Samaa settiä edelleen. Vatsatauti, joka on pitänyt yllä pientä lämpöä jyllää jo neljättä päivää. Fiilikset ovat sen mukaiset. Piti olla viimeinen koko viikko tässä maassa ja ensi viikolla suunnistaa Keski-Suomeen. Toivottavasti ehtii muutaman reenin tehdä sitä ennen.
Lämmintä ainakin on ollut viime päivinä ja aurinkoa on riittänyt. Harmi vaan, kun ei jaksa edes auringossa kellistellä. Käy sekin urheilusuorituksesta. Valoa arkeen toi yhtenä päivänä paikallisesta televisiosta nähty Extreme Duudsonit jakso. Vievät pojat Suomea taas maailmankartalle! Kohellus ei välttämättä ole terveellisin tapa tienata, mutta taitaa kaverit olla kohta leipänsä ansainnut. Pitäis itekin ostaa seuraavaksi isäntä tai jussi paita!

Pari mielenkiintoista linkkiä Bulembusta, jossa kävimme Swazimaan reissulla. Entinen kaivoskylä, joka nyt pitää huolta aids orvoista.

batman

I am still feeling myself a bit sick. Last night I had some 37.4c fewer which is not much but still enough to keep me from training. It is only second day of full recovery but I would like to be back on business soon.
The other day there was an funny incident: I had gone to sleep knowing that I would get sick soon. Jaakko who shares same room with me was still awake and watching TV. I had fallen asleep already when I started hearing this sound in our room. First I thought it was butterfly but then realized it being a bat sirceling my head. It had come through window which was open. Well, the chasing part was fun trying it to get out from open door. We finally made it but it took some time. That was my third workout of the day :)
One of the things that athletes do here for recreation is internet. Staying in contact with friends and reading the latest news seems to be nice way to socialize. Often you see many nerds and laptops at Jo Bangles where is wlan to be used.
Today is the day for some tourism. We plan to go to see local shops and perhaps buy some souvenirs. Good and nice for the head also. My back had started to hurt a lot after sleeping long hours. Otherwise the skicats are doing fine and the atmosphere is good. Back to the helicopter!

skicats

For a couple of days it has been some low pressure down here Dullstroom. Some ahtletes got some fewer earlier and now it looks that I got it too. Not actually fewer yet but some body temperature. I could feel it allready yesterday after morning workout which was 10k plus circuit training. In the evening I went to run anyway an hour but could feel the tiredness. The run turned out to be one of the funniest here. Long drink had some serious stomack problems and we had a really good laugh. So good that I almost forgot being ill.

During the whole stay in SA I have been thinking about a theory of who: Me, Jaakko and Longdrink would be. How could we fit in this camp with Team Finland number 1. So I came with idea that we are the team B and also could be called Ski Cats according to a crosscountry skiing team who did not make it to national team and therefore formed their own group with own sponsors. We have no sponsors yet but good name and team spirit for sure. Good luck for us!

Today I was supposed to have 6x1000m workout. Instead of doing that I have a full day of and see what things are like tomorrow

Sunday –coffee time

I put this funny picture to show that there is some sun shine in our camp sometimes. “africa” Markku Varjo came yesterday to house for a cup of coffee. We had some donughts left so we had a really nice coffee time together. Petteri “longdrink” Kurko was there to share the enjoyment of great instant coffee. As you can see in the pictures the boys are having time of their life!

As usually on sundays we had only one exercise in the morning. Rest of the day was just relaxing. Jaakkos 21^st birthday is today so we had another coffee time with some chocolate cream cake. Yum. Not so bad life after all. Good news is that internet has been working without interruption for many days now!

