There's no denying it.

Vicky’s been talking about the Shred. I recently got in touch with some old running friends. I was told I’m nearing high blood pressure territory. Watching the IAAF World Championships on television ignited a spark of what I used to feel like. I’ve been a slug and it seems like I have a completely different body than the one that climbed Kilimanjaro a few months ago.

It’s time to start running again.

Over the last couple of weeks (since the blood pressure announcement) I’ve made a conscious effort to reduce my alcohol consumption and increase my mileage. It was slow and painful at first. It’s still slow and painful, but slightly less so. I’m setting small goals. First, get up early to run after a night of too much food and drink. That first morning hurt. But I told myself that if I could get up and run under those conditions, I had no excuse not to get up and run under any other conditions. So that led to my second goal: Get up early and run two days in a row. What was that I said about under any conditions? I got up and did it.

Last December there was a marathon and half-marathon here in Bujumbura. I’ve been contacting everyone I can find to see if the races are being held again this year. I’m confident I can be in half-marathon shape in December if I have a race to look forward to. But I face a dry spell of not even a 5K race between now and then to keep me motivated. Bujumbura just doesn’t have organized races.

(But we do have a mountain, and boy am I feeling that mountain nearly every morning.)