Shoe Mileage

Total Shoe mileage as of today: 423 miles.

About time for new shoes.

Laundry list

Wednesday 8/19
Time: 70:15
Distance: 10 miles

Tuesday 8/18
Time: 64:03
Distance: 9+ miles

Monday 8/17
Distance: 0 miles

Weekly Mileage 8/10-8/16:
35 miles

Sunday 8/16
Distance: 0 miles

Saturday 8/15
Distance: 0 miles

Friday 8/14
Time: 70:04
Distance: 10 miles

Thursday 8/13
Time: 49:15
Distance: 7 miles

Wednesday 8/12
Time: 70:16
Distance: 10 miles

Tuesday 8/11
Time: 57:05
Distance: 8 miles

Monday 8/10
Distance: 0 miles

Weekly Mileage 8/3-8/9:
29 miles

Sunday 8/9
Distance: 0 miles

Saturday 8/8
Distance: 0 miles

Friday 8/7
Time: 67:35
Distance: 10 miles

Thursday 8/6
Distance: 0 miles

Wednesday 8/5
Time: 65:30
Distance: 9+ miles

Tuesday 8/4
Time: 71:53
Distance: 10 miles

Monday 8/3
Distance: 0 miles

Weekly Mileage 7/27-8/2:
53 miles

Sunday 8/2
Distance: 0 miles

Saturday 8/1
Time: 117:06
Distance: 16+ miles

Friday 7/31
Distance: 0 miles

Last day of work!

Thursday 7/30
Time: 71:34
Distance: 10 miles

Legs still tired. Needed to get another run in before I fly out tomorrow to Cape Town, since I figure I won't be able to run tomorrow. Some shin stiffness on the right side, but hopefully the day off will take care of it. Other than the legs felt fine.

Today was my last day of official work for the summer. I haven't mentioned much about work, mainly because it's been pretty frustrating for a number of reasons. In any case, it's nice to be done with everything and to have a solid few days to site see (if not relax) before heading home.

Off to see the penguins...

Letaba

Wednesday 7/29
Time: 67:49
Distance: 9+ miles

Tuesday 7/28
Time: 60:07
Distance: 8 miles

Monday 7/27
Time: 70:50
Distance: 10 miles

Legs definitely tired, but otherwise well-rested. Enjoying the last week of running in Durban.

Some random firsts:

-Today for the first time ever I saw a legit speedwalker training. He was cruising across an intersection in front of me at a pretty good clip.

-Also today I saw the first evidence of Scientology in South Africa. Small poster on light pole reads: "Hubbard's Dianetics! Call xxxx"

Earlier this week I shadowed a physician at KwaMashu Hospital in a township in Durban. Her name is Letaba and she works in the HIV ward at the hospital, starting people diagnosed with HIV on anti-retroviral drugs. Until several months ago she worked at another hospital nearby, Don McKenzie, providing care to patients with TB. She was transferred to KwaMashu after contracting TB at Don McKenzie, an infection she attributes to her overworked schedule at the understaffed hospital. She is currently on treatment for TB, but continues to see about thirty patients per day in the packed ARV clinic.

Weekly Totals

Total Mileage 7/20-7/26: 61 miles

This will be my last full week in Durban. At the end of this coming week I'll be heading out to Cape Town for some site seeing before flying home.

Golden Mile

Sunday 7/26
Time: 100:19
Distance: 14+ miles

Saturday 7/25
Time: 59:07
Distance: 8 miles

2 solid days. Not feeling great again on Saturday, but better rested on Sunday. Crossed over the highway for the first time today on the longer run and explored some of the neighborhoods to the north.

Yesterday Ivy and I met up with our advisor from Brown (Abby) and her family, who just arrived in Durban and are staying for the week. We headed down to North Beach's Golden Mile, a broad walkway right along the sand decorated with restaurants, bars, a small carnival-like theme park, and a public pool. After some high quality sandwiches at the Beach Cafe, where tables and chairs are set right out on the sand, we checked out some of the sand sculptures built by informal artists along the walk. In addition to some horses, dolphins, and cars, there were some sculptures of Durban's new World Cup stadium and the 2010 World Cup symbol.

