Rev Runs!

Heartbreak and mud

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Tracy) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 06:34:00 +0000

Well, it’s my own fault. I knew I should have sent a message or two to check on the progress of my Garmin 405, but it kept slipping from my mind. Katie did give it to Laetitia and Laetitia did bring it to Paris with her. But then she forgot about it and brought it back to Bukavu in her bag. Arrgghh.

So now what do I do? My choices – either try to find another way to send this back to the US. It’s coming on Christmas and several people are going back there for the holidays, so that’s not impossible, but no one will go back soon enough for it to get fixed and sent to Peter before he comes to Congo. I heard that one person is actually going to be in the US (and it sounds like in one place) for 3 weeks, so that is a definite possibility, although I’d have to rearrange things with Garmin. But that also means I won’t have it back until the end of January.

Other options? Buy a new one and get it sent to Peter or maybe even to someone in Nairobi where I’ll be around Christmas or to my friend in Cameroon who I will be meeting up with in Benin at the new year. But $370 plus shipping for an extra month? It sounds crazy, but I hate not having it now and that month I’m going to be in some cool places that I could get recorded if I have the Garmin.

We live in a very well-connected world. Even here in Africa, you’d be amazed at how well-connected we are. However, when electronic things break here, repair becomes very difficult. I already found this out when the power supply of my netbook got burnt out. I tried everything – Bukavu, Kinshasa, Kigali, Nairobi, Germany, Amsterdam and finally had to buy a new one in the US and have it sent to me via DHL (we have no postal system here in the DR Congo). My last Garmin, a 205, was mine for 3 years and then I gave it to a Cameroonian friend and it is still going strong, so I certainly expected that I’d have no problems with the new one.

I know I could use this as a lesson in detachment, but I don’t wanna.

I’m back in Bukavu now and went out for an 11 mile run today, but of course, without my Garmin I have no idea the distance. So I planned to run for 110 minutes (1 hour and 50 minutes). I think I did actually run around that, but my Timex watch said 1:37:14. However, I know this has to be wrong because it is not humanly possible to get from where I was at 66 minutes to my house in 30 minutes, so I must have pushed the stop button and not pressed it on again for about 15 minutes or so.

It’s raining a lot in Bukavu now and obviously has been doing this for awhile, because everything is wet and even looks wet when it hasn’t been raining for hours. It rained yesterday all afternoon, but not overnight, so I got up and went out thinking it wasn’t going to be too bad. I wore my trail shoes (La Sportiva Fireblades) because I’ve been wearing my Brooks Trance everyday for the last month and my other shoes are Nike Lunar Trainers which are really useless when it is the least bit slippery. The road I live on was not bad at all, not too slippery, not too wet, but when I got up to the more “main” road in our quarter it was almost all mud. Then, when I got to the road that goes around the Bay and meets up with the paved road, that was pretty bad. Huge puddles without even an edge to run on; dry portions that had been walked on by so many that they were slick as ice; and a nice couple of inches of watery mud everywhere. By the time I got to the pavement, I was so happy that I preferred going up the endless hill. I made it all the way to the top without stopping, which felt good and then cruised along for awhile, relieved to be able to relax a bit and not have to be careful with every step.

I stopped at 49 minutes and ate my Clif Blok and drank some water. I was not at all hungry or thirsty, but my coach told me to, so I did. Then I went up and over the little hill before Nyawera market, through a stretch of mud and started ascending the hill to “Centre Ville”. It’s a long hill, but quite gradual, so if I just pace myself it’s not too hard. On the other side, it descends and descends and descends and I started to just zoom down it, made all the more fun because a young girl (in her Sunday dress and flip flops) joined me. I knew that I would have to turn around and climb up the hill, so I decided to really enjoy going down and we were really flying. We went a bit on the flat part, then I stopped and started to turn. I asked her name (Doras) and told her mine and shook her hand. That was 66 minutes and I was 20 minutes from the roundabout that is 12-15 minutes from my house, and I walked up the steep section of hill I had just come zooming down. (That’s why I know the watch was wrong.)

On the way back, I was facing traffic, which I actually think is not such a great idea because it just makes me nervous or annoys me (when I see how close the cars and motorbikes come to me). Either way, I simply have to trust that they will not hit me and if they are coming from behind, I don’t have to know how close they are. . .

The La Sportiva’s were rubbing on my right Achilles tendon a lot and then it started to hurt on the outside of my right ankle also. My left foot was completely fine. All I can think is that they are so built up in the heal area that it is too much for me. So I may take some scissors or a knife and cut them down or something. I’ve never been one to modify my shoes this way, but I’m not getting any different shoes until the end of January, so I have to use these and I’m *not* interested in getting injured. I had an Achilles tendon injury when I was a teenager (tore both of them when I went for a 12 mile hike in the snow in new hiking boots – the old-fashioned kind that were hard leather and very heavy). That was horrible and took me months to recover from and I was only 16.

Thinking about modifying the shoes actually came to me because I remembered meeting some guy (and I can’t at all remember who this was or even where it was) who had cut the toes out of his shoes because the shoes were a bit too small. I remember being a bit shocked at the time. The shoes looked like they belonged in the trash heap. But now I think that made a lot of sense. Why waste an otherwise perfectly good pair of $100 shoes if you can modify them to work for you?

Running all over eastern Congo

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Tracy) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:24:00 +0000

Sorry I haven’t written for awhile. I’ve been traveling for the past month and running in some very different places: Kalemie, Kabalo, Lubumbashi, Goma. I am very much looking forward to returning home to Bukavu tomorrow, even if it means running in mud.

Kalemie was great. Much warmer than Bukavu and drier, though it has daily whopping thunderstorms. Fortunately, those storms came rolling through around 4am and were gone by the time I wanted to go running at 6am. But it is quite an experience to see the thunder and lightning rolling across Lake Tanganyika and coming right at you! Kalemie is also very flat and the road that isn’t paved is sandy, so running there was quite easy. I even ran barefoot on the beach one morning. That was interesting because it meant running through what are essentially people’s bathrooms. There is a women’s section and a men’s section and as I ran along people were washing their dishes, their clothes, their children and themselves – jump in the lake and get wet, come out and soap up (Dettol soap is great for this, it really foams up and sticks to you), then jump back in and rinse off.

I was in Kalemie over a few weeks and so got to do a few long runs. On one I ran along the northerly road through village after village, past markets and schools and churches. The sandy road and lack of rock meant I didn’t need to keep my eyes on the ground all the time and could look up and ahead, which was great. Another long run was straight east out of town and that road was much more red, clay dirt and small rocks. It also was straight into the bush. After a mile, there were few, if any, houses and rolling hills. Very nice and very solitary.

Kabalo is a small town on the Congo river which also has very sandy soil with no rocks at all. I ran one day in shoes and then one day in my bare feet, which worked really well, except that the ground was very hard packed, so four miles was as much as I could do.

Lubumbashi was a whole other ballgame. Flat, nearly perfectly paved roads moving out of the city like spokes. I ran a different direction everyday and only a few times did I make it to the end of the paved road. It was so different than the terrain I’ve been running on for months. It was so much more like running in the US.

