I surprised myself today. I ran 1 km on the track amidst the turmoil of a school soccer team doing early morning training. Even with the dodging of soccer balls and teenagers, I stopped the clock at 3:35, my fastest 1 km in two years. And felt fine. Those 100 metre sprints on Monday must have helped.

Today’s memories from the world run are from South Dakota again. There are two videos, illustrating how flat it is in the eastern part of the state, as do the photos from the same time and region. It was the start of summer and the days were sunny but not too hot. A month later was a different thing, with outrageous heat by that time.