December 1, 2017

I was worried about it being as hot today as it was yesterday, because that had been the forecast, but we got lucky. It still felt like we were running in an oven, but there was a gentle breeze and this made a huge difference over the course of 50km.

We were mainly on the trail today which was really nice apart from 6km on a main road, and as always the excitement and cheering from the kids in the villages make it all worth it. It is all the motivation you need when you start to get sore and tired.

The dogs today were more ferocious than normal…. Matt and I had always agreed that as long as Bota and the driver are relaxed about the charging dogs, then that meant we should be ok and we can successfully wave them off with our running poles. On this occasion, there were four dogs in the middle of the trail with one of them barking and charging at me. I thought that this was another standard attack until our normally quiet and laid back driver started screaming and then launched a full bottle of water at the dog pack. This thankfully worked well and I then spent the next 5 mins nervously laughing to myself at the incident.

The last 20 km of the run was in a straight line running along a river with villages on either side. I knew this would be the tough part of the day as this is where my body and feet tend to get really sore, but I was so happy as I actually felt better than I have all week towards the end of today’s run.

I’ve learned this week that the way you feel / run can change from day to day (and hour to hour) so I can only hope and pray that I feel this way tomorrow (which will be our last long day before the Angkor Wat half marathon on Sunday morning).

Erin and Kirst arrived at the guesthouse where we are staying tonight so it’s been great to see them and they brought some food from the Sofitel in Siem Reap so it was nice to have a change from fried rice for dinner tonight.

I’m already starting to reflect on what has been a life-changing week but I need to remind myself that I have a long way to go until we are finished, so I will stay focused on tomorrow for now.

Ferg