The bad news is that during my first week in Kalemie, my Garmin 405, the love of my life, died. No manner of resets or recharges or anything would revive it. Luckily, one of my colleagues was heading back to Bukavu and another colleague was heading to Paris. So I reluctantly turned over my baby and hope that it is by now on its way to the service center in the US where they will bring it back to life. Then it will get sent to another colleague in New York who is coming to Congo in January. That is a long, long time (end of Oct to end of Jan) without my Garmin and it is rather disorienting. I don’t even have my Timex Chrono watch with me, just an analog watch. So now I can only run by time and even that is an estimate. I have no idea my real distance or pace. You may all sympathize! ;-)

Ups and downs

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Tracy) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 07:40:00 +0000

I seem to be in a “motivational trough” at the moment. The week after my last post, I went up to Goma for a meeting and while I was there, I ran in my Vibram FiveFingers for the first time here. It was great – 4 miles – but my calves! Oy, they hurt like. . . for more than a week. Why did it they hurt so much from running on the lava soil of Goma when this didn’t happen (not to this extent) when I ran on the beach in Zanzibar?

When I returned from Goma, I got a cold. Too many sleepless nights, too much sugar, too much beer and too much stress. Not a big surprise all in all. But something about the cold really sapped me. Even now, though I have few symptoms, I often feel like I am not getting enough oxygen and I’m tired as a result. And then I just don’t feel like running. So I ran a few times last week, but haven’t run since Thursday (today is Sunday). I’m heading to Kalemie on Tuesday and will be “on the road” for the next month. I’m hoping that will re-motivate me. We shall see.

It is interesting, though. I really feel like God is trying to teach me to be nicer and more forgiving to myself. So, I’m trying that.

I tried, again, to look for an online coach. But every time I post to any runner’s forum anywhere, I either get no response at all, or someone is snarky with me. I don’t really understand this. I know there are lots of online coaches. But maybe they really aren’t interested in helping fellow runners but just want to post some generic plan and make lots of money? I’d hate to think that, but I’m surprised that no one seems at all interested in working with me. I mean, I can pay a reasonable fee. I just need a personalized approach because I run on what are essentially trails (not a lot of pavement here in the DR Congo) and I have some food allergies that mean I can’t follow most of the advice in Runner’s World. But I’m not *that* weird. . .

If anyone has any ideas or recommendations, I’m interested.

The rainy season begins!

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Tracy) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 06:58:00 +0000

And my lesson for the day is, don't believe what a non-runner tells you.

This morning I went out for my scheduled 12 mi run. I really wanted to run up the hill and into the neighborhoods -- Kadutu and Panzi and beyond -- rather than going to the border, then Centre Ville and then out by the port. Mostly because although the second choice is paved, it also means dealing with a lot more cars and trucks. But it started raining (finally!) this week and I was afraid that Kadutu and Panzi might be one big mud slosh. Thousands of people, motorcycles and cars and large trucks, and one of the major routes into and out of town, all on a dirt road seemed like a formula for seriously slippery mud to me.

But, on the other hand, we had driven to Kadutu market yesterday and didn't find much mud, mostly nicely hard packed and rocky dirt with the dry season dust washed away. So, I had a conversation with our guard about what he thought the road conditions would be like. He said, no there won't be any mud there now. It rained overnight when no people were walking on it and not many cars. No problem.

Oh, oh, oh how wrong he was. View the photo -- my once white-ish Brooks Trance, my foot even under the muddy sock was full of mud, and that went all up my legs.

Otherwise it was a fine run and I did, finally, do 12 miles. But next time I am definitely wearing my trail shoes. There were spots where I simply had to walk because it was so slippery it was treacherous. Other places, I tried to run delicately in muddy sections where there were some rocks underneath to provide some traction, but on more than one occasion I upset a few people as I passed because I must have splashed some mud on them. (Africans' ability to navigate through mud so that the tops of their shoes and their pants & long skirts stay clean is absolutely amazing.)

The mud was really pretty incredible. It is not the sticky red stuff we had around Bamenda. It is darker brown and slippery. Running through some of these areas today, it is hard to imagine that they will ever again be dry. The mud was easily several inches deep. Maybe they won't ever be dry again until the next dry season. Scary thought. It's not just that people walking (and running) risk falling, but there are cars and minivans and rather large trucks that slide around in the stuff and could easily hit you. It takes a lot of focused attention to run in these conditions, particularly in regular running shoes. I do hope the trail shoes help with the slipping, though I bought them when I was in the Solmon Islands and have never tried them in mud (La Sportiva Fireblades).

I have to give credit to the Brooks, though. They did good work. They have good traction, just not sticky soles.

Next week, I think I'll stick to the tarmac. . .

Barefoot on the beach

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Tracy) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 19:43:00 +0000

I'm in Zanzibar for a week of R&R and having a great time. I spent the first half of my time in Stone Town -- a town of narrow, narrow "streets" (too narrow for any kind of car), tall buildings and (mostly) Muslims observing Ramadan. It is also completely paved and flat, which was a distinct change from the conditions I'm used to running under in Bukavu. I ran north one day, south the next, each around 10K, and the third morning I did a fast 5k loop around town (which required adding on a bit because the perimeter of old Stone Town is only about 2 miles). So many sights and sounds! Women in everything from Western dress to bhurkas; lots of people riding bicycles; dalla dallas (open sided busses); gazillions of mosques, a couple of churches and several Hindu temples; beautiful architecture everywhere; the ocean and palm trees and boats. . .

After 5 days in Stone Town, I hopped a dalla dalla and went to Matemwe where I found powdery soft white sand beaches, palm trees swaying in the sea breeze, bungalows with grass thatched roofs, and resorts from the ultra-economical to the ultra-luxurious. The beach sand was so awesome I was clear that I had to run barefoot. Anything else seemed a desecration. When I got to my room, I took of my sandals and haven't put anything on my feet since. Now *this* is a vacation! Here's a photo of the beach I ran in, so you can eat your heart out. :-)

When I arrived, it was afternoon and low, low tide. There was about a 1/2 km shallow area before you saw the waves from the ocean. So, I was a bit surprised when I awoke the next morning and there was barely enough beach to run on! But there was just enough. I ran two miles south down the beach, turned and went back, for a total of 4 miles my first time out. South from where I am staying is predominantly a string of other resorts, so there are few boats on the beach to block the way and not very many locals hanging out. Running in bare feet was wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. I felt no aches and pains afterwards, except. . . aach! I got a blister on the bottom of my right big toe. It wasn't too big, so I sterilized a pin and popped it and figured it would just roughen up.

Let me tell you about this sand. . . Wow. It is white, white, white which means it is cool, even at the hottest time of the day. There is some yellowed sand around the bungalows where I am staying and that can get pretty hot, but not the white sand. In some places it is literally like powder, but on most of the beach it is pretty hard-packed. There are places where it looks firm but is quite soft, so as I ran I had to "pick my line", but it was really easy to run on. There was one section that was canted toward the ocean, but since I had to come back the same way, I figured it would even out. And it is clean -- no glass or metal or rocks to worry about. There are pieces of coral, but even when I stepped on a few of these, they just sink into the sand, so it didn't hurt.