I'm looking forward to meet up with Abby and co. again tonight for a trip to Taco Zulu, Durban's "premier" (and only?) Mexican restaurant.

Wind

Friday 7/24
Time: 71:18
Distance: 10- miles

Thursday 7/23
Time: 25:40
Distance: 3 1/2 miles

Wednesday 7/22
Time: 59:59
Distance: 8+ miles

Thursday was one of the poorer runs I've had in a long time. I was feeling pretty dead most of the day and kept awake at work on caffeine. Within the first 5 minutes of setting out in the afternoon on my run I knew I was finished. It didn't help that there was a serious headwind that made even running downhill a challenge. In place of running the full 8 miles I had intended I instead downed an enormous Cadbury chocolate bar and watched Tonya Harding try to come clean 15 years later on Oprah. Equivalent? Doubtful. Regrettable? Only slightly.

Felt much better today on a pretty chill run after getting out of work before lunch. Still windy, but warmer. There was a legit high school track meet of some sort going on at the UKZN track, complete with vuvuzelas.

Bunny chow

Tuesday 7/21
Time: 60:10
Distance: 8+ miles

Monday 7/20
Time: 59:42
Distance: 8+ miles

Haven't been feeling so good the last two days. Pretty sure it's some combo of the recent smog cover that has fallen over the city, my recent inability to sleep consistently, the hard effort on Saturday, and frustrations at work. Either way, I've been tired on my runs since Sunday. Today's run ended on a high note, and I felt significantly better running on the UKZN fields in the afternoon, watching a soccer scrimmage and some sort of informal track meet as the sun set over the hills to the northwest.

Last night Ivy, Robyn, Robyn's dad and I went out for bunny chow. Bunny chow is one of Durban's unique food offerings. Bunny chow consists of a loaf of bread (or a half loaf, or quarter) hollowed out and filled with curry (bean, vegetarian, chicken, or mutton). Simple, delicious, and cheap. It's a lot like New England clam chowder in a bread bowl. Except way way way more spicy. And less white.

Weekly Totals

Total mileage 7/13-7/19: 56 1/2 miles

Definitely feeling the effects of the longer, harder effort on Saturday, but other than that feeling solid. Run, eat, (work), sleep, repeat.

P.S. Alberto Contador is an absolute animal. Well played, Astana. This week is gonna be SICK.

Soccer fields

Sunday 7/19
Time: 60:18
Distance: 8 miles

Saturday 7/18
Time: 94:29
Distance: 14 miles

Friday 7/17
Distance: 0 miles

Took Friday off in the hope of improving both of my Achilles/calves. Planned to test out my calves and run shorter on Saturday, but got into a really good groove on the fields at UKZN and once I warmed up I was pretty pain free. The weather was perfect. Morning fog slowly burning off on the fields and keeping the air crisp but not too cold. I literally felt like I was about 13 years old and warming up for a soccer game. In any case, a welcome change from the smoky, exhaust-laden air on most days. By the end of the run on Saturday, I was cranking pretty good. It was great to have one of those days I felt like I was floating. Haven't had one in way too long.

Definitely paid for yesterday this morning, however. Calves were basically fine and nothing in particular was sore, but I just felt like all I could do was move at a crawl pace. Put in an hour, but was pretty beat by the end despite the slow pace.

Weekend highlights:

-Eating ostrich steak for the first time (delicious, if a bit chewy, and not quite as good as the gemsbok Stef ordered)

-Walking into a store at a flea market in downtown Durban and seeing 1) a chair made with the pelt (?) of a zebra face and 2) a stool made from a real elephant foot. Legal? Probably not. Disturbing and sort of bizarrely awesome? Definitely.

-Sitting through an hour of a ridiculous musical variety show production called Salsa Sizzlers, in which a depressed-looking band and 3 enthusiastic female vocalists performed renditions of songs by Christina Aguilera, Carlos Santana, and Shakira. Best quote of the night: "Drug lords are not the only thing to come out of Colombia...next, we'll hear a song by Colombian superstar Shakira!"

