We just came back from Hickory where I ran the Charity Chase race. It was great fun, and I'm proud of my 2:23 result for the half marathon.

I was 3 minutes slower than in Raleigh two months ago, but the track was very challenging with lots of hills, and it was much warmer also.

It was great that Sasha was there; we left yesterday afternoon and spent a nice evening in Hickory, before getting up at 5.30 am to go to the race. Hickory is nice! We were pleasantly surprised: a cozy downtown area with lots of restaurants and places with outdoors seating.

The race itself was very well organized and there were lots of volunteers everywhere, very friendly folks. The scenery was beautiful, but especially the last two hills were very challenging ("Cemetery Hill" especially).

The start, a little before 7.00 am.

Guus in the crowd.

At mile marker 9. Very warm!

Split.

Mile 13... almost there.

Just after the finish line, around 9.30 am.

Tomorrow at 7.00 am there is another race, this time in Hickory, about 2.5 hours from here. We're staying there tonight.

I haven't trained as much as I should have and the course is supposed to be hilly, so I'm curious how it will be.

It looks like my phone has given up.

For about 6 months I've had to use tape to tie the battery to the phone, but no matter what I try now, the phone won't start anymore.

The phone is 3.5 years old, and I've had good use of it. Now it's time for a new one.

I don't often watch soccer anymore, but today I clicked on a link on CNN today and saw a picture. "Hey, I know that guy!"

The hero here is, once again, Van Der Sar, a Dutch goalkeeper who I've written about before.

We woke up early today; there are lots of things to arrange.

When I wanted to make cereal the box somehow exploded.

The website has been off-line for about 72 hours, due to an internet provider outage in the Netherlands.

Things obviously are now working again; thanks Jaap and Mieke for your help with getting the system back up and thank you readers, for your patience.

Last night we saw a documentary on National Geographic about a "Battle at Kruger", a Youtube video made by a tourist on safari.

This is probably the first documentary made after a Youtube video. The 8 minute original is an extraordinary account of an encounter between a herd of buffalo's, a group of inexperienced lions and a crocodile, with a happy end. The TV broadcast featured digitally enhanced sound and video.

Watch the video on Youtube.com.