The second day, I first went north for a bit (there are cliffs that start after about 3/4 of a mile, so I could only go that far) and then went back south, covering about 5 miles for the whole run. It, too, was a good run although there was some occasional stabs of pain from the blistered toe, but it didn't seem that bad. However, I did discover that there is one hazard I had to watch out for -- shit. As in human. All the locals apparently do their business right down on the beach (yes, the beach that they will later come out to work on and play on). Sheesh. At least in the Solomon Islands they would go into the water. And they're not even as sanitary as cats. Just like dogs, they go out, leave their business and walk away. I was beginning to see why the higher end resorts protected the beach in front of them. So for the whole first 1.5 miles or so (as far north as I could go and back), I had to keep one eye on the beach to dodge piles of poo and the other eye up to dodge boat masts (which stick out from the front of the boats about 2 feet and are thin enough that you cannot see them until you nearly run into them). It was much nicer once I passed that area.

When I got back to my room, however, the blister on my toe had doubled in size and was now red. Hmm, not good. I went snorkeling and hoped the salt water would do it some good, but it hurts. This morning I did yoga (which actually hurt the toe more than running did, but maybe just because I was more aware of it!). Tomorrow I want to run longer -- 8-10 miles if I can -- so I may put on shoes and go run through the local villages and onto the paved road.

I wanted to start to try barefoot running and it was a great, great experience. I used to run a bit on the beach when I was a teenager and never felt any ill effects from it. But in Bukavu, it seems like it would be quite difficult. The roads are mostly dirt, but there are lots and lots and lots and lots of rocks. However, when I get back, I think I may just go out and try it with my Vibram Five Fingers. I've walked around in them there with no trouble at all. Now that I know I don't have to start with 1/4 mi run, I'm up for trying it out there.

And for my next pair(s) of shoes, I'm quite interested in finding neutral, low profile, not very cushioned shoes. I ran in stability shoes for ages because I thought I over-pronated and I knew I didn't like heavily cushioned shoes. But after developing pain in my feet in the Solomon Islands, I went to a podiatrist who informed me, basically, that my shoes were causing the problem. I also went to a running store that had a treadmill and a video camera that did gait analysis and it was really clear that I run just fine in totally neutral shoes. In fact, the more neutral, the less I pronate. So now I have Brooks Trance, which are "slightly" stability ('cause I just bought them new two days before I went to the chiropractor) and Nike Lunar Trainers. But I wear my orthotics with both of them, particularly the Lunar
Trainers, because they give me arch support and a firmer ride. When I ran in the Lunar Trainers out of the box, they were so soft (and wide in toe box) that my foot swam around I got blisters on the insides of my big toes. The orthotics helped with that and then I switched to a pair of green Superfeet that I had and they work even better. The Superfeet have a plastic heel cup and a plastic arch, so the ride is very firm.

What I really want is a pair of neutral shoes that aren't so soft. I don't like all the cushioning. That's why I've always liked Brooks (Adrenalines, Axioms and now the Trance), but neutral shoes are heavily cushioned. Hmm, I just remembered that I have a pair of Nike Frees back in the US that I never ran in. I just wore them to walk around. Now I think they might be quite good for running. They are much less cushioned than the Lunar Trainers. Wish I had thought of that a month ago when I had a friend send me a bunch of stuff. Harrumph.

Ah well. At any rate, I'm not due for new shoes for another 6 months probably, so I'm keeping my eye out. Maybe I should try racing flats? Except I don't think they give any/much arch support. . . If anyone has any recommendations, let me know.

Weight down, Running up, Yea!

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Tracy) — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 16:04:00 +0000

Yes, indeed, I am running pretty well these days and since I’ve come to the Congo, I’ve nearly lost all the weight I gained after leaving Cameroon. Sometimes the universe just makes it so abundantly clear where you are meant to be. If only I would always listen!

So, I’d like to lose about 5 more pounds (about 2kg) and then I’ll be “perfect”, but I’m pretty darned chuffed (as my British friends would say) with my body even now.

Tomorrow I’m scheduled to run 12 miles for the first time in a long, long time. But I think I’m ready for it. I’ve run 10mi each of the last two Sundays. Two weeks ago, the “easy” 10 – most of it on our one paved road – and then last week, the “hard” 10 out through Kadutu which included more hills, nearly all dirt road, and dodging crowds of people. So, tomorrow, I’ll do the “easy” 12 – extending the paved road route as far as possible in all directions and then next week either do a shorter run to recover or do the “hard” 12. The paved road is pretty limited unless I go down through the port and head north. There’s a Chinese company that’s been extending the pavement that direction. I haven’t been out there in 6 weeks or so, so I don’t know how far they’ve gone, but the part of the road from the “centre ville” down and past the port is massively crowded with cars and so not terribly inviting.

Today is 15 August which means it rains. And it did. Not much, just a bit. But apparently it’s a signal. Every year it rains on 15 August and then we have 2 more weeks of the dry season and then the rainy season starts for real the beginning of September. Today a couple of my colleagues were telling me that it really rains. Very hard and all day long. Oh joy! Thank goodness I have a pair of trail shoes because my entire neighborhood is now under about 3-4 inches of dust which will pretty instantly become mud when it rains. As long as I don’t kill myself slipping and falling, and I can keep the right frame of mind, it might be fun.

I’ll keep you posted.

Africa can be awfully cold

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Tracy) — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 08:01:00 +0000

This week I went out into the field to meet some of our partner organizations and observe two of my staff lead an orientation for them. This took me to the hill towns of Kaziba and Luhwindja. During the day, the weather was quite pleasant – a bit cooler than Bukavu at noon, but sunny and somewhat warm. But at night, holy cow! Literally as soon as the sun started to descend, the temperature plummeted. I slept deeply buried under a wool blanket. And getting out of bed in the morning to go running – soo difficult! I brought a good windshirt so the top of me was warm enough, but I wished I had brought my Capri running pants rather than just shorts. And GLOVES. The second day I went running, I wore socks on my hands so they wouldn’t become totally numb. Don’t be fooled, Africa can be awfully cold.

Running around Kaziba was nice, though. Oh, well, except the other thing was the dust. The first day I went up to the village of Lukuba and there wasn’t as much dust. In some places, the road was very hard packed and smooth which was really nice. But the second run, I went the other direction and went through dust that was easily 6 inches deep in places. I shudder to think what the rainy season must be like there.

It’s beautiful up in the mountains. Kaziba is actually in a valley, surrounded by hills and even in the dry season, things are quite green. The altitude is pretty high, though, as the tops of the hills were treeless not from cutting but because they were taller than the tree line (that’s what we call it in the US – the altitude above which trees can’t grow). And I was quite the amusement for everyone. I intentionally wore my IRC cap rather than my generic grey one (which I would never do in Bukavu) because I knew I would be the talk of the town and I thought I’d just let everyone know why I was there. The older women walking to their fields in the morning were the most astonished, I think, to see a woman running, and a white one at that.