Afternoon Sun

Thursday 7/16
Time: 56:19
Distance: 8- miles

Wednesday 7/15
Time: 74:10
Distance: 10+ miles

Got in a good midweek effort longer run on Wednesday, but might have aggravated my right Achilles a little. Slept in this morning and went running after work. In the first 2 miles or so both of my Achilles(es?) were acting up, which was slightly less than ideal. By the end though most of the soreness was gone, although there's still a little twinge on my right side lower calf. Debating taking tomorrow off.

I don't often run in the afternoon, but today I was reminded how nice it is around 4-5 pm around here. The sun's slowly sinking but it's still relatively warm, and there are tons of people walking home from work/exercising in the quieter streets. For about 100 meters a dude walking to a bus stop from work kept me company on my run, but he didn't seem too interested in the enormous hill I was about to run down. It also didn't hurt my good mood that I got back just in time to watch the end of today's Tour de France stage (New career goal: getting on the hiring committee for the Tour's podium girls).

Spring is coming

Tuesday 7/14
Time: 60:41
Distance: 8 1/2 miles

Monday 7/13
Time: 60:02
Distance: 8+ miles

Back into the groove in Durban again. Felt significantly better on Monday morning after loads and loads of sleep Sunday night.

I'm definitely starting to notice the sun is rising earlier. By the time I turned around on my run this morning the sky was starting to light up, which is a significant improvement from the past few weeks when most of my runs have been dominated by darkness. More people seem to be out running and walking now too, maybe a result of the longer days.

Side note: just figured out today that Hendrik Ramaala (winner of the 2004 NYC Marathon) is South African. For all the Ethiopians and Kenyans dominated long distance running, Ramaala is a testament to South African running. Apparently he trains on a college campus in Jo'burg and coaches himself. A recent interview with him in the NY Times: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/09/an-elite-athlete-training-without-a-coach/?scp=2&sq=hendrik%20ramaala&st=cse

Weekly Totals

Total mileage 7/6-7/12: 34 miles

Took 3 days off at the end of the week and no long run, so the total dropped quite a bit. Good news is I'm feeling good and the Achilles seems pretty recovered. Ready to get back into the rhythm.

A slight detour

Sunday 7/12
Distance: 0 miles

Saturday 7/11
Distance: 0 miles

Friday 7/10
Distance: 0 miles

Thursday 7/9
Time: 58:01
Distance: 8 miles

Yes, I've been slacking on the running thing recently. Fortunately nothing to do with injury and all to do with adventure. And exhaustion. But mostly the former.

On Wednesday night a little wine with dinner turned into killing a whole bottle, which put me in a pretty good mood. Somehow I managed to wake up at 5:45 the next morning and put in a solid hour's running. Definitely not sober for the first 3 miles or so, but I actually felt great by the end. That feeling unfortunately did not last and sometime around 9am I temporarily lost the ability to communicate coherently with people in the office.

On Friday I left work early with the other student interns and got a lift to the airport to rent a car. We were heading up to St. Lucia, a town about 3 hours up the road from Durban on the coast. St. Lucia is a tourist haven famous for the hippos, crocodiles, and birds that live in the enormous estuary right next to the town.

To get there involved my first experience driving on the left hand side of the road, which, it's important to note, is much less difficult than avoiding hitting people, livestock, and other cars in South Africa. Rhode Island may have the worst drivers in the U.S., but it pales in comparison to South Africa.

After a relatively smooth ride, we arrived in St. Lucia and prepped for a night drive of the St. Lucia game reserve. For 3 hours, the 4 of us from Durban and 4 friends spending the summer in nearby Mtubatuba had a sweet guided tour of the area. While we failed to see any leopards, we did see (and hold) some sweet chameleons, bush buck, zebras, and hippos. The highlight by far was chilling next to an enormous bull water buffalo grazing about 15 feet away.

