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I’m DC RAINMAKER…
I swim, bike and run. Then, I come here and write about my adventures. It’s as simple as that. Most of the time. If you’re new around these parts, here’s the long version of my story.
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You spelt Apeldoorn wrong :p
Doh! I thought I saw two different spellings. Fixed!
I guess I’ll have to go to the Netherlands to get my daughters name On a coke bottle. Not a ton of Eliza’s in the states.
Back to start is what I miss most having gone to the Fenix 2 from the RC3 GPS. The Fenix seems to be able to get me home with a return on my path but I really liked the big friendly arrow of the Polar. With a bit of luck Polar will hire some programmers and finish the v800 at some point…
I have a Fenix 1 and use the breadcrumb map of where I have run as a way of getting me home. Has worked well twice this month when getting almost lost in the Dordogne and Versailles.
Oh it definitely works, it’s just nowhere near as nice to use as the big friendly arrow which Polar uses. Obviously Polar have the drawback that it’s straight line back but I still preferred it to the breadcrumb trail.
Cool to see you were in The Netherlands again. The area you were has a ton of paths like there, but also cycling paths, where you can ride for miles, without encountering anyone. Pure awesomeness!
The sign actually says you are entering the “kroondomein” freely translated as “crownland”. You were running in the king’s backyard!
Hi Ray, actually you were in a dangerous place! Those fences are meant to keep animals in sections of the forest and prevent them running on the ‘nearby’ highway/interstate. You could have opened the gate/door and got through (that is what the green sign indicated ‘it is open to the public’ and then some notifications of do’s and don’ts). Animal present are deer, roo-deer and the most dangerous ones wild boar. Luckily none of those can climb trees, can you?
Now I am curious where you ran. Nearby is a very interesting landmark ‘Radio Kootwijk’ with perfect running, cycling and MTB-ing availabilities. Next up should me South-Limburg for some ‘hill climbing’ running or cycling.
Mmm…I like wild board, great on top of pasta as a ragu!
Here’s my Strava route: link to strava.com
Very tasty :), usually we do get jealous on your weekend-dinner photos :)
The name looked weird and I found that it should be Apeldoorn…
Not having navigation on a $200 watch is understandable? My $100 GlobalSat has this function and I use it (mostly when, like you, I run in places I haven’t been before) and if I ever have to buy a new watch, this is one of the functions on my must-have list.
PS. glad you enjoyed Apeldoorn.
There are tradeoffs. In the case of the GlobalSat variants you lose a lot of the more fleshed out running functionality, along with size and connectivity.
The white marker with al the names on it is also known as the ‘paddestoel’ (translates literally to muchroom, because of it’s shape. I know a rather modern square mushroom, but gnomes build modern too :))
And indeed you were correct, they indicate vilages and the distance to them. They even have each a unique number so that you can find them on certain maps
Love going running where i dont really know where im going (should try Mozambique!).
Had the Coke bottle names in Scotland for ages but new ones recently came out that had lots of Polish names due to the high number of Poles in Scotland.
You should take Fenix2 for that kind of run. Don’t forget to upload a map :) You can save a navpoint with press of one button and then navigate to it (it dont have to be start of your run).
The reason why you didn’t see anyone is because you are not allowed to go in those woods after sunset (the green sign tells you that). :-)
whys that not allowed?
Nice runaround Ray. Apeldoorn actually has a fairly new velodrome that hosted the 2011 track WC. Maybe for a next time if youre testing aerogoodies or other cycling related tech ;)
What about wolves Ray. I thought Netherlands have reintroduced wolves and they roam in the wilderness.
“I thought through it while I was running along and decided that continental Europe doesn’t really have any man-eating animals. Kinda nice that way. No lions, tigers or bears.”
If you consider Nordics as a part of continental europe, then there are wild bears. :) Although not a man eating ones, for example, in Finland bear has ever killed only one man: 1998. And even that was only very bad luck, since jogger got accidentally between mother bear and his siblings. The bear once slapped the man and went away, but the man died anyway since the paw opened his artery and some air got into man’s heart killing him.
I used to think the same that you about navigation… then I started to run trails and now It’s mandatory
“……..but alas, I don’t speak Dutch.”.
Neither it seems, do you read Dutch!
This has been a fun article! Especially with all the commentators scolding Ray :-)
Will you be doing a full review of the Soleus GPS Pulse? A lot of my friends are interested in it but there seem to be a lack of reviews (or pretty much any info about it) anywhere.
Yup, I think I will.
The sign in the woods says: “It is absolutely forbidden to run in the woods with more than one sportwatch per person.”
You should have called ;-) I actually do my running there!
Hi Ray
very nice run. I often run in similar areas in the Netherlands and yes, it can be very quit and dark between the trees and also hard for the GPS to mak a fix.
I have been lost during my running often, and used the bread crumb on the FR305 to great succes to find a direction back.
It is a large disadvantage that the current devices (eg FR610 and other) lack this simple feature. Ray, given that you have now personal experience, could you hint the guys at Garmin to reintroduce the breadcrumb?
Keep up the good work, and next time you are in Netherlands, I would love to show you a couple of nice routes.
Greetz
Gerard
Navigation (the pointer back to a particular waypoint) is important. When I am somewhere new and unknown, I can go out and just run five miles in a general compass direction and then follow the pointer in the general direction back to where I started. I got to run some beautiful tree lined suburban roads in New Jersey like this making up my 10 mile and 13 mile runs as I went. It is sort of exciting, but I had to take Orangie to do it (310xt). if I took Blackie (garmin 210), I’d sill be wondering around lost. I don’t need fancy navigation like course, but the pointer is sort of important.
What camera are you using on your runs? Is it still the Lumix TS3?
Yup, keeps on chugging!
Those red porta-potty’s are used by workers who search for WW2-ammunition. In WW2 they dropped it in the Woods. Every inch of the big wood is searched now for more than 10 years. Outside the lanes it is perhaps te most dangerous thing between those friendly trees, not the dears and ‘wild pigs’.
gr, from Apeldoorn
DC Rainmaker – great site with well over the top reviews – luv em!
Any further comment on the actual Soleus GPS HRM watch? I’ve just fallen out with an FR15 and the whole Garmin customer service department on planet earth and the Soleus is on sale cheap for only GBP133 , so if it’s half decent it’s got to be worth considering.
Thanks for any recommendation!
Cheers!
John
I found the HR portion laughable, so, kinda gave up on it.
No bears, but you were within about 500 m of gorillas, which is fairly rare in the Netherlands (link to apenheul.com). It is a very pleasant place to stroll through, by the way.