Saturday I went for my “long” run. 8 miles which is long for me at the moment, but it still feels odd to call that long. Next week, I’m going to up it to 10 miles, which really seems like the entry point for “long” to me. The great news about Saturday is that a) I ran the whole way, including up, up and up the hills and b) I did NOT get lost. Victory! Ah the simple joys of life. My route was safe and boring – straight up and into the neighborhood called Kadutu and out the road we had gone on to Kaziba. The road is pretty busy in one section – there’s a big roundabout that seems to primarily function as a truckstop, and just beyond that is a fork in the road known locally as “Essence”. This is the fork where last week I turned right and got lost, because turning right avoids the thickest part of the crowd. But this time I barreled on, happy that something rather loud was playing on my headphones to at least modify the many, many comments I got from onlookers. I really had to be nimble on my feet to avoid running into people, but it was fun to be able to move at twice the speed (or faster) of any vehicles. Oh, why is it called “Essence”? Because there are about 50 guys there selling illegal petrol/gasoline (essence in French) in plastic bottles. Reminded me of Maroua.

The whole first 3 miles of this run is mostly uphill, with some flat parts for relief, which I didn’t really register until I was coming back and got to just fly downhill. That was great and very relaxing! And I really noticed the difference in running on pavement. About 1/3 of this route is on pavement. It is so nice to not have to keep my focus on the ground the whole time and my pace was faster. Maybe next week I’ll do the local traditional “border to Governor’s office” route which would be tarmac the whole way once I get out of my neighborhood.

This week I did all the runs on my schedule (though Friday was a bit short ‘cause I was late and had to get to work) and it feels really good to put in a good solid week and not feel exhausted. I’ve lost some weight since I got to the Congo and want to lose another 10lbs (5kg). I can already feel the difference, though. Things are definitely looking up!

Wherein Tracy gets lost yet again

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Tracy) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 12:23:00 +0000

Okay, so every week since I’ve been in Bukavu, I’ve gotten lost on my Saturday morning long run. This week was no exception and it was a doozy. I really, honestly meant to do out and back, the same route, but somewhere I turned wrong and way overshot my return. So, I was out there, climbing and descending hills for a good 45 minutes longer than I expected. Bukavu is just a series of hills, some of them incredibly steep – at least the walking paths that everyone uses are very steep. I was really feeling it in my knees, though I’m happy to report that my knees feel fine today. So maybe this is really good training.

So, the plan was to run 8mi and to go up behind Nyawera market toward or to the neighborhood known as Kadutu. I did fine going out, though I did walk up 1.5 of the 3 sequential hills. It was nice that the shops weren’t really open because Kadutu is a very crowded area, but it wasn’t yet when I was running through there. (This is all relative, mind you. There were still plenty of people yelling out “mzungu, mzungu”, children running after me, etc. But I went back there later in the afternoon to visit the Kadutu market – the largest in Bukavu – and then it was wall to wall people. Literally there would have been no way to run.) I ran up and up and up, then down and up and down and up and many times came to roundabouts or intersections with 3-5 roads. I thought I kept going straight, but when I saw my route mapped out in SportTracks later, it was clear that I turned right at some point. My watch had given me the “low battery” warning before I left, but it still had 20%, so I was hoping it would last. At 4 mi I turned around (and the watch was still working).

After climbing the first hill on the way back, I got a bit confused and took the road to the right which I thought was a road I had seen from the *other* road when I was coming down and I thought they met at an intersection not very far away. But when I got to the next intersection, nothing looked at all familiar. Because I thought I had run straight out, I thought I could just “feel” my way back. After awhile, thinking several times that I knew where I was and then realizing that I had no clue, I came to a woods and had the choice to either keep moving forward and level or taking a deep descent. Totally baffled, I finally asked some guys (since, frustratingly, men generally speak at least some French and women rarely seem to and I do not speak Swahili. . .) and they said they would accompany me. I said I wanted to run, but that turned out to be folly as we were descending so steeply that it would have been unsafe. At some point I ended up ahead of them and almost went the wrong way (since I kept wanting to follow what looked more or less like roads whereas everyone walks on these sort of “back alley” paths that wind between the houses), but they called me back. Somewhere around there I lost track of them, but that was the last part of the descent.

Shortly thereafter, I was again confronted with a choice – this nice wide road that veered left which seemed to be away from where I should go vs. a footpath that went to the right, but where? Again, I asked a man (and then was joined by a couple of others). I had the great advantage of knowing that all I needed to do was get back to Nyawera market, which is a landmark known by all. This time, when I asked which way to Nyawera, they asked me if I wanted to go by car or foot. I looked at them oddly and said, “hmm, by foot, thank you.” “Would you be okay taking the footpath?” they asked. “Is that shorter?” I replied. “Yes,” “Then that’s the way I want to go.” Rather amazed, they told me to take the footpath and that would lead down then up to someplace, the name of which I didn’t really catch, from where I could descend to Nyawera. Going down was really quite easy and I got to run again for awhile, but when I crossed over a main road and started to ascend, I was back on a steep, narrow, rocky (and dusty) footpath. At one point I passed an older woman climbing up with a bundle of something. Awesomely strong the women are here.

I get to the top and there is a main road. I only have a vague idea where I am, so I don’t know if I should go right or left. There weren’t any people standing around except for 3 policeman in their bright yellow shirts and hard hats (they are quite cool looking, the traffic police uniforms). Taking the decision that they are supposed to serve the public and therefore would be sympathetic to me, I went and asked them which way to Nyawera. They said go left and turn right at the intersection that was about 50 yards away. I did that and voila! I recognized that I was at the top of the first hill above Nyawera. It was so nice to feel asphalt under my feet again that I decided to stay on the main road and not take the flatter dirt road.

Returned home almost 2 hours after I left and I have no idea how far I really ran because the watch conked out at 4.47 mi which was about 10 feet after I took my first wrong turn. . . I tried to map out where I think I went (there’s a big gap in the middle where I have no idea how I got from where I knew I was to where I ended up) and it looks like I probably covered 8.75-9 mi, though a heck of a lot of that was scrambling up and down hillsides, not running.

Another Bukavu adventure!

Dust!

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Tracy) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:39:00 +0000

Well, in fact it rained last night (which I was clueless about until one of my roommates told me, must have slept well), which greatly lessened the dust this morning, but still, it has been DUSTY. When I get into the shower every morning, I have to rinse myself thoroughly even before soaping up.

I have a few established routes – the tour of our peninsula is 5k; if I add on the road that goes around the bay, that makes it about 4.5mi. Then I have ventured to the other side of the main road into neighborhoods where they are quite surprised to see a “mzungu” running on the morning. Yesterday I wanted to do my longer-ish run which I wasn’t able to do Saturday since we headed to the field at 6am, so I decided to explore a bit. Roger told me that the road to the right at the intersection at the end of my road led past the Governor’s mansion, so I took that and the Governor’s mansion was definitely worth seeing. Quite nice grounds. Then, I went up hill and came out by Nyawera market. I thought I’d go by the market back toward my part of town, but somewhere I stayed right when I should have veered left. It wasn’t until I returned home and could look at my route in SportTracks, on a satellite map, that I saw where I went wrong. In the meantime, I was running along, mounted a hill (where I realized I wasn’t where I thought I should be, but was still curious about where I was), and ended up deep inside a neighborhood packed with people (since it was only a holiday for IRC and it was around 8:30am by this time). I reached the end of the road, turned around, and got back to an intersection, where I saw a nice wide deserted road going around a hill. That seemed nice, so I took that road. It wound around the hill on the top of which was the military camp. I had seen this from a distance and as I rounded the bend I realized why it was there. Across and below me was the border with Rwanda. There was the bridge over the river, across the way was a Rwandan military camp. I followed the road down, hoping it would actually circle this hill. But it went down to the dam – where our electricity comes from – and ended there. So I had to climb yet another hill and backtrack. This was a nice part of the run, however, except for the fact that for the whole 2 miles or so I saw only one other woman on a very deserted stretch.