Early Saturday morning, the Durban crew drove about an hour to another enormous game reserve called Imfolozi Hluhluwe. We drove by ourselves through the park until the early afternoon, fueled by candy and bacon, banana, and cheese sandwiches (edible, but not as good as the bacon and banana pizzas they love out here). Some highlights: coming up on 2 skittish rhinos a little too close to the car for comfort and hoping that they didn't decide to spear our car; watching a spotted hyena trot down the road toward our car, stop and pose, then hurry off into the bushes; pulling up within feet of several giraffes feeding with a little one in tow; and watching a white rhino jog across the road in front of us less than 30 feet away.

In the afternoon we headed back to St. Lucia and walked around the estuary, where we saw a group of hippos hanging out on the shore and a few crocs sunning on a sandbar. Exhausted, hungry, and sober, we met up with the Mtubatuba crew and some Brown-linked Capetown visitors for drinks and dinner in town before an early night.

Early this morning a few hardcore souls got up and drove to the beach to watch the sun rise over the Indian Ocean. Despite the wind, the cold, and the early wakeup, it was worth it several times over. Here's to summer in RSA.

Comrades

Wednesday 7/8
Distance: 9 miles
Time: 64:02

Tuesday 7/7
Distance: 9 miles
Time: 64:09

Monday 7/6
Distance: 8 miles
Time: 58:50

Solid start to the week. Right Achilles noticeably sore on Monday and Tuesday, but quite a bit better on Wednesday.

On Monday and Tuesday nights, I dog sat for a coworker. She has two enormous dogs, one mixed German Shepherd/something else very large, the other a Rhodesian Ridgeback. Ridgebacks were bred in southern Africa and apparently back in the day they used them to hunt lions. I wanted to take the ridgeback on a run with me one of the mornings, but she was not particularly pleased at being woken up before sunrise and wasn't having it. I guess I'm on my own for lion hunting for the time being.

I had a humbling running-related experience this weekend when I was over at my coworker Melanie's home for a pre-Fourth of July BBQ. We were talking about how I've been trying to run around here and where I go. Mel's husband started talking about how their neighbor has run something like 25 Comrades Marathons. The Comrades Marathon is a 55+ mile race held every year in South Africa that runs between Durban and Pietermaritzburg, one way. Every year, the direction it is run switches. The race is notoriously hilly and difficult, and people from all over the world come here to run it. I'd love to complete this race just once. To have run 25 of these races is legit. Way beyond legit. I was told that this same neighbor gets up at 4:30 every morning and will come back around 8:30 or 9am. 4-4 1/2 hours of running. Every day. No shit. Here's to the die hard. The truly die hard.

Weekly Totals

Total Mileage 6/29-7/5: 52.5 miles

Pretty dead at the end of the week, especially after Saturday. Feeling good physically other than a little soreness in left Achilles. Good week: 1st week over 50 miles in over a year, and 1st run over 12 miles in at least 6 months. Feeling like somewhat of a real runner again.

uShaka

Sunday 7/5
Distance: 6.5 miles
Time: 46:56

Saturday Fourth of July
Distance: 13- miles
Time: 91:53

Friday 7/3
Distance: 9 miles
Time: 63:03

Pretty solid run on Friday morning, not much to report.

Friday evening Ivy, Jasmine and I were planning on hitting up this bizarre ex-pat 4th of July celebration (appropriately, on the 3rd of July) at the University of Kwazulu-Natal right around here. Upon arrival at the (apparently) absurdly late hour of 5pm, all that was left of the celebration was about 15 people sitting around in lawn chairs with coolers, an empty stage being dismantled, and a guy using a blower to clean up the red, white, and blue confetti scattered in front of the stage. When asked about the fireworks that had been promised, one of the cleanup guys informed us that they couldn't get a permit so they had canceled them. Here's to the Durban ex-pat crowd.

Fortunately, we ended up having a solid all-American BBQ complete with burgers and hot dogs at our American co-worker's house.

