Well let's be honest I didn't really run in the Gambia but it did have an impact on my running! My friend was due to leave the Gambia very soon for a country much harder to travel to (Burma) so I thought best to get on a plane and go visit. I didn't think about the 15km race or the half marathon that awaited me on my return, just of 41 degrees C temperatures, cold beer and maybe some cocktails! I figured I could run on the beach but then forgot to pack my sports bra...
The house I was staying in had a runner and Katie is a long distance cyclist so it should have been a pretty active holiday. Until... the cleaner came round and cleaned everything. And I mean everything. Because West Africa gets Harmattan winds from the Sahara, everything is covered in a fine pink dust. Even after you get out of the shower, minutes later, pink dust. So my thongs (you call them flip flops) were duly cleaned and part of me thought something of it and part of me was too "on holiday mode" to care. I went for a walk and by the time we had finished strolling along the beach to a beautiful hotel restaurant the soles of my feet were burnt blistered and sore from the cleaning chemicals.
Luckily you can buy prescriptions easily in the Gambia and there's plenty of lovely material to wrap my feet in but it did mean a day of just resting. Of course this ended up being the day that work needed me to work in our Gambian office but that's another story.
The flight home, the feet suffered. They inflammed a lot and I relied on all my lovely fabrics to get them home as clean and comfortable as possible. All I could think about was if I was going to run the 15km on Sunday or not...
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