Cambodia Diaries - 25 July 2008

Hot in the City

If like me you have one of those computer systems from Mr. Gates and his pals that has a feature where you can access the weather anywhere in the world at any time, then you might be forgiven for thinking that in relation to Phnom Penh, the bloody thing has been stuck on 86°F since I got here.  Well the good news is that your machine is not broken.

And so into the steam room that is Phnom Penh, the training began for my fourth marathon in Berlin on 28 September 2008.  The first need was to secure a gym and I inspected six upon arrival and each one of them proudly told me that they had a steam and/or sauna room for my usage. This is like telling an Eskimo at the North Pole that his igloo has a fridge freezer in it and frankly, the Cambodian hot rooms seem colder then being outside.

Gym secured, I sat about ensuring that the last days before going into training mode were well and truly oiled and to that extent, Steve, my latest colleague, was at times a less then willing companion which is odd for a Scot.  However, after some gentle encouragement to join me for a post-work libation, we would dig in for the night at my new favoured watering hole, Liquid on Street 278.  But with the now customary zeal that I approach these things, I invited the rest of my colleagues and a few other interlopers to attended at the Elephant Bar in the Raffles Hotel for cocktail happy ‘four’ hour to launch my final evening on the sauce and chocolate and at just before midnight on 29 May, I calmly raised the glass to my lips, downed the contents and proudly announced as the glass returned to the table, that not a drop would pass my lips until Berlin and with it, Steve breathed a sigh of relief.

The countdown to training  - Raffles Hotel, Phnom Penh

11.57pm 29 May 2008 and a final sup in Liquid, Phnom Pen – with Kim our intern

Now I usually start my running at the entry level distance of 5 miles.  However, this had to be reduced following the sustaining of my first injury and yes that was before I had even started running!  As part of my trying to acclimatise to the local conditions, I started to walk a lot more, deftly moving from the sun to shade and from aircon/fan premises to aircon/fan premises.  I had taken myself to Monument Books on Norodom Boulevard one Saturday morning, to look for some reading matter whilst having a bit of breaky in the café out the back and it was there, whilst leaning back in my chair after placing my cup of ginger tea on the table, that I put my back out.  Such was the pain, I nearly threw up and I had to lie on the sofa for a few minutes before I could consider going back for another sip of the treacherous tea. 

It was ironic that I was drinking ginger tea, because that best describes how I moved around for the next week or so, gingerly.  That said one of the advantages of where I now work is that we have a gaggle of physios on tap and healing hands were applied during lunchtime sessions by my colleague, Sopheak, who tweaked, cajoled and generally roughhoused various vertebrae back into shape.

And so, with the back sorted, the head clear and a downscaled entry level run of 3 miles ahead of me, I set forth early on the morning of Saturday 31 May from the hotel I was staying at the time on the road to the Brandenberg Gate. 

Thirty five minutes later I crawled back to the hotel utterly bloody knackered and there are no other genteel words to describe the fact that I was sweating like a glassblower’s backside.  Now, it’s not the case that I have not done anything since Boston last year.  In fact, a few months earlier, after injuries of course and an unscheduled pit stop in the back of the bizzies van to change the leg, I ran the Liverpool half marathon in 2hrs, 11 minutes.  (Seeing as it was only a half; it was hardly worth bothering you with it). 

But such was the heat at 6.30am, it was like running in a sauna and despite the aircon on and a cold shower back in my room, I still had a head on my like a swan vestas match half an hour later.  The body in trying to keep cool during the run also uses up a lot of energy and I suspect that for every mile ran out here, it’s akin to maybe a mile and a quarter back home – wherever home is for me these days of course!

By the time I ran a week later, I had moved to my latest abode and my runs now start and end on Mao Tse Toung Boulevard and what with the Olympics just up the road next month in Mao’s old stomping ground, a few weeks of running and I am  slowly getting used to the heat and now I can’t help wondering if I should have come out here earlier and made an effort to qualify because come 8 August when the games start, they won’t be many Englishmen as in tune with local conditions as me.

So it has been going steadily along and I have started out much slower this time round and thus far, all is going well.  My runs head up to a park named after the Cambodian Prime Minister, Hun Sen and whatever time you arrive in the morning, there are scores of people walking and jogging.  In fact, there are all these old dears practicing their tai chi, sword wielding martial arts teams and younger pups doing kung fu and so unlike other races I have trained for, I am most definitely, not alone on this one.

There are however, a number of difficulties.  Dogs down my street think it great fun to chase me as I return somewhat hot and bothered and in turn, this has provided much frivolity for the kids seeing mad dogs and Englishman scurrying down the road together.  Then there is the less than even running surface, mixed with the not so covering man-hole cover I nearly fell down a few weeks back, which is in harmony with the low lying branches which have you bowing and scrapping every so often down MTT Boulevard.  Of particular annoyance are the local moto and tuk-tuk drivers who constantly harangue you to see if you would prefer a lift as opposed to expounding all that effort and sweat. 

However, another difficulty is posed by the lack of any accurate street ordinance and so whilst I have been working on my normal 11 minute per mile pace as a guide, with the heat slowing me down somewhat I don’t know whether I am getting the miles in as I might be thinking.  A conundrum that was resolved the week when I hit the 6 mile mark…in the Olympic stadium.

No, not in Beijing, Seoul or Sydney, but the one we have here in Phnom Penh.  Now I have not got the faintest clue why they call it the Olympic stadium as we’re never likely to see the IOC here this side of the next millennium, but with the latest member of Team Running Honney, Seenar (tuk-tuk driver number 1) picking me up at 5.15am on Saturday, 28 June and taking me to the stadium, I thought I would do the requisite distance around the stadium’s running track - the plan being, 6 miles or 24 laps in 66 minutes.

Early morning workout at the Olympic Stadium, Phnom Penh

The authorities open the stadium for all to use from 5am every morning and when Seenar turned the tuk-tuk’s engine off upon our arrival, the noise was deafening as there were hundreds of people dotted in, out and all around the stadium doing their aerobic workouts and you would be forgiven for thinking you were at an open air nightclub.  As for the running track, such that it was, another mob of us were charging along, all desperately trying to get the miles in before the sun came over the top of the stand and gently baked all the inhabitants below.

Well it was a good indicator and in the end, I actually did 6.2 miles/25 laps in 69 minutes, which is bang on the money.  After a few more laps to cool down and a rake of stretches, I returned to Seenar who had diligently waited to convey me back to a cool refreshing bucket of water, assorted isotonic drinks and a cold shower, with not a bloody dog or pothole in sight.   

Ok, thankfully it is going well here in PP on the training front and as I type, I am now up to 8½ miles and no injuries thus far.   I have mentioned before that there are several among you who have also entered to run with me in Berlin and over the next few weeks I will update you on theirs and my progress next month.  

Finally, in case you think this is all for the fun of it, the sponsorship stuff will be on its way to you soon enough and as ever, all donations will be greatly received.

Cheers

JH