Saturday morning I decided to change things up a bit and actually complete the run to the coast I've been told not to do by several over-protective Durban-ites (Durban-ans? Durbanians?). Headed down toward the water without any mishaps, hoping to find a continuous strand of road along the beach I could run on. After a few wrong turns and some good luck I miraculously stumbled upon uShaka Marine World. uShaka is basically SeaWorld, complete with the Southern Hemisphere's largest aquarium and plenty of shops and restaurants. There's a beautiful grassy strip along the beach front (complete with helicopter pad) just beyond uShaka that I was able to enjoy for just a half mile or so before turning around. I felt pretty wrecked on the way back as the temperature picked up and I left the flat seaside area for the hills just inland.

After a few too many South African and Namibian beers last night, in addition to the long run yesterday, I wasn't feeling too fresh this morning. Nonetheless, I got out the door and put in an easy effort. I'm pretty sure this is my first week over 50 miles since April or May of 08.

This afternoon Ivy, Jasmine and I headed down to the beach and I got some quality time in the Indian Ocean. For the middle of winter, it's pretty warm. Probably about as warm as the Pacific ever gets. Unfortunately the clouds rolled in and the wind picked up pretty soon after we got there, so we didn't spend too much time hanging out on the beach.

Either way, by the time we got home I was wrecked. Spent some quality time watching Wimbledon/Tour de France and just chilled.

Cold

Thursday 7/2
Distance: 8 miles
Time: 55:58

Feeling a lot better, and not really coughing anymore. Felt really solid on my first morning yog for the week. Really wish there was some sort of heat in my apartment here. The temperature doesn't really drop below 50, but with tile floors, drafty windows, and no heat, getting up while it's still dark is more than a little difficult. On the plus side, there's an awesome bakery I ran by today that smells like heaven at 6am with the ovens going full blast.

Your pace is good

Wednesday 7/1
Distance: 8+ miles
Time: 59:23

Tuesday 6/30
Distance: 0 miles

Monday 6/29
Distance: 8 miles
Time: 56:59

Feeling a little under the weather at the beginning of the week. Ran in the afternoon on Monday fairly easy. On the way back, I ran into a dude running up the hill I was coming down. He had a huge grin on his face, Haile G style. He stopped me briefly before continuing on. "Were you running down Francois Road on Sunday?" "Yeah, I think so." "Your pace is good, man. Your pace is good." We had somewhat of an awkward interaction, given that his English was pretty limited and my Zulu is nonexistent. Either way, it was definitely a solid lift to a long day.

Took Tuesday off, since I wasn't feeling great and was still coughing...briefly considered trying to do a simulated repeat of senior week since that seemed to somehow temporarily kill off any germs in my body. Unfortunately staying up late and drinking to exhaustion is probably not conducive to going to work at 8 every morning. Or to running, period.

Feeling somewhat better today after plenty of sleep. Ran after work in the afternoon on the UKZN fields...definitely digging that location-plenty of flat grass, some sweet giant goose-like birds that waddle around everywhere, and some peace away from the rush hour traffic on the roads.

Work has finally started to pick up. Sat in on health care provider interviews yesterday and today...update on that stuff coming soon.

Weekly Totals

Total Mileage 6/22-6/28: 48 miles

Solid week. Finally used to the early wakeups during the week. A bit tired toward the end of the week, until a great run on Sunday. Looking for mileage in the low- to mid-50s next week with a long run of 12-13.

Saturday 6/27
Time: 70:43
Distance: 10 miles

Sunday 6/28
Time: 60:07
Distance: 8 miles

Got in a solid 10 on Saturday morning. It was nice to run after the sun came up. Explored some roads beyond the UKZN sports fields, but quickly decided that the area I ended up in didn't look particularly safe. Feeling a bit tired.

On Saturday afternoon Ivy and I met up with some Brown and Harvard grad students doing research elsewhere in RSA. A good group of them came into Durban this weekend to hang out, so we spent the early afternoon at a weekly flea market. It was pretty awesome-live reggae band, ridiculously cheap food, and everything from video games to clothing to books to art. Definitely going back before I leave.

