10 km in 50:43 minutes. :)

Finish position @ 10 km run Meidenloop
My finish position at the 10 km run is great! I finished as 49th out of the 653 women, and in my category I finished as 23rd out of 332. My average speed was 11.83 km/hour and I ran at the 5 km point in 24:38 minutes, so that’s the fastest I ever did!

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Movie: Smakelijk eten!

Smakelijk eten!Yesterday I saw the documentary Smakelijk eten! (Bon Appetit!) at the local arthouse. The movie shows how what happens to our food before it’s on our plate. And the ‘life’ of food is shocking…
The producer Walther Grotenhuis chose three products: soy, shrimp and beans.

The soy comes from Brazil. Many rainforest is gone because of the soy plantations. Most soy is produced for Europe, and especially the Netherlands. We use the soy to feed the many pigs we have in our country. When the pigs are fed and fat we eat them. So the tropical rainforest in Brazil is gone because Europeans want to eat pig! When I saw this part of the movie I was very happy that I don’t eat meat that often.

The shrimp we can buy at our supermarket is from the Philippines. Many people there try to live from the export of seafood like shrimp, but the huge fish tanks of the rich people disturb the sealife. It’s getting harder for the poor fishermen to catch fish and for the fish it’s harder to survive in the polluted sea. Within one and half day the catched shrimp is in our supermarket. Like it’s fresh shrimp from our own sea, instead of a sea on the other side of the world.

The beans are produced in Kenya, again by rich people with large bean fields. These bean producers need a lot of water to get the best beans. In Kenya it’s not easy to get a lot of water, but the bean producer in the documentary found a way to get the water. He gets it from a small river not thinking about the consequences for the (poor) people who live further along this same small river and who need the water too. The bean producer gets so much water out of the river that there’s almost no water left for others! It’s unbelievable how these beans grow for export, while the people (and animals) in Kenya don’t have enough water to stay alife.

Fortunately most supermarkets sell more and more green products, but there are still so many products from far countries in supermarkets. What can you do to stop these horrible ways of producing food?
- Buy seasonal products, like strawberry in the summer and kale in the winter.
- Look at the label of a product and find out where the food is produced. Is the product from a country for away and is the product not expensive? Don’t buy the food; choose a green product from the same country or buy a similar Dutch product.

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Run event: IJsselsteinloop

IJsselsteinloop IJsselsteinloop
Yesterday I ran 10 km at the IJsselsteinloop, a run event in a village south of the city. We started the run in the rain, but after a while it stopped raining and the sun tried to show itself.

My run went great! I ran 10 km in 51.07 minutes, which is 4 minutes faster than my last 10 km run. Of the women who ran the 10 km, I ended at the first 12% with an average of 11,8 km/hour.

(Pictures taken by Hardlopen.nl)

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Book launch Bastiaan Ragas

Red carpet Daphne Deckers gets the first copy of Bastiaan's book
Last Wednesday I went to the book launch of the first book written by Bastiaan Ragas. The book contains stories about his fatherhood. Bastiaan has four kids, so he knows where he’s talking about.

Tooske Ragas Dutch celebs
Everyone entered the location of the book launch on a red carpet with many kids’ toys laying around on it. It was a fun way to create the right atmosphere.

Laura Vlasblom Tooske Ragas got interviewed Bastiaan Ragas
Several Dutch celebrities joined the book launch and it was nice to be a part of it for once.

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Zandvoort beach

Zandvoort
Yesterday I went with a friend to the beach @ Zandvoort. The weather was great! It wasn’t that crowded, so it was a perfect afternoon.

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