Back at the intersection, I tried one road briefly until I realized that it only went up to the camp. I returned to the intersection again and went back down the original road I had come up on. When I got to the bottom, I found a well-traveled alley which climbed up one hill, then another, where I found myself on the road I had originally meant to be on. Surprise, surprise! Winding my way back home, my run was exactly the 7 miles it was supposed to be, according to my training plan, even though a thousand times along the route, I decided I was too tired and wanted to cut it short. Ah well.

Exploring Bukavu

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Tracy) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 13:36:00 +0000

Part of me likes exploring a new town and part of me gets annoyed that I don’t already know where to go to cover a certain distance. So, we are in that beginning phase now where I’m getting to know Bukavu as a runner. I have heard that Sunday early mornings are when all the weekend warriors are out – running from the border (w/Rwanda) to the Governor’s office – about 14km round trip that includes no less than 3 killer hills each direction. This habit of going out for a hard run once a week seems to be an African pastime (at least in Bukavu and Bamenda). Interesting. I’d be afraid of getting injured or sure that I wouldn’t have the stamina, but that doesn’t seem to faze them. Anyway, I didn’t get up this morning to partake in the festivities, but maybe next weekend. The problem is that there is a sort of standing date every Saturday night among the ex-pats that work with me at IRC and their friends which rarely ends early and the English-language church service on Sundays is at 7:30am. So that leaves little time to get a run in.

But my explorations have uncovered some good routes. There is the route within my neighborhood which can be configured several ways to make about 5k or a bit more. If I extend that and run up to our office, I can get a 5-miler in and I’ve found a nice path that curves around the bay that sits between the peninsula on which I live and the peninsula on which the office is situated. Yesterday morning, I ran down to the border and decided to take the paved road up past the office, which led to the discovery that the hill from the border up to the office is long and steep! I was feeling all good about getting back into shape and getting my times down under 10 min/mi and then I couldn’t even make it up the hill without walking. Hmmph. We still have a ways to go.

Since I get regular R&R breaks as well as vacation days, I was thinking about the possibility of training for a marathon. There are now quite a few marathons around Africa, some of which actually sound fun and interesting (though some just sound grueling and lonely). Thinking, thinking, thinking.

At any rate, Bukavu is a nice place to run. It is cool enough now that I usually wear a long-sleeve shirt to run, though I don’t need gloves or anything that severe, thank goodness (at least at the moment). There’s really only one paved road, so most of my running is “off road” which is good for my joints I’m sure. And I’m not the only person who runs, though I’ve definitely discovered neighborhoods that, judging from the responses of those I pass, are not frequented by expats.

More adventures to come!

Kinshasa, not an expat runner's paradise

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Tracy) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 13:18:00 +0000

I spent a week in Kinshasa before finally moving to Bukavu and was able to run four times there, which was nice. However, the ex-patriate community there is currently living under fairly restrictive rules – certainly restrictive if you are a runner. We are not allowed to walk on the streets. We must be driven (or drive, if you have a car) everywhere. The one saving grace is that someone has decided that it is safe to run this one loop along the river around the Embassies. So, in order to get a run in and get back before the drivers changed shifts, I awoke at 5am, and was sitting in the car by 5:30am. It was barely dawn when I started running 15 minutes later, but that also meant it was cool and quite pleasant. White man’s loop is a bit more than 2.5km and by 6am, there was quite an international crowd of us walking and running around. One thing I appreciated was that it was relatively flat, so I began to feel like a runner again for the first time in months.

The nice thing about the run was the river – the Congo river – and looking over at Brazzaville on the far shore. It reminded me a lot of running on the banks of the Nile in Jinja, Uganda.

Off to DR Congo

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Tracy) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:30:00 +0000

Well, I haven’t written in awhile because I haven’t been running much. And mostly I’ve been cold and miserable and whiny about it and I know you don’t wanna hear all that.

The good news is that I got some much needed medical attention during my sojourn in the US – several high quality massages, great core training advice and diagnosis and treatment of adrenal fatigue. So I feel like I am in good shape moving forward and looking forward to getting back into shape and a good solid running routine.

Today I board a flight to start the long trek to my new life in Bukavu, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I am taking up the position of Partnership Coordinator for the International Rescue Committee and will be there for at least a couple of years, if not many more. I fly to New York, then Brussels, then Kinshasa where I’ll be for a couple of weeks of orientation. So, stay tuned for dispatches from a country rebuilding after a long, hard civil war.

Looking for a coach

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Tracy) — Sat, 16 May 2009 17:58:00 +0000

I am looking for an online coach. Someone who can work with me over e-mail or the web. Here’s a bit of a profile. If you have any leads, let me know!

I’m a 47 year old woman and run about 9-10min/mi pace. I’ve done some stupid things in my day, though I try to not make a habit of it anymore. My mileage is way down in the past couple of months. Something (under-nutrition?) really sapped me when I was in the Solomons. I’m down under 20 miles a week now, though I run 4-7 mi at a time.

The half-marathon is my best race, although I continue to harbor marathon dreams. I ran the Chicago marathon in 1985, but nothing since. Whenever I’ve tried to train at that level, something happens – I hit a wall, either physical or psychological, I’m not sure, and can’t seem to get past it and then can’t see any reason to try.

What I’m looking for is someone to help with motivation and accountability and to help me learn to read my body and my response to training and respond appropriately. I can’t seem to figure out when to push through and when to step back. I’d like to have someone set me up with a program to build up from where I am now and then be able to check-in via e-mail once a week.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Last Buala long run

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Tracy) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 00:21:00 +0000

Sunday was my last “long” run here in Buala. Surprisingly (to me), I covered 7.5 mi, although I did a fair amount of walking. In part this was because I was tired. I sort of overdid it, but I was so excited by being able to get past the mud to the flat section, that I went out further than I should have. But in part, I walked and stopped just because I wanted to savor the experience. We had one heckuva tropical storm on Saturday – it rained 11 hours straight and the water just poured off the tops of houses like a river. It was pretty amazing and made it clear just who is in charge here (the weather!). This made it even more amazing to me that my path wasn’t completely flooded out. It’s all about drainage I guess. But Sunday morning, Easter, began bright and sunny (though it did cloud over and rain more later). It was beautiful – that fresh, clean after the rain feeling.

Rather than going up and over the killer hill after Kubalota, I decided to go over the rocks on the path I discovered the other end to last week. That was an adventure – real scrambling, and trying to be very aware because the rocks were wet and very smooth from all the foot traffic. This is one of those times when I really wish my feet could handle the terrain without shoes, as the locals do. I’ve watched them and they walk completely differently than I do, particularly when they are going over rocks. They can use their feet to curl over rock corners and grip things that I just slip off of.