Sunday was the first completely lazy day I've had in awhile. It felt good for once no having to worry about anything to do or anywhere to be. Went for a run in the afternoon in pretty windy and intermittently rainy conditions. Felt incredibly good on the run, and came back to an absolutely unbelievable game between Spain and RSA in the Confederations Cup 3rd place match. Looking forward to watching the U.S.-Brazil final later on tonight.

A little more like it

Distance: 8 miles
Time: 56:59

Today for the first time it finally felt like winter. Or at least early fall/late spring in New England. Had to go with a long sleeve shirt on my run, and the first mile or so was pretty chilly. Felt solid pretty much all the way through. Stayed on the asphalt and hit quite a few hills, but found a cool neighborhood to run through about 3 miles away. The road runs over some rolling hills and overlooks a good chunk of the city. One of the major pluses of so many hills is that there are some really sweet viewpoints that overlook the city and ocean.

The air was a lot clearer and cleaner today than it's been recently. Apparently in the winter farmers just burn off the remnants of their crops to make way for future planting, resulting in ash carried miles away through the air. The other night on a particularly hazy evening I was checking weather.com for the forecast. The current weather? "Durban. 20 degrees C. Smoke." In case that didn't register, there was a nice little picture of plumes of smoke blocking out the sun. Hectic.

Distance: 6 miles
Time: 43:51

Slept in just a little bit and went for a relatively easy 6 out to the grass track and back. Feeling tired-didn't sleep too well. Maybe it was the excitement of the U.S.'s awesome 2-0 win against Spain in the Confederations Cup last night. Or the frozen pre-packaged red curry chicken I had for dinner.

Long day.

Level ground

Wednesday 6/24:
Distance: 8- miles
Time: 56:01

Tuesday 6/23:
Distance: 8 miles
Time: 58:00

Monday 6/22:
Distance: 0 miles

Sunday 6/21:
Distance: 0 miles

Back in Durban after what turned out to be a great weekend in the Berg. After the slight mishap on my Saturday afternoon run, the rest of the weekend turned out pretty nice. On Sunday morning I got up early to join a group including Robyn, Ivy, Robyn's boyfriend Peet, her dad and brother, and some other friends to do a serious hike up into the Berg. After a 2+ hour drive and a 4 hour hike including an ascent up a 100 rung steel ladder, we were at the top of the second highest waterfall in the world (Tugela Falls). The views were awesome, if more than a little unnerving standing on the edge of cliffs close to 1km above the ground below. Unfortunately I don't have a camera, but Ivy does (and a blog!) that shows some of the better images from the trip: www.dreamingindurban.com

After a full day of hiking, some incredible sandwiches courtesy of Mrs. Cox, and plenty of naartjies, we wound down with some quality pizza from a nearby restaurant (banana and bacon?) and drove back to Durban.

Monday morning I was back in the city of asphalt hills but decided to take a day off, since the lack of sleep on Saturday night, 15k hike, and 9 hours of car riding on Sunday were not particularly rejuvenating.

On Tuesday, I hit the roads of Durban again and stumbled upon the sports fields for the University of KwaZulu-Natal about 2 1/2 miles away. Great open expanses of grass, including the first grass track I've ever seen. It's a great spot to get away from the hills, asphalt, and already crowded roads at 6am.

Today I was back in the asphalt hills exploring. It's amazing to me how early many people get up around here. As soon as I left my door just before 6am, I ran into 2 men walking to work along the pitch black streets. I wonder what time they left this morning. About 20 minutes into my run I passed by something called the "Durban Children's Homes," a big fenced complex that I assumed was an orphanage (although according to the website it's more of a child care program). Several children were leaning up against the fence and silently looking out, even at this early hour. I wonder if their parents are among the masses walking to work in the pre-dawn bustle.

An impromptu speed session

2 posts in 1 day! The weekend deserves its own post because of some running-related craziness and a change in location.