Tired but quite happy after mornings workout. I did 5x2000min with 3min recovery. I thought to run 3.20 pace which was a bit too fast. I did that on first one but secone ones were 5sec slowlier. I guess my body was not awake after yesterdays day off and thursdays massage. Track was very wet also. I still did the workout which was good. In the evening some easy run.
Today finally the sun is shining!! Actually it can get too hot and ine more reason to complain... no kidding. Things are fine here and training is going good. A lot of people come and go. Some Norwegians return tomorrow including Dabaya and Asle. Hope Dabaya gets a hair cut before going home. Today we were too busy to get back from Belfast and there was no time for haircut after exercise! Still we bought some peanut butter to Asle and some donughts to Jaakko for recovery!

lepopäivä

Perjantai ja lepopäivä. Ansaittu sellainen. Eilen aamulla 22km mäkisessä maastossa ja illalla vielä kymppi vauhtileikittelyä. Pohkeet alkoivat olla aivan jumissa, niinpä päätin varata hieronnan. Tapsan hyvän hierontakäsittelyn jälkeen sain aloittaa vuorokauden mittaisen levon. Päälle vielä makoisa pizza ja työpäivä oli paketissa. Keskiviikkona teimme Jaakon kanssa nopeusharjoituksen: 3x3x60m. Maa oli märkä ja tuuli. Vaudit tippuivat sekunnin verran. Illalla juoksin Norjan poikien kanssa reilun tunnin 4.30 vauhdilla, mikä on vuoristossa jo sellaista kevyttä reipasta ainakin minun mielestä. Maa oli märkä, kuten se on ollut käytännössä koko viikon. Vesisadetta on riittänyt, mutta se ei menoa ole haitannut. Yllättävän hyvin leiri on mennyt tähän saakka. Oikeassa jalkaterässä on ollut pientä jäykkyyttä, mutta uskon sen menevän ohi. Pahimmassa tapauksessa se voisi olla orastava jalkaterän murtuma.

Lepopäivänä ajatukset saattavat vaeltaa syvissä vesissä. Kroppa ja mieli on ehkä hieman väsynyt. Samat naamat ja samat jutut. Yhteiselo on koetuksella. Mieleen saattaa tulla jopa kotimaa. Toisaalta kun lepäät niin tiedät, että seuraavana päivänä meininki on jälleen hyvä. Tätä se arki on, hieman vain erilaista kuin Suomessa. Taitaa olla aika leikata parta…

Kuvassa Björnar ”eagle” Kristensen, Dabaya etiopialainen ja Martin Ruotsalainen.

perussettiä-

It took some time to get access to internet again. This text was written on tuesday:
Today I had a good workout day. In the morning when I woke up I didn´t feel at all like doing tough workout. I had a good sleep probably that’s why. I had my boridge relaxed for a while and had half cup of coffee. Before heading out I got an good idea of taking my mp3 player with me. They have saved many workouts- so did it this time too. We jogged together with boys for 10min and after that I began speeding up. First k:s were downhill and getting heart rate to 160 was easy. Then it started uphill and I tried to keep heartrate the same. Maybe it was 165 but that what it was supposed to be. Turning point was after 25min had gone and I put my mp3 player on starting to listen to Eppu Normaali. Running felt really good and I was lifted on high. When 10min to go I could srart feeling a bit tired. A new song and speed increased to 170. Maximum was 172 but I didn´t speed to full speed. That day will come some day.
I was a bit scared to go and run on asvalt road since last year I got a stress fracture on same road during a similar (12k) workout. I was running with light skylon shoes which I run my best marathon time 2.26 in 2004 in Frankfurt. Since that I have run marathon every two years due to problems. I really would like to go close to 2.20 some day but now I concentrate on 10k on track. Also I try to improve my speed and strenght. That´s all for today. Tomorrow a hair cut J

Fifht day

This is the day number five without being able to get access to internet. It has worked for a while between that but I have not been lucky to be able to browse=surffailla. Days have gone really fast which is good and I am not feeling myself too tired. After we got back from our safari on thurdday night we did with Jaakko on friday morning a good speed exercise. It included 3x3x60m 3/6min recoveries. We measured the length on a good sand surface by foot and run with spike shoes. We were both in excellent condition or at least it felt really good. Maximum acceleration and relax we were able to run all of them between 7.5-8.0. You could add some time in those but they where anyway under 8 seconds which is really good for me. I am not any faster on tartan surface and dirt road could make me even faster because of my long and lazy stride. At the end of ecercise we where just jogging aroung the grass and OP stopped us and wanted to introduce me to Doctor Rosas assistant who was able to talk to my surprice Swahili. He had come to see the training facilities one week before the Kenyans would arrive! Interesting. I am lookin so much forward to see Paul Tergat and Martin Lel training over here. Perhaps I get a change to talk or even make a run with them.