I saw a few pigs along the route. One which was quite big and caused me a bit of pause, but they really are much more afraid of me. Since they expect all humans to be coming after them to turn them to dinner, I don’t think they realize the damage they could do if they decided to. Lucky me! I also saw a beautiful flock of red birds fly overhead, but I didn’t get my camera out before they settled onto the tops of the trees. I waited for a bit in the hopes that they would take flight again, but no luck.

I’ve just read Running: the sacred art by Warren A. Kay and I would highly, highly recommend it to anyone interested in how to encourage more spirituality in their runs. Kay teaches a course called “Spirituality and Running” at Merrimack College in Massachusetts and the book is really quite good. He is a Christian, but he writes from a broader perspective and the message and exercises in the book are definitely not specific to any particular faith.

http://www.amazon.com/Running-Sacred-Preparing-Practice-Spiritual/dp/1594732272/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239581348&sr=8-1

Tomorrow I fly to Honiara for a week and I am really, really looking forward to running on the roads!

New path found

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Tracy) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 04:03:00 +0000

I've been able to get back to running 4-5 times a week, though my mileage
isn't very high. Last Sunday I thought I'd go 7-8 miles (I'd done a little
more than 7 the week before). Although it rained on Saturday, the rainy
season is definitely petering out now. Thus, when I set out, I had great
hopes of being able to cruise on that nice flat section past the river. I
was a bit surprised when I started down the far side of the killer hill past
Kubalota and the mud was very, very sticky. But when I got to the river, it
was lower than I'd ever seen it, so I was anticipating a great run.

But then at 2.5mi out, I was stopped in my tracks. The path was totally
flooded out (see photo). I looked left and right, and there was water as far
as the eye could see (see next photo). Oy.

Now, it could be that it wasn't that deep (it was at least 6 inches and
maybe up to 12) and if it had been a moving river, I would have just crossed
it. However, this filthy standing water on a flooded path is pretty gross.
First, chances are good that I'd just sink into the underlying mud and maybe
even lose my shoes. I've come close many times. And this water makes all
sorts of gunky junk end up in my shoes, causing irritation and blisters. So,
phewy, I turned around.

After re-crossing the river, I noticed a path off to the side and thought
this must be the route that people from Gnulahage take when they walk in to
Buala. I ran past, then ran back and decided to pursue that path and see
where it leads. Coming from the other direction, I've stayed on the beach in
Kubalota (rather than going behind the village and up and over the killer
hill that is part of the "main road") and come to a rocky outcropping. I've
gone up the path, but never followed it all the way to where it meets the
"main road" though I knew they must meet somewhere. So, now I'm thinking
this is the other end.

The path led through the forest and past some sort of storage shed and then
dumped out on the beach. There was a path to the right that ran along the
beach for a bit and then I was standing on the beach looking at what must be
the other side of the rocky outcropping. That was what I would have to climb
over. The path went straight up the rocks and on the top there was a very
narrow muddy path that undulated along the top for awhile. I mostly walked
since any misstep would mean a 20 meter fall into whatever lay at the bottom
of the rocks. But soon, I recognized the path I had come to from the other
side and climbed down to Kubalota beach. A new path found! It always makes
me feel like and "insider" when I discover the paths that the locals take. .
.

Doing what I can

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Tracy) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 23:50:00 +0000

After totally tanking a few weeks ago and taking 10 days off totally, I’ve been able to run 3 times this week. I meant to run yesterday morning – it hadn’t rained in a good 36 glorious hours – but I had some sort of stomach trouble and didn’t want to risk being far from my bathroom.

But it seems to be working to just tell myself I need to get out and run, just do what I can. After all, 4 miles 3 or 4 times a week is better than 5 miles once. And tomorrow I’ll go at least 6 and maybe more, depending on how “gung ho” I feel. There’s this point after crossing the first river where the path gets flooded. Some days I’m up for getting through it, some days, aack, it just gets me down. But living within a circumference of 3 miles definitely makes me stir crazy. I remember the day when I was in Cameroon that I realized that one thing I value very, very highly is mobility. The ability to get around. When I moved from PRTC out in the village, where I was 5k from the road, to Bamenda town, one cause of intense relief for me was that I could get around. I could go anywhere I wanted to. I could catch a cab or a bus or a moto and go wherever. When I was coming to the Solomon Islands, one friend warned me that other friends of hers had felt claustrophobic on a small pacific island. At the time I thought, “claustrophobic? With the entire Pacific Ocean right there?” Yea, well, the ocean requires a boat which I don’t have. And hiring one is very expensive. So, now I know.

The rain is now having an impact on the island in some striking ways. The ground is so saturated that trees – even some rather large trees – are falling. A mango tree fell sometime Sunday night around the government houses. It completely blocked the path and took down power wires, but amazingly it fell straight between two houses, hitting neither. In Buala village there was a large landslide on what had been a vegetation covered hill. And yet, it can rain all night, be hot and sunny during the day, and then many places can be bone dry by the end of the day. I’m becoming quite aware of the difference between different types of dirt. Grey sandy dirt dries very quickly, particularly with heat. Red, claylike dirt never seems to dry. Then there is the swampy, bog-like black dirt that falls somewhere between those two.

I’ve signed up for the World Wide Festival of Races Half Marathon yet again: http://www.worldwidefestivalofraces.com

I am leaving the Solomon Islands mid-April and intend to be back in Africa somewhere by the beginning of August at the latest. I’m not sure what is next yet, though. So, I don’t know where I’ll be running the Worldwide Half, but wonderfully, I don’t need to know that now!

Help me win by dream photo assignment

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Tracy) — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 01:03:00 +0000

I've just entered a contest to win funding to do my dream photography assignment -- documenting the lives of LGBT Africans. Part of the criteria is how many votes your idea gets. Please go vote for me!

http://www.nameyourdreamassignment.com/the-ideas/tlongacre/revealing-the-lives-of-lgbt-africans/

Videos posted

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Tracy) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 23:03:00 +0000

I’ve just posted 4 videos I made from here in Buala on my Flickr site:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tlongacre/

Check them out!

You'd think I was falling apart

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Tracy) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 00:46:00 +0000

Well, I only ran twice last week. On the up side, my feet are hurting less, so maybe running is a factor. And I did do 4 sessions of yoga, so I wasn’t totally out of touch with my body.

But I was having a very bad week and then Friday morning, when I was going out to get some water from my tank, I slipped on the stairs and fell pretty badly. I thought I might have broken my arm. Thought it enough that I walked over to the hospital after a morning meeting and got an x-ray. But no break. (Slightly disappointed, like I was in 4^th grade or something. . .). So my right arm is badly bruised and hurting as is my right calf (every time I go downstairs, I feel it – very tight). Because of that, general laziness, agitation leaning towards depression, I didn’t run Friday, Saturday, Sunday or this morning (Monday). Hmmph.

I need to get out there tomorrow, though. I know where this sort of thing leads and it ain’t pretty. Not pretty at all.

