Running across Africa 7

After three and a half days of unwanted rest and meetings, my legs were feeling pretty seized up.  We drove all the way back to where I was stopped running, and there we camped before starting again in the morning.  I had now (at this point in the run) been running for two months and my body had no idea what I was doing to it.  Here is my blog about day 51 - 60 (out of 89).

Day 51 - 53.41km

I woke up with diarrhoea, but nothing more than a runny stool.  No illness.  Running was hard today. Three and a half days off is too much for my body, it starts to repair itself and thinks I have stopped.  My knees and ankles were in serious pain and my whole body feels really heavy.  The day started on a vaguely happy note but by the afternoon there were problems again and morale drastically dropped.

Day 52 - 54.09km

I was up and running by 5:20.  No energy in my legs at all.  Maybe this is due to the time off or perhaps due to less food.  Lots of hills which is hard going but so much more interesting, and stimulating for me mentally.  Running later in the evenings the past couple of days has been beautiful as the landscape is changing.  Spectacular colours from the sun setting on the golden earth and the trees that are starting to increase in size.  And as we are higher in the mountains, we get long views for miles.

Day 53 - 41.13km

Mike carried all of our food for today which makes things far easier as we can just stop whenever we want to eat, there are no meeting points we have to reach.  It was a very chilled out day.  The sand had become really hard work though, especially for Mike on the bike, and even more so as he was carrying extra weight.  We arrived in Karoi for the second time.  Me and Mike got some nice food here.  I ate too much sweet foods and made myself feel really ill.

Day 54 - 12.84km

We had an extremely long team meeting today to decide on the best way to move forward.  We are now going to be separating for a few days at a time then meeting up in towns.  I only ran a short distance after the meeting as it was late.  We spent the night in a beautiful garden belonging to a local man.

Day 55 - 56.21km

Me and Mike got up earlier today so we could make sure we load the bike as well as possible for our first day alone. By lunchtime, I felt a massive weight had been lifted.  For the first time in a very long while there was no negative conversation between us, we spoke of fun things, past experiences and plans for the future.  Everything felt much sunnier.  We met some great people on route today, they were all really interested in what we were doing and really encouraging.  It was really humid at night, which made it really uncomfortable to sleep.

Day 56 - 52.85km

I was very proud of myself for being able to promptly get up at 04:30 (something I don't find easy) and make to porridge for me and Mike.  We take it in turns to get up earlier to make food.  Running this morning felt pretty easy.  I think this was due to running towards a town, so I spent the time dreaming of getting ice-cream.  When I found a shop, I scoffed ice-cream, a milkshake, a cake and a pasty.  This is such a stupid thing to do as I spent the rest of the day feeling seriously sick and could barely run.  I spent a lot of time laying down feeling sorry for myself!

Day 57 - 53.43km

Mikes turn to get up early today which was great as I was feeling very slow.  Once we were up and going I was still pretty sluggish.  We found a nice little truckers cafe to stop at for a sugary drink.  Mike had a pasty but I thankfully managed to resist after yesterdays mistake!  The sugary drink was available just at the right time as a 6km long hill followed it.  I ran up to 1510m which could possibly be the highest point of the whole run.  It was one of those steep hills where trucks get stranded at the side of the road as they can't pull their weight up.  I felt like one of those trucks!  I am dreaming of getting to Harare and washing my hair, its revolting.

Welcome to Harare

Day 58 - 32.11km

Really heavy rain in the night.  The inside of the tent got pretty wet as I must have slept right up against the edge.  At one point I woke up freezing and had to quickly throw on every item of clothing I had with me and snuggle up to Mike.  Very slow getting up due to bad sleep.  Then the stove was very slow cooking our porridge.  And then my legs were very slow moving my body along.  Generally a slow day!  We finally reached Harare, the only capital city on the route.  As I approached the city, my sense of smell heightened.  I smelled perfume on ladies waiting for buses which was such a pleasant surprise.  I also endured quite a stench of sewage and pollution, combined with the sight of mounds of litter piled up beside the roads.  As I ran further into the city, the mess was replaced with beautiful trees, blossoming in purple, lining the streets and guiding our way to Joy's house where we are to rest for a couple of days.

Day 59 - 0 - Harare
Day 60 - 0 - Harare

This tree flowers once a year for one night only. Lucky me!