I am a chaser of challenge, of difficulty, of distance. My running of late has not really reflected that. Sure there have been some seriously fun runs, on some technically challenging courses but I have not been hitting to double figure miles that I was hitting – say a year ago. This is not a bad thing, we all go through phases in running and I have been more interested in a life adventure with running, opposed to a running adventure with life.

Well. Once again my friends and enemies I have looked life squarely in the face and said “alright what have you got for me!” and…. ended up in Doha…

 I am not a Racerunner lizard, I do not thrive in hot climates and I definitely do not clock 18mph running down sand dunes. Yes I know ‘this lizard is not native to Qatar’ I hear you say but then neither are about 80% of the population and if 1.8million people can choose to come here for economic reasons then why cannot the lizard. This however is beside the point.

So what is your point, I hear you whine. Well, I am not really sure. I am accustomed to running in places like the Dales or Warrandyte

I am the one in green towards the back.

What I have here is this:

What this means is that I have to fall back in love with the treadmill, which is proving tough – thankfully I can distract myself with music. There is hope however, I have found the ‘Doha Bay Running Club’ a Facebook group which seems to be populated by expats, living in Doha, who like running. They have a club run every Friday morning, at 5:30am – you just have to do that around here. All my usual run sites tell me that there is plenty of running around Doha, I just need to know when, how, what with (and hopefully who with).

Anyway. Gym tomorrow morning. Will let you know what happens on Friday.