Free Fitness Movement. All you need to do is show up!
As of December 13, 2023, November Project Amsterdam is not meeting anymore. These posts were written before their sunset.
This week’s blog post is brought to you by Edoardo; he is the founding father of the bunny pose and he makes cursing sound like a lullaby. There’s also a lot of other reasons we love him, but you’ll just have to find out for yourself when you #justshowup on a Wednesday morning for a Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu singalong. For all OCTOBER EVERYTHING, go HERE!
This morning was about getting to know a mini tribe within the tribe and running faster than Indiana Jones. Normally I’d go into it, let you all know how much I love and appreciate you people, etc. but we have a lot to throw at you right now:
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
This weekend:
Sunday: If you are running, on the post that I initiate in the social group, write your bib number and the distance you are running. Wear #grassrootsgear and we will cheer our faces off for you. If you are not running, come cheer at the cheer zone by Running Junkies. If you want to help set up, we will be there at 7:30 AM. If you want to drink, bring some beer (or whatever). If you want to hold a sign, make a kick ass sign and we will take pictures of you looking like a pro cheerleader (you don’t have to run to be a badass). If you want to throw confetti and dance around, #justshowup. Location: here, right smack in front of the Rijksmuseum, on the side of the road, not the iamsterdam sign.
This week’s blog is brought to you by our very own Roderik Brasser. He may turn the whole blog post into one crude sexual joke, but he does get his point across; Runner’s High is real, the vibe at NP Amsterdam is off the walls, and #thetribeisstrong.
Feeling the vibe of the tribe!
…As you get into it, your hips roll forward so you are perfectly aligned. Your back is straight and your hands drop to your side slightly clenched. Each move forward is hitting the perfect spot. The tempo is just right. Your heart is beating fast, but you don’t even notice. Every inch of you is awake and senses the slightest touch. Your breaths are deep.
Last Wednesday, we had someone new join us. Well, we had a bunch of newbies, but I’m trying to stay focused here. So we had this one person join us last Wednesday. She was new. And she’s relevant to this story. Let’s call her Mariana, because that’s her name. She was new to NP and she’s new to this city, and she’s new to the Masters program we are in together. By the way, that’s what I do here in Amsterdam in my free time, as one of my other unpaid side jobs – I go to school. Moving on.
Today we start our #weatherproof journey into the cold darkness. By start, I mean pick up where we left off in May, and by cold darkness, I mean weather-that-seperates-the-bitches-from-the-badass. No matter what comes our way, we will be there, racing each other, pushing each other to be the best versions of ourselves, and murder whispering sweet nothings to each other and into the cold, dark, most probably wet, air. Amsterdam is not known for it’s sunny climate, but November Project is known for being #weatherproof, and we have the power to bring the light into each others Wednesdays every single week. All you have to do is show up.
As you all know, our thing, is to #justshowup. Before we #justshowup, we #riseandshine, and after, we #raceeverything, and throughout our time together, we do a lot of hashtag-worthy things like say #fuckyeah and eat #stairsforbreakfast. BUT, the most important thing is that we #justshowup. Yeah, it’s commendable to wake up so early (#riseandshine, if I may), it feels pretty damn good to be the boss of your alarm clock, put two feet on the ground, head out the door in the darkness, and show up to the workout to #raceeverything with 50 friends. But showing up, I mean really showing up is the key to what we do here at November Project. You see, our lives are full of work emails and Whatsapp messages, Snapchats while biking and countless time-checks and scheduling and rushing, and, and, and… For one hour per week, though, we are present. We show up. We put everything else aside to say ‘goedemorgen’ to the humans around us, we tell them we’re glad they came, we give them hips-in hugs, we work our asses off with them, we sweat (a LOT) and when Saskia or I call time, we bring it in and call it a [goede]morgen. For one hour per week, with aching legs and burning lungs, we get to forget about our tick-tock-ing worlds outside of NEMO and we get to truly be present, we get to just show up.
A little over two years ago, I just showed up on a Wednesday morning at the Lincoln Memorial. There was this buzz, this positive energy with a badass edge flowing through all these stranger-friends, even in the dark, even in the silent lulls and heavy breathing and unsure footsteps on the small marble stairs. I didn’t know what that feeling I felt that first morning was, but I knew it was good. This morning in Amsterdam, there was that buzz, that energy, that kick-ass feeling flowing through the tribe as we raced bridges and got down with some seriously spicy spice.