The Heat

Ok, enough with the excuses. My running has been as sporadic and poor as Bingu’s leadership. I actually want to kick myself. A while back I had surpassed the 10km mark for first time since I’d set foot in this country which was happy and sad. Happy because it was a mental mark I needed to make, but sad because10km used to be a nice, easy mid week run for me, and it actually killed me. Hoping on the treadmill for my next run after that 10km, pain started going through my ankle with every stride. I ran for about 4km’s and then jumped off – it’s never good to run through pain and injure yourself more. I knew it was my shoes. My trusty old ‘New Balance’ were just plain worn out. Luckily my friend Selina was heading home to Ireland for a holiday, and with the help of my other friend Kate I was able to order a fancy new pair of ‘New Balance’ runners. Ok, well they are the new updated version of my old ones.


Now I have no excuse; although I made some for several weeks after the runners arrived. Had a few sporadic runs here and there, but I would like to count today as my official day back on the track. Went for a short, steady run this morning at 6:00am with my dog Tess. Came back and had a lovely swim. I love having a pool. The temperature in Malawi, especially for the last week has been a bit unbearable. At minimum you are looking at temperatures in the high 30’s and this last week hovering between 40-45 degrees Celsius. If that’s not going to put a damper on running, I don’t know what will. The only possible option is to run at 6:00am before the heat of the day sets in. It’s just going to take some discipline. I know I have it hidden away somewhere.

Trying to work in this heat makes everyone grumpy as anything, including myself. Motivation goes out the window. Right now I’m sitting in my room with all the curtains closed and the ceiling fan on trying to maintain a reasonable temperature.

Here’s some bits and pieces of things that I’ve been up to and that have made me happy over the last couple of weeks: