Running in Kuwait

The other day I was asked if I was running here in Kuwait. Yes, I am.

The weather has cooled (ha ha ha!) to a high of 45 degrees Celsius. Running in the morning is the only way to do it. By then the ground (be it sand or cement) has had time, in the dark hours of the night, to cool slightly. My running buddy and I (hooray for being reunited with Kirsten!) have been experimenting with the time we can start our runs, as we have found by 6.30am the sun is just too hot...meaning we have to have very early starts; allowing time for us to cool down, shower and get ready for work, we have to be out by 5am...we had a lie-in on Friday (the equivalent of Sunday) and started at 5.30am! (Our even-more-committed-runner friend, Colin, started at 4.15am!)

Picturesque, the runs are not. But you find beauty in it some where (sometimes!). The dusty and polluted skies make for beautiful sunrises at the moment, like watercolour paint soaking into the paper and spreading out across the page. Those help, while we hold our breath on certain corners where the smell of sewage is pretty unbearable. Or where we jump to avoid the man holes and metal rings (do the metal rings have a reason...?) and the piles of rubbish that didn't quite make it into the skip.

We were laughing the other day as we thought of the Rave Runs in the Runner's World magazine, it would be tricky to find one here. But, mine would certainly be along the corniche (well, more of a promenade), by the coast of the Gulf, where the constant water sprinklers keep the grass green. It is too hot to run there at the moment, with no shade from the powerful sun, in a months time it will be cooler...(about 30 degrees C) and that is where I will be running.

PS- There is an 100km Ultra Marathon in Kuwait this November. 100km on sand. I dare you.