18th May 08

Date: 18^th May 08

Location: Brazzaville, Congo

Weather: Scattered showers and humid, 36°c

Status: Bored of waiting and concerned about the distance still to go

Decided last night to take advantage of the cooler conditions in the morning and also the fact we’re moving nowhere at the moment. Got up at 5.30am, changed into m running kit and hit the streets of the capital. Retraced our steps that we’d taken into the city a few days earlier and followed the track up beside the Angolan Embassy, past the football stadium and down the main road where the Congolese Parliament building stands alongside the Department for Foreign Affairs. Both are quite amazing constructions and wouldn’t look out of place in Europe.

On the way back decided to run right up to and around the city’s football stadium and found a whole plethora of people milling about, training and socialising even at 8am on a Sunday morning. The Congolese national football team as there in their red strips, a judo team practising, a boxing team skipping and even a veterans keep fit class, all were very welcoming and smiled and joked with me as I ran around the ground 10 times weaving in and out of the stands as construction work was also underway. For the last 2 laps a local boy ran around with me and we chatted about his favourite sports and stars, he told me as they all do, that he’d like to come to England one day. Shame, I would like to make it possible for him too but can’t……

Managed to run for 3hrs which is the longest I’ve done for a while, I’m more confident for the Comrades and feel I could complete a marathon tomorrow no worries, but a double uphill marathon is another thing altogether….that’s three times further than I ran today.

Pottered around for the morning and did some more maintenance on the Colonel, looked at maps and decided how we’ll all spend our last few weeks together and where we’ll meet up again after I’ve done my bit with South Africa, prepared dinner as I was my turn to cook; Coq au Vin which turned out to be good and simple.

After dinner sat on the internet for a while then watched Die Hard 4 – what a load of Hollywood shite, CGI crap, waste of overvalued dollars. Would much rather watch a good low budget film which takes you on a journey.

Bed

End of day location: Brazzaville, Congo

Distance covered: 0kms