On Friday afternoon after work, Ivy and I hitched along with our coworker Robyn to the Drakensberg Mountains (the Berg...chiseled, weather-beaten, and stoic like a certain other Berg) on the border of Lesotho. Robyn's a native Durbanite and recent college grad working with us at the same HIV research organization. She's been a blast to hang out with and has been an incredible tour guide, showing us around the area. She very generously invited us to a vacation up in the Berg with her family and family friends.

We stayed at this nice resort in the foothills of the mountains with some absolutely beautiful views of the area. On Saturday after a round of mini golf, I headed out for a run. After a week's worth of running on asphalt in Durban, it was nice to run on some trails. Too bad the trails were at elevation and the hills here are not so much hills as mountains. Oh well.

There are a number of trails that run around the resort into the foothills. Figuring I'd just find one and hope it took me cool places, I set out. I followed some signs to a set of trails that diverged from a main path. I continued on the main path until I hit a T, with a sign for a trail on 1 side and a "Private Property" sign on the other. Deciding the trail with the sign was too steep, I cut onto private property, figuring (somewhat naively) that since all of the other paths seemed to lead to trails, that this trail would cut through private property briefly and back onto one of the legit trails. Big mistake.

Before I continue, 2 things. The exact text on the sign (which I would later carefully inspect) read: "Private Property. Enter entirely at your own risk." There was no gate, no fence, nothing to physically stop anyone from walking or driving through. There was no "No Trespassing" sign.

In any case, I entered entirely at my own risk. The road wound up and down and around some pretty cool, grassy hills. After awhile, I came up to 2 nice cottages set up on a hill, and later turned around just before hitting a fence with an old blue pickup and a house set back from the fence. On my way back, I heard a car behind me about 2 1/2 miles away from the private property sign. I stopped to let it by and turned around to see the blue pickup coming down the road from where I had come.

The pickup stops when it gets to me. A weather-beaten middle-aged dude gets out. I'm not really sure what's going on. He opens his mouth. "You get the fuck off my property. Go back from where you came from." I respond, "I'm sorry." "Fuck off! Get out! And learn how to read." There isn't much room for explanation on my part. I totally unprepared for this scenario, so I just kind of stand there dumbfounded and take it. "Fuck, man! You'd better run!" At this point I take off in a dead sprint.

Unfortunately the way he cornered me into running was away from the way that I knew out. He turned his pickup around and came back toward me and the house. Deciding I didn't really want to run into him again, I turned into the deep bushes and grass on the side of the hill and walked down where he wouldn't see me. Still afraid that he was going to see me from his house and chase me down, I cut through the grass, which was about shoulder height and made it impossible a lot of the time to see where I was stepping. I couldn't continue this way the whole way back, though, and I finally got onto the main trail. I booked it back to the resort, feeling like I heard the truck coming several times down the road.

All in all, I was pretty shaken up for awhile. A braai (South African bbq), a few Namibian beers, and some great company later, I was able to relax.

Week 6/15-6/21:

Total mileage: 35 miles

back on the wagon

So i apparently suck at blogging. I'm in South Africa for like 42 days and I've got exactly 1 post through 10+ days of being here. I already decided to give it up, but thanks to some inspiration from reading some friends' running blogs (shout out to tush, ocm, and smitty g), I decided to give it another shot.

From now on this will be more about running with a little bit of other stuff ("life") on the side.

Here we go (again)...
After recovering from my cold, I started up running somewhat in earnest last Sunday. I had a solid first week of training considering the fact that I haven't really done much running at all since December and some complicating factors (to follow). Several important things I've learned about running in Durban:

1. It's winter here. Apparently in the southern hemisphere their seasons are reversed. Just like the hot and cold water taps are on the wrong sides of the faucet and the toilet water circles in the opposite direction, they got this one backwards. Fortunately, winter in Durban means lows in the mid-50s. Unfortunately, it means that the sun doesn't rise until around 7:30am and sets by 5pm. Which wouldn't be a huge problem except...

2. The streets around here aren't particularly safe. Basically everyone I've talked to here has stressed the importance of being wary when walking around Durban, especially in the dark. The crime here is certainly problematic. One of the workers at the bed and breakfast where I'm staying got beat up last week on his walk home from work. Muggings are commonplace. This, in combination with the fact that I'm still not totally comfortable with the layout of the city, means that I'm running early in the morning rather than in the evening after work. Work starts around 8, so I'm getting up around 6am every morning to run.

3. Durban is extremely hilly. Extremely. There is not a single road I've found that continues flat for more than 100 meters or so. And everything is asphalt and concrete. This means that either a) I'm going to come back in sick shape at the end of this trip, or b) I'm going to come back with several stress fractures and bilateral tendinitis. Actually, there is one beautiful flat stretch of road right along the beachfront, which is no more than 3 miles away from my house. However, reaching it requires running through the city center, a very high crime area that I've been warned by multiple people to avoid completely. That said, I'm going to have a tough time staying away from such a promising place to run.

Anyway, so I got solid runs in Sunday-Friday of last week, starting with 4 miles and then consistently hitting 6. Because of the hills, even when I try to run easy I end up winded by the end. Or maybe it's not the hills. Maybe it's my complete lack of fitness. Either way, I'm into a routine.

P.S. I just realized that I've been trashing on Durban a lot. I actually really like Durban. All the talk of crime is true but probably overstated, and there are a lot of cool people here, and great places to see here and things to do. Day to day I feel safe and haven't really ever been in a situation where I thought something bad might happen.

30 hours, 7000 miles, and 1 lost bag

I'm jumping on the bandwagon. Not sure how long this will last, but I figured that possibly the best way to document and share my trip to South Africa this summer may be the whole blogging thing. I'll be out here for 8 weeks. I have 3 basic priorities: research, running, and seeing as much of the area as I can. I'm feeling pretty motivated now to write, and if things continue to happen at the current pace I will not run out of stories anytime soon. Either way, here I am.

I'm sitting in my "apartment" in Durban right now, still trying to completely settle in to life here and get myself on the right time zone. I left Providence on Tuesday afternoon. After a great time eating and meeting up with some good friends for dinner, I headed over to Ivy's parents' house to spend a quick night before flying out the next morning.

Ivy's a senior undergrad at Brown flying out to Durban to work on some education and HIV stuff through the RHRU, the same organization I'll be working at. We booked our flights to and Durban together and are staying at the same bed and breakfast, so we're hoping we can explore the area together and maintain our sanity (or what's left) to some degree. We haven't killed each other yet and we're almost 3 days in, so I'd say we've been pretty successful so far.

Our trip to Durban was slated for about 25 and a half hours. Door to door, the trip ended up being just over 30 hours. The flights were uneventful with the exception of a 2+ hour delay in Johannesberg during which our gate was switched twice and there was exactly one announcement over the PA system about a delay. Needless to say, by the time we reached Durban we were pretty beat.

Fortunately, the weather here in Durban turned out to be a huge pick-me-up after our long flights. It was in the 50s and raining in Johannesberg, but was mid-70s and perfectly sunny when we arrived in Durban. The weather is almost exactly what I'd expect if I was going home to San Diego. Even the freeways and the drive to our bed and breakfast reminded me of southern California-lots of rolling hills, houses set back above the freeway, and really smooth, wide roads. There's really no way to mistake it for SoCal though, since every pickup truck has a minimum of 2 guys sitting in the back as it speeds along at 60mph and strings of people were walking home from work on the shoulders and median of the road.

Ivy and I are staying in ridiculously nice single apartments at a bed and breakfast here. For just short of $600/month, I have a huge room with a microwave, full size fridge, toaster, plenty of cookware, and washing machine. There are at least 4 chairs inside, a TV with a DVD player, full size bed, and patio outside. There's also a small grill on the patio, in addition to a small bar with stools. It's pretty boss.

The whole running thing will have to take a side seat temporarily, since I'm desperately trying to get over a cold I've had for the last 2 1/2 weeks. Once that happens I'm pumped to have some quality time to focus on the simple things.