We, Team Green, are on another graveyard shift, this one 3am to 9am. This seems the hardest in terms of figuring out how to sleep, eat, etc. and still be raring to go on a run. So far the running part is the easiest and I look forward to being out there. My goal has been to maintain the sub 90 minute expectation for each 10 mile leg and save up for the long haul. So far it has been easy to do. Some of the runners are competing with each other or for times but that makes no sense to me, especially as the "€œold lady from Vermont,"€ clearly one of the slower runners on the team.

This morning's run was serene as the sun gradually rose over the Dutch countryside. I was mostly on bike paths which are a separate network here from the roadways. Some have an adobe type surface which is very forgiving. I ran along dikes and canals from one tree shaded avenue to another. Twittering birds, geese and bleating sheep kept me company. At times it smelled like tulips but I could not see any. During my last two miles I was surrounded by fields of poppies, mostly the brilliant red orange ones. Saw very few people between my run hours of 4:30 to 6am but, as I neared the end of my 10 miles, commuters were out on their bikes and waved hello.

Our team ran back to Ternauzen where our Netherlands runner Rudy took up the baton and ran into a Dow plant here. We followed for a gathering, ceremony and breakfast, then to our hotel. No problems with our hotel this time. We had to change in Antwerp after mistakenly being booked in what appeared to be a "€œprostitution brothel" with dozens of motorcycles outside and their grizzly riders, and the rooms decorated in zebra stripes and hot pink. When we went to the website to try and figure out why the agent would have placed us there, the hotel's site showed an entirely different accommodation, none of the photos matching what was really there.

After a long nap, it was wonderful to rise to some sunshine. Looks like the Netherlands weather pattern may be changing for us. Tomorrow we run to Amsterdam and then on to Germany. I am really looking forward to Germany and hoping my aunt and cousins find me as we pass through. Gute reise!!!!!