I'm still at awe with my pace this afternoon. I've gone further and was still able to shave 10secs/Km off my pace from yesterday's PB. I won't make this a long post as its almost midnight here in Angola and I have an early meeting tomorrow at 8AM to chose a venue for an event in June next year (this is Africa, dont ask!!).
The day started off pretty shitty as I could still feel the stiffness on my legs from yesterday's run. It felt great to have gotten a PB here in Angola and I now know the hilly runs back in the UK cannot be used as routes to try and get PBs or anything close. It got worse when I got stood up for my 11am meeting but hey... this is Angola and I should not be too surprised. About 30% of my scheduled meetings do not happen at first and I always need to reschedule, which I did, for 6pm today. so what do I do in the meanwhile? Go home and work on the laptop right? WRONG! Remember where I am right? That's right, Angola, which means power cuts from 9am to 9pm! I have both my Macbook Pro and my Toshiba laptops on me, but the batteries do not last forever. Luckily enough my sister has a generator, just like everybody in Angola, and I was able to turn it on for a while in order to charge up my laptops, get the AC in the living room going, and watch some Zone Reality TV shows on cable while I worked on a presentation for my 6pm meeting, remember I rescheduled it right? So what do I do at 7:00pm in Luanda with no electricity at home, no way to get to Mussulo island for the night, and no car (the driver leaves at 6pm)? Well, put on my sneakers and hit the road I suppose. I had agreed with my colleague that we were going out for some early drinks with the team so I needed to get out of the house quickly.
Sneakers on, shorts and shirt on, iPhone on (hidden under my shirt), energy drink down and Im out of the flat. Same route, but I went for it from the begining. Anyway, won't bore you with all the details but yeah, I almost got runned over by a local taxi while I was trying to avoid getting hit by a bike who did not stop at a stop sign. Range Rovers, Hummers, Porsche Cayennes, all went past me, along with the odd Ford Fiesta, on what was another blind run on most of the route, specially on Kms 3-8. I kept pushing hard and while on the Bay, going back from the port, I saw a friend of mine who was a past candidate we placed with a client of ours. I waved but she didn't recognize me, specially because she know I live in the UK but I later got a call from her asking me if I was the crazy jogger who zoomed past her on the bay.
Anyway, I kept pushing and eventually got to the end of the route with a total time of 1h:11m:13s. Needless to say I was extatic with this new PB. Tomorrow I am off to an early meeting at 8am with the team and then Im taking them to my parent's beach house on the Island of Mussulo. I might take some photos to share with the Blog.
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| Bay of Luanda - This is between Km 12 &13 on the route |
Sneakers on, shorts and shirt on, iPhone on (hidden under my shirt), energy drink down and Im out of the flat. Same route, but I went for it from the begining. Anyway, won't bore you with all the details but yeah, I almost got runned over by a local taxi while I was trying to avoid getting hit by a bike who did not stop at a stop sign. Range Rovers, Hummers, Porsche Cayennes, all went past me, along with the odd Ford Fiesta, on what was another blind run on most of the route, specially on Kms 3-8. I kept pushing hard and while on the Bay, going back from the port, I saw a friend of mine who was a past candidate we placed with a client of ours. I waved but she didn't recognize me, specially because she know I live in the UK but I later got a call from her asking me if I was the crazy jogger who zoomed past her on the bay.
Anyway, I kept pushing and eventually got to the end of the route with a total time of 1h:11m:13s. Needless to say I was extatic with this new PB. Tomorrow I am off to an early meeting at 8am with the team and then Im taking them to my parent's beach house on the Island of Mussulo. I might take some photos to share with the Blog.
Sounds like running in Angola suits you. Keep it up!
ReplyDeleteMiguel, next time you are in Angola don't forget to call me for a run. Maybe another PB is on the rising. For a swim workout I can offer surfing at Cabo Ledo.
ReplyDeleteHey Joerg, thanks for the note. I might take you on that Cabo Ledo later in the year as im bringing my wife and daughters to Angola and they have never been to Cabo Ledo. BTW, great photos of Fbook,
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