As my morning exercise had gone well without much kilometres I decided to run 1.25 in the evening for some stamina. Saturday was another tough day and I did ecercise in the evening on the Belfast grass track. It included 3x4km with 3min recoveries. The speed was the same as last time 3.30. First one went well, second and third one slowed by ten seconds and the last one I was able to do 10.15 so a bit faster again. I got problems with my stomack but it did not stop me from training. It´s not a surprice that when training hard in altitude your stomack is not feeling fine. You just have to get used to that. TIA like they say: this is Africa.

Nowdays there are a lot of many new runners in Dullstroom. Some 12 Dutch arriver some time ago. Marathoner Janne Holmen came with his son and father some time ago and some other Finns as well. Kenyans will come soon too so it will be busy at the sports meal in the evening. Yesterday there were more than 30 runners and we got to celebrate birthday of walker Jarkko Kinnunen.

Today was supposed to be an easy long run day. We headed for run with Graham and Scott down to Sakhelwe and continued untill we reached peoples houses then we turned to the right until we reached the railway track. My heart rate was all the time too high about 150 but still managed to make it back to our house. Maybe there was some stress from yesteday left in the body but I hope that after tomorrow my heart will settle down. I should do some gym soon since my back is a little bit stiff and and some middle body workout could do good. Gym is closed on sundays so another day I guess. That’s all for now. Let me hear from audience how you are doing or should I shift back to Finnish soon?

In the country of Swazis

Wednesday morning when Jaakko was ready to go started the engine of Scotts and Grahams car. At midday we were at the border and it did not take a too long time. Close to border was an old mine field on the top of mountain. The scenery was awesome and we could see the coming rain from a far distance. Then we drove to the capital city of Swaziland Mbabane where we had a Chinese lunch in a local shopping centre. After a short tour around the city we headed to the mountains close to border. From a place called Piggs Peak we took to the left and were supposed to reach border after a 20 kilometres drive on a dirt road. Unfortunately it started pouring rain and the road became really slippery. The adventure started: Our car got stuck in the mud and we had to push it through the mud for three times! You can only imagine how how muddy we were in the end. Finally we reached a mine village called Bulembu and drove through that. Soon we reached the border which was offcourse closed! They closed it at 4pm and we were there 4.58pm so about an hour late. You can say it was stupidity not to find that out beforehand but it was too late to start crying. TIA= This is Africa. The gate would open the next day 8am so we had to turn back to village. It turned out to be a real jungle village in the midle of steep mountains. There used to be sulfat mine and some thousands of white people with black workers. It was definitely the coolest place I ever been with a köysirata of longest in Africa. There was also a golf course, hospital, school with swimming pool to an awesome scenery to the walley. Mine was closed years ago and and non profit organization had bought it to liven up life there and to start a orphanage. Swazilands population 39% are HIV positive so the futute does not look too bright. The whole evening at Bulembu was raining and there was no electrisity. We found a nice guest house and a dinner to eat. The next morning we went to run and explore village with Scott. We had a breakfast and bought some petrol and left to make it to border. The same friendly workers greeted us and let us go through back to SA. The road continued to be hilly and Barberton was the next place we could buy some more petrol.

We missed the road race which was planned for Wednesday evening in Nelspruit. That was allright for me and I got good time to recover and change some thoughts in the cool mountain weather. Our other plan was to go to Kruger national park which we did on thursday. It was a little rainy day and we got in for a very cheap price. We saw some animals including Elephant,Cameleon plus some basic gaselles. I´ve seen all the animals back in Tanzania Serengeti so I was basically sleeping in the car as we drove 50 km/hour through the park on good roads. Once we were outside the bark the adventure started again. Close to town called Sabie we decided to go for an hour run in the mountains. On the top of one mountain we found a nice field of grass. We continued running that for less than a kilometre discussing the purpose of well cut grassfield. On the top hill we found Sabie airport building which I thought to be a church. Really funny: an airport build on a hill/slope! Jaakko was enjoying his time in the car while we had our run. After run we headed to Sabie for a dinner. I had some crocodile kebab with rice and a pint. By the time we got back to road again it was getting dark and unfortunately very very foggy in a road climping to 2100metres. Speed was only about 40 km/h and we got back to Dullstroom very late at 10pm. Luckily our driver Scott “the sceptic” Frazer made great job keeping us all well and alive. Thank you Graham and Scott for an unforgettable trip!

millainen paiva sulla on huomenna?

That was a question by Scott yesterday when we were in Belfast. We had done our track workout and it was time to relax. Petteri "the long drink" filmed that on video and I hope to post that in blog some day. You can response what ever you want on that questions, but one of the answers could be normipäivä or something else.

The picture above was taken on saturday when we had our sprint workout day. A tough one but interesting. I have now trained hard so today I´m having an eaaasy day. An hour easy run in the morning plus a massage. Tomorrow is a race day combined with some tourism. We shall see when I get a next time to update my blog.

It looks that the training has done its effect. I was quite tired after a good sleep. We went with Scott and Petteri to Belfast to do some 1000m repeats. We both thought what it was going to be like with sore legs. So we just started running with first 3.13, second 3.10, third a bit too fast 3.06, fourth a bit slowlier 3.09 and fith with a good feeling 3.00. That was it, not so hard after all. Sometimes you just have to believe in yourself before exercise and not to loose the motivation. Now in the afternoon we can relax and do one easy an hour run or so.
Weather is by the way quite hot and most of the time sun is shining. Toworrow will be an easy day as I plan to do a 10k race on wednesday in Nellspruit. We shall combine some tourism with that and go to Swaziland and Gruger national park. Some change and some recovery if sitting in the car is that.

tired but happy

Today only one training but rather a long one. Two hours easy run in the Lakenvkei forests with a bunch of people. Very nice and social as well. Everyone gets to run his/her own speed but there is still company available. I had a high morning pulse so I decided to run really slow. Tomorrow I might have again some tougher session so it is good to take it relaxed on long runs. After a run I went to a small lake for a swim just to cool down. It was nice although the water had some grass growing. Before we got back to Dulstroom again it was 1pm and I was dead hungy so that I could hardly see. We decided to go for a pancake and it was delicious. The company was offcource very good as well. In the afternoon we are going to have a minigolf tournament.

lauantai

Tänään oli niin sanottu nopeus päivä. Eilinen puntti hieman jaloissa painaen menimme aamupäivästä tutulle Belfasti nurmikentälle. Keli oli aurinkoinen ja sopiva takatuulikin takana kuuskymppisiä juostessa. Verryttelyksi alle 20min ja varsinainen reeni sisälsi 3x3x60m kunnon palautuksilla. Askelilla mittaamalla saimme tehtyä 60metrin pätkän nurmikolle ja sitten vain menoksi. Mukaan lyöttäytyi suunnistaja Scott joka osoittautui varsin kovaksi kaveriksi. Pitkällä askeleella juokseva kaveri jätti minut ja Jaakon vedoissa ja siirtyi sen jälkeen vetelemään kaksi satasia. Nurmikolla juostuksi kolme viimeistä taisi olla 28,27,26. On kulkenut nelonenkin 53 sekuntiin siis ei mikään spede kestävyysjuoksijaksi. Tulevan kesän tavoite on alittaa 31min kympillä ja vuoden 2014 kansainyhteisöjen tavoite joko esteen tai maraton. Valmentajana on vuoden 52 olympialaisten kympin juoksija ja Zatopekin kilpakaveri.

I just found out that I automatically shifted to Finnish again. Sorry, but on the other hand “shadow” will understand my Finnish part J. I basically wrote about todays training and that Scott is a talented guy. He should try 1500m also and some other track events also. Today we shall have a parbegue party with Norwegians. Should be fun. It is a combined party of Jaakko and Björnar “the eagle”

Finally it stopped raining. Weather was yestereday on its coolest only 12c which is rather cold for Africa. Weather forecast says it should be nice on Saturday so we see about that. Today morning we had an easy 10k and some gym training. It was actually nice and gives good feeling on your legs. In the evening I am supposed to do 17k and I might do that with Martin.
It was cold days so we used all the forewood in the house. Today I had to go buy some more. Two bags for 3euros was not too bad. In Finland if you go to gas station you can buy firewood but for more expencive price.

mwua inaleta baraka -rain brings the blessing

Below this text I posted a long filosifical journey of my thoughts during the past weeks. A lot has happened and a lot will happen.
This morning it was raining surprise surprise like it had been doing the last days. Saturday should be nice again though. Still we went to a track workout in the morning to Belfast, not all the way to North Ireland but some 30km from Dullstroom where I am staying. The session to be done was 4¤3k with 3.30 pace. Doesn´t sound too tough but even with that pace it was quite tough. Lungs had to work harder but speed was not too fast. Also the heart rate was about 170 which is close to my anaerobic/treshold whatever its called. So just in right place. I was running with Martin(i), a Swedish/Norwegian guy and it was a good help. He rub 2.21 in Milan a month ago and is aiming below 30 min before he turns 30 of age. So I decided why wont I do the same :) There should be good race in Belgium and we both want to do dub 30min there. Of cource I will beat him but the time is more important than beating a Swedish guy, or is it?
Today the head coach for Finnish distance running arrived to our house with few others. The topic is an African saying and means that once its raining the harvest will grow and people will get to eat. No reason to complain!!!

My journalist brother opened also a blog. He was the on telling me to come here South-Africa after the situation had gone worse.

What is the thing that matters?

These couple of weeks I have had many thoughts in my head. The first one was when we climped airplane at Helsinki airport on 31.12. I didn´t have clue of what was to come. I had read the news about the situation in Kenya and knew that thing was tence. The elections were held in 27.12 and the situation had gone to worse since they started counting the votes. At the airport in London me and my travel partner Jaakko asked to change the flight so that we would fly to South Africa. That would have meant buying a new ticket so we decided to go Kenya and see how the situation was going to turn like. We arrived in Nairobi 1.1 .2008 7.20am in the morning. I had a king idea of buying an air ticket to Eldoret to avoid long and unsecure car ride. Taking a bus would have been even riskier. The first flight was the next day early in the morning so we decided to take a look at Nairobi after taking the luggage to hotel as close to airport as possible.

We met a nice and reliable taxi driver who took us to national park for a short walk. After that we went to feed some monkies and to visit a local shopping centre. Everything looked calm in Nairobi with the only exception that there were only few cars on to roads. When returning to our hotel at 5pm we tryed to drive through city centre. Police had closed roads leading to centre and tried that way to avoid demonstrators to enter city centre. That was the only sign I saw that thing were not normal. Back at our hotel we went to a workout in the gym where we could find a treadmil. That was good and there was no need to run outside. That exercise turned out to be the only one in Kenya. In the evenint my journalist brother called me to warn about the worsening situation. Things looked bad and he only did not only encourage but told us not to go Eldoret. Situation over there had gone worse after a church was burned down with people inside it and people running away from their homes to police station to a safe. That was a sign that things were not fine. Instead of flying to Eldoret we bought a new ticket to first flight to go South-Africa. We got tickets for the evening flight and had some time to wait. In a meanwhile Jaakko had realized that a hundret euros were stolen from his walet from our four star hotellroom. We went to solve that and were promised that things are being taken care of. Until now nothing had happened.

