I had a bit of a setback over the weekend, not from running, but from standing. I spent five hours standing still on Friday night, and my heel was very sore on Saturday morning. This is a virtual mirror image of how I developed the injury in the first place. Back in November I spent many hours over two evenings standing still talking with people. Perhaps it’s just a coincident, but the evidence is mounting that this is the root cause of the problem. My heel has come up sore after every other occasion when I spent hours standing around in discussion and socialising. Anyhow, I ran for an hour this morning without too much trouble, but I can certainly feel the soreness more than I have been of late. A little care at this stage should suffice. I am still confident of making it to the starting line of the Oxfam 100 km event in 25 days time.

As initiated on Friday, I’ll continue with the blogs from this date over the past two years. Feedback has been positive so far.

Apr 7, 2012

Distance today = 47.02 km; Total distance = 4679.21 km; Location = Cuba – 36 01.514′ N, 106 57.629′ W; Start time = 0903, Finish time = 1558

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/165724885

Today I crossed the North American Continental Divide. This is the ridge-line through the Rocky Mountains that divides the directions in which the rivers flow. Any rain that falls on the eastern side of the Divide will flow into the Atlantic Ocean, and that which falls on the western side will flow into the Pacific. This means I’m now on the eastern side of the Rockies.

It was another nice but uneventful run, although a little disturbing to see the number of roadside memorials along this stretch. Usually taking the form of a cross with flowers, there appears to be one on average every mile or so. A particularly distressing case was a large cross with four slightly smaller crosses, two either side. There were no names, but I assume it was dedicated to a parent and four children. Very sad.

I arrived into the town of Cuba today under bright April sunshine – true story. This could only mean one thing, so watch the video (it should be posted soon after this blog). Obviously the sound quality is dubious in the open air, and the singing exhibits clear signs of having just run 47 km without using my voice. But, anyway, I hope you enjoy this excerpt from a 1970s Australian/NZ hit song.

I got the tracker to update when I arrived, via the hotel wireless system. At least you can see where I am currently situated, even if there were no updates during the run.

Apr 7, 2013

Distance today = 47.72 km; Total distance = 19,123.43 km; Location = Prague – 50 05.150′ N, 14 25.345′ E; Start time = 0842, Finish time = 1607

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/294525408

I awoke this morning to grey skies again – no surprise there. But, by the time I walked out the door to start running, it was snowing again. The snow continued, fairly lightly, for the first hour or so, let up for a while, and then recommenced for a short period in the early afternoon. I finished, however, in Prague in a bit of sunshine.

The day was generally uneventful (though Carmel saw a car accident, with a car completely engulfed in flames), as I made my way in to the country’s capital. As I’ve mentioned before, running through the outer suburbs of a large city is uninspiring, but the inner city of Prague is a different matter. It is one of those grand old European cities, and I’m looking forward to exploring it some more this evening.

BTW, this region of the Czech Republic is historically known as Bohemia (as in Queen’s Rhapsody), and it goes back a long, long time. It’s named after the Boii tribe, which settled here when forced north after losing a series of battles with the Romans in the 2nd century BC. The landscape is not as green as I imagined, probably because the grass has been covered with snow for so much of the past several months.

I am now at the most northerly point of my entire world run, just over 50 degrees above the equator. From here, it’s all south.