I didn’t do any yoga over the weekend either, so I’ll try to do some of that tonight, just to test and see what really hurts and what is healing.

One thing to share: I have a Nintendo DS Lite which I haven’t really used much. But I was inspired to pull it out the other day and really look at the programs I have. One of the programs I have is Let’s Yoga! And I’ve used it 3 times now and it’s actually quite good as a yoga program. It gives me lots of options, let’s me create my own sequences, and even has a teaching module. Except for the fact that each session begins with “Time to start Yoga!” and ends with “Good job!” (rather than Namaste), it’s pretty good.

My Feet Hurt

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Tracy) — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 23:50:00 +0000

I don’t usually cross post to both my blogs, but I’d like the most people possible to see this:

My feet hurt. This has been going on for awhile, but it seems to have gotten worse over the last few months. I have a hard time describing the pain, but I’ll try. I’m hoping someone else has had something similar or maybe heard of this and can tell me what it might be or give me some idea where to look. I don’t even know what kind of doctor would deal with this.

First, if I am sitting or laying down (sleeping), there is only pain if I flex my feet outward. The pain is on the outside/top. Otherwise, they feel fine. But when I get up and stand on them, it is quite painful for the first few minutes – the pain diminishes over time as I move around. The pain runs from just below my ankle, maybe a little in front to before my small toe. It is mostly a dull achy sort of pain, but when I first wake up or get up from sitting, it is quite sharp – but the sharpness may be my surprise that my feet hurt.

The pain doesn’t seem to increase or decrease in relation to what sort of shoes I wear (mostly I wear flip flops except to run). I haven’t done systematic research, but I think it might be somewhat worse if I run without the Amfit orthotics I usually wear. (I know this seemed to be true once or twice here in Buala, although I don’t think it was true when I ran without them in Honiara – the difference? Buala is rough, rocky trails, Honiara is roads.)

I don’t think the length of my runs makes any difference, but I’m not totally sure about that. I ran a nice 9 miles yesterday, out to Guguha Community High School. The feet never heart while I’m running, nor while I’m walking. But afterwards they can.

If anyone has any advice, tips or resources, I’d surely appreciate it. This is really starting to bother me.

Back in the saddle, again

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Tracy) — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 04:02:00 +0000

Last week, I went for what I wanted to be a 9-10 mile long run on Sunday morning. But at about 3 miles, I got totally fed up with the mud and I was really feeling tired. Worn out. So I turned around.

The funny thing was later in the day, my right hip started hurting bad. If I externally rotated it, it was okay, but lifting my leg hurt like the devil. After watching it for a day or so, it was pretty clear to me that it was either or both my psoas and piriformis muscles. So I didn’t run for a few days and did a bunch of yoga. The yoga was difficult at times because I could move directly into the most painful motion.

Simultaneously, there is a RAMSI Police Advisor here from New Zealand who is also a Hypnotherapist and he is teaching me self-hypnosis. One day when I was practicing, I succeeded in putting myself in a hypnotic state and hated to waste the opportunity, so I just gave myself some messages to relax my hip and have it align. Well, wouldn’t you know, it worked! There was some residual pain, but mostly it was gone and I had much greater mobility. Went for a run on Thursday morning and that was just fine.

Didn’t get out to run again until Sunday (mostly not very motivated, keep thinking of the mud, ugh!). I was a bit wary, so although I wore my Camelback, making it possible to run 9-10 miles, I told myself it was most important just to get out and do anything. When I was struggling through the first couple of miles, which are the hilliest, rockiest and mudiest, I kept thinking about the place beyond. . . Well, that worked. And I found myself at 2 ½ miles past all the really bad mud, past the killer hills, on the flat part and this time, I thought, “enjoy this, this is what you were looking forward to, this is why you just went through all that!” This helped and I kept going until I hit 4 miles. Even though, guess what? It was pouring rain. It had been a little sprinkle here and there at first, but by about 3 miles it was pouring buckets. Somehow when it is pouring rain, I didn’t care about the mud so much.

After turning around, I felt so good about actually getting a good run in that I didn’t mind the rain. I had a visor on, so it wasn’t hitting my face (which annoys me), I was soaked by either rain or sweat, didn’t matter, life was good! After the last river, my shoes were all nice and spanking clean, which was nice. I like to look down and see them all shiny.

It’s nice to be back in the saddle, as they say.

Guguha Community High School

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Tracy) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 05:35:00 +0000

We had one heck of a rainstorm on Saturday. It rained in the night for awhile and when I awoke to go running, I was feeling unmotivated because I knew the route would be a muddy mess. So, I was dawdling and thinking of rescheduling for Sunday am when whoosh! came the downpour. And it continued for hours and hours. I hunkered down in comfy clothes with my computer and decided to write some papers I needed to write instead. Had a nice cup of coffee (thank you Peet’s) and some peanut butter on a banana and was happy that I didn’t push myself to do my long run. Although the rain did stop at some point, and then started again later, in the end, I didn’t leave the house all day. Every now and again, you need a cozy day like that.

So Sunday morning I thought I’d really better get out and run. This would only be the third run of the week and I knew if I went more than 2 days without a run I start to get depressed. In my mind (and on the schedule) I wanted to run 9 miles, but since I’ve been so unmotivated recently I told myself I could just do 7 and see how I was feeling. (In truth, this is a decision I have to make at 3.5 mi since it’s out and back, but I knew that.)

I strapped on my handy dandy Amphipod water bottle belt (brought to me by my friend Linda when she came to visit after Christmas). I like this belt because the bottles are small and stay out of my way. I have a Camelback for longer runs (10 mi or more) but for shorter runs, that’s overkill. However, it’s hot enough here that I can’t get away with bringing nothing (which I usually did in Bamenda – I could easily run 1.5-2 hours there without carrying water – oh, but that’s also because there are public water taps in town, so in the last 30 minutes I could get water). But, I have to say it annoys the heck out of me because no matter what I do (at least what I’ve figured out to do so far), it rides up on me and then starts moving around. For some reason, it mostly does this when the bottles are full and the more I drink, the less of a problem it is. Seems like it should work the other way around, but there you go.

Anyway, my butt was dragging and it took forever for my Garmin 405 to pick up the satellite signals, so it was a darn good thing it was heavily overcast (probably what was blocking the satellites). I didn’t actually get going until nearly 8am. I usually run around 6 or 6:30am.

It was a muddy mess, particularly up the first hill (before Kubalota) and on the downside of the second hill (after Kubolota). And after I crossed the first river, there were two very muddy patches, one of which I took the wrong route through and nearly lost my shoes. Uggh. I was feeling okay after the 3^rd river crossing which was the farthest I’d gone in the past and decided to go ahead to 4.5 miles (making it 9 mi roundtrip). As I went further along, I saw what looked like a village up ahead – thatched roofs in the distance. As I approached the village, however, I thought to myself “hmm, that doesn’t look much like a village. It looks like a school.” And I was right. This was Guguha Community High School, which I’d heard about and knew I must have gotten close to, but this was the first time I reached it. Why did I think it looked like a school and not a village? Because all the huts were the same size and every hut, and both the long buildings were covered in drying clothes. People in a village get into patterns, but at least around here, they don’t ALL wash their clothes on the same day. And they wouldn’t hang their clothes on a school or church (a long building is always a school or church).