When sitting at airoplane on the way to Johannesburg many thoughts run in my head. Was this a wise idea? Should we have waited for few more days to see if things calm down? New ticket costed some money and I really wanted to see my friends in Eldoret. We passed mount Kilimanjaro and my thoughts continued thinking the innocent lives being lost in strungles. Why do these people hate so much each other? I have been to several countries and also to Belfast North Ireland where people also used to kill each other. I got friends from both sides and asked questions from them. I even took classes on conflict just to understand the situation. And now we were on a plane talking and trying to find out whats behind the post election conflict. I basically read all the news available and discussed with Jaakko about that.

I landed Johannesburg airport with a lot of thoughts in my head. Luckily OP, the organizer for the camps in Dullstroom was there to pick us as there were some Norwegians arriving too. One of them returned Norway the next day though due to lack of visa. It was about 2am when we came to our house and I was ready to fall asleep immideately. Due to a lot of travelling and some stress caused by the situation I was quite tired. Only the next morning I realized that some Norwegians had arrived to same house a few hours earlier. We soon got to know each other and got along well. These talkative people saved my trip to South-Africa. In my dreams I was prepared to live with quiet Finns who I know allready. I got a change to make frienship with these people coming from the country of tunafish or what is turska in English? One of them had a really hard name to remember and I memorized the name after a bike brand called Raleihg + hill. Very strange. Anyway there we were in a new country with new challenges. Training started the next morning after a good sleep. Visit to a local shop and we vere ready for some seriuous business again. Still we could not stop watching the news on TV. Aljazeera and CNN were the best channels to follow whats happening. I had a friend who went to Eldoret for christmas and was there the whole time when strugless were going on. By the time of writing this some 500 people have been killed and 500 000 displaced. At the governmental level situation doesn´t look too good either as the looser of election was not even chosen to the cabinet. He should have been at least the vise president. Negotions still continue but problems are not solved. I really hope that things would settle down. What is the thing that really matters? My running career – the most important small detail in my life?

rain rain rain

Suprise suprise it is raining just like yesterday. It was actually raining the whole night but it was nice to sleep though. I still hoped that in the morning it would be a clear sky. It didn´t. Today we went with four cars to a new forest with some Swiss and British orienteers. They had their own ecercise but there were many runners as well doing the usual run. I did 1.30 which was a nice run and in the evening I only have to do easy 10k. Probably in the rain again. It is not too cold but relatively cold for a weather in Africa, maybe about 15c.
There are people coming and going every day and yesterday some people arrived from Finland club called Liedon Parma and they are orienteers. At the moment I´m at OP`s office and there is a international atmosphere as well. Internet connection is working fine which is also good. So everything fine down here. If there are some international readers let me know, otherwise I will shift back to Finnish again :)

So now I will write my first blog text in English for the international fans! I appreciate you being patient since I have not been able to updaty my blog in two days. You can imagine how hard it is not to update news. The public is waiting... Yesterday I had my first tough track session in the morning. It was fine and I run 6¤1000m 3.15 first four then 3.09 and 3.04. The recovery was long 4min but next time I will try 3min. It is much tougher to run fast in altitude I realized that yesterday. It was on grass thack though and the wind was strong though. I was tired after the exercise but guite happy. I am not injured yet :)

Afternoon run was just easy 10k with 3¤100m. Today morning 10k and then to the gym to do some strenght training. I try to keep up strengt while here also. After gym some 5¤80m fast to loosen up muscles.

sunnuntai

Hyvat younet ja pitkalle lenkille heti aamutuimaan. Tarkoitus oli juosta parikymppia. Otimme mukaan kameran ja nappailimme kuvia upeista maisemista. Kunnon spedeily turismia siis ). Ei sen puoleen syke oli erittain maltillisissa vauhdeissa 150 ja kavellesessa se putosi lukemaan 120. Oma kroppa siis reagoi aika hyvin korkeuteen. Toisaalta nopeus mulla on hyvalla mallilla korkealla. Viime vuonna hiekkakentalla olin aivan pitelematon lyhyissa vedoissa. Luulen etta se johtuu pehmeammasta alustasta ja hitaammasta kontaktista. Saan siis tehokkaammin hyodynnettya askellustani hiekalla. Katsotaan huomenna, kun menen tonnin vetoja vetamaan nurmikentalle Belfastiin. Vauhdit ovