Pyramids and s'mores

Yesterday was a busy day- first, about the run! I was pretty annoyed about not being able to complete last week's 17 miles because of some "GI issues" so I googled it and apparently it's pretty common in long distance running (all the blood goes to your muscles and not to digesting) so this week I followed all the rules -Thursday I had pasta for lunch, and drank tons and tons of water and was in bed at 9:30 and I had oatmeal (easily digested carbs) for breakfast Friday AM- thankfully it paid off because I had a great run! Sometimes it really makes me laugh the things we do to get a good run in here- the area we were running in (Sakkara- home to the 2nd most famous pyramids in Egypt) was a bit more rural, so we didn't have many cars, but lots and lots of donkey carts taking loads of onions, bananas, carrots etc to the markets and fruit stands in Cairo- it would seem that donkeys do not have a great turning radius. Also, I got to close to a water buffalo and got whacked by it's huge, poo-encrusted tail. Gross. No matter how you slice it, 20 miles/32KM is a long way, and the heat didn't help, but I felt strong during the run and was pretty proud of myself when we got to the pyramid at the end. When we were done we took a bus back to Michael's and had some brunch and a few games of foosball. Although a marathon is 26 miles, some training programs argue that you shouldn't do more than 20 miles in training as the strain on your body is too much- others say to do 22 and others have you run the 26 at least once. I think I'll do 22 at least, but I feel more comfortable now that I have 2o under my belt. I was waiting to make sure I could do it before I signed up for the marathon.

After the run, I really wanted to take a nap and sleep for the rest of the day, but instead, I thought I'd go camping in the desert with 20 brownies. We had a fun night, I got to dust off some of my favourite campfire songs from Narnia and the girls had a great time roasting wieners and marshmallows over the fire. As I work with mostly egyptians, it was strange for me to be around all english speakers again- eating north American food singing familiar songs- even though we were in the desert, it felt like we could have been in Anytown USA.

Here are a few pictures from the run and camping.








Special congratulations today to my beautiful cousin Tabitha, and Nate who are getting married today!! I'm so sorry I couldn't be there with you, but I hope you have a great day and I'm crossing my fingers it doesn't snow! Lots of love xoxo C