The other interesting, and quite beautiful, thing, was that right across from the school was this grove of enormously tall coconut trees. They were all lined up in rows and there was only short undergrowth below them, so they really stood out. Quite lovely.

As I was running home, I stopped at the top of the last hill to rest a bit and catch the view. While standing there, someone came up behind me – it was a young man running. In his bare feet. And he was really sweaty – like I get – so I had the definite impression that he was running seriously. I started to run again and we ran together, so we talked. I told him I was from America, but living in Buala now and working with the Provincial Government. He told me his name was Joseph and he was coming from Guguha (same as me!) and he was going to his village, which is Tiratanga. Wow! Tiratanga is, as they say, in the “highlands” – it’s an hour walk from Jejevo, straight uphill. He left me when I turned off to go to my house and he still had quite a way to go. Good for him!

That’s the first real runner I’ve seen here. And it only took 4 months.

Update letter

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Tracy) — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 01:14:00 +0000

I’ve finally (after 4 months) sent my first update letter. If you haven’t received it and would like to, please subscribe by sending an e-mail to: telupdates-subscribe@topica.com

Beating back the cloud of depression

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Tracy) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 04:33:00 +0000

As the song goes, "you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone." In my case, how great the running was in Cameroon compared to here, particularly in Buala. In fact, this weekend I'm back in Honiara escorting my friend Linda to her flight back to the US and finally ran this morning (only the second time this week). I so appreciated being able to run on a road, a real road that is, made of tarmac (or asphalt or whatever you call it where you are).

But it's not the mud and rocks and hills that are keeping me from running in Buala -- they're just the final nail in the coffin that makes me feel tired just thinking about getting out there. I'm not sure if I've just let go of my discipline too much or what, but I know for sure that if I skip one day I'm okay, but if I skip two days, I can feel myself starting to slide down the slippery slope and after that, it takes tremendous effort to get moving. "A body in motion stays in motion and a body at rest stays at rest."

So, I've dumped the plan I had created. I think it was far too ambitious for Buala. I probably could have done it if I was living in Honiara, but not out on the island. Now we are going back to basics -- gotta run at least 30 minutes, at least every other day. I really need to run more than that, but with that as the bottomline, I know I can get out the door and that's the most important thing. We are now in the realm of preserving my mental health. And I just gotta go in the morning even if it's pouring rain because I never go later when I tell myself I am going to (I have only run in the evening two times in my life). I'm always completely wet by the time I get finished anyway, so it's not like the rain is going to do anything to me.

Did I say this before? I'm seriously considering doing a 3-7 day fast. I'm not sure. I think I'll start with one day a week. Trying to figure out which day was difficult when I was trying to work under the running plan I had, but now that I've ditched that, I think I can work that out. Then maybe I'll do 3 days and see how that goes. It has been years since I've done an extended fast and I wonder what it will be like now. I learned a lot about myself and the world and God back then, but things are so different now, most especially me, that I don't really know what to expect. The only expectation I have is that it will do some damage to the conversations in my head that think I will die if I don't eat xxxx amount at certain intervals. Even though I have my own history that proves them wrong, it's 20 year old history, so they have regained the upper hand.

I'll keep you posted. I sure feel better today having run. I can tell you. Nothing like 7 miles to beat back the cloud of depression.

Dirt in shoes and wild cockatoos

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Tracy) — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 04:32:00 +0000

Friday was mostly dry, so I awoke Saturday morning filled with hope that I’d be able to run past the first river. I think we had a light shower when I first woke up, but it stopped pretty quickly. Although overcast, I didn’t take any chances and filled a small water bottle with electrolyte water (Camelback Elixir – quite nice, actually). The mud was worse than I was hoping it would be, forcing me to stop and wipe a few times, but I met a woman carrying potatoes to market and asked them if the path was still flooded on the other side of the river. “no there’s nothing” she said. Well. . .

Ran through the river and was feeling good on the other side. There was one really bad patch where I went up a bank and did okay for a few steps until I sunk into the mud up to MID-CALF. Lovely. I saw a few more people coming toward me and knew this was a very good sign, since all the villages are on the other side of the area that had been flooded out last week. So I was feeling good and confident. I heard a lot of noise overhead and looked up to see 6 or so white birds. I couldn’t identify them – they had a pretty wide wingspan which reminded me of egrets, but no long thin legs and their heads were quite thick. Hmm. As I approached the flood zone, I saw that yes, indeed, the water had abated considerably. But not totally. So not exactly the “nothing” the woman I met said. Everyone was just walking through it, including some small children, so I decided to just go for it. It was okay. It was a few meters on either side of the bridge and only went up to my thighs at one point. But. . . the yucky thing was that all sort of grit got into my shoes.

I made it out four miles, which included running through two more rivers, then turned around. Going through the rivers cleaned the biggest gunk out, but I could still feel all the pebbles or whatever underfoot. I didn’t want to stop and clean my feet yet because I still had to go back through the swampy area. As I’m running along, I notice something. This part of the path is bordered by wild groves of coconut palms. Interestingly, all the trees on the ocean side of the path are bare, but all the trees on the inland side are completely covered in vines and other plants. I wonder why that is.

As I’m gazing up at the trees and pondering this, I see one of those white birds again. This time I try to concentrate and see if I can figure out what it is. While it’s flying, nothing comes to mind. But then it lands up in one of those coconut trees and lifts it’s head up and I realize, “whoa, it’s a cockatoo!” A wild cockatoo. Wow. I’ve seen one or two in the village that people keep as pets. Now I see where they get them from. This whole area has many of them just flying around. Big, white cockatoos with very impressive pompadours (or whatever the correct name is for their feathers that come up from the top of their heads). Cool.

Slosh, slosh, slosh. I pass quite a few people – mostly one or two adults with one or two children – walking toward Buala. When I get back to the first river I stop and do the cleaning ritual. Get the shoes as clean as possible while still on my feet. Then remove the shoes and socks and wash the grit and gunk off my feet and out of the socks. Remove the orthotics and wash them and the inside of the shoes. Then put it all back together again. Much better!

As I’m climbing the hill after the river (killer hill), it occurs to me that I only rarely ever see anyone else on this hill. But I’ve seen people on the beach coming from those far out villages. Hmmm, so I wonder if there is some way *around* the hill that leads down to the beach. I bet there probably is. That’s something to go hunting for some day.

Got my 8 miles in. Drank my electrolytes. Felt okay. 26 plus miles for the week. Would’ve been more but I didn’t feel like running Friday so I didn’t and earlier in the week I wasn’t able to do the 6 miles I had on the schedule.

I’m thinking, re-thinking, wondering. I feel fine in my day to day life, but not so inspired in the running. Some days I feel beat at about 4 miles. Stale. I’m not sure what’s going on and I’m wondering if I should take a break? Or just run however I feel like for awhile? For mostly spiritual reasons, I’m considering doing a 7-10 day fast sometime soon. When I do that, I won’t be able to maintain my current running schedule. Maybe I need a coach? I’m feeling discouraged just by how difficult running feels here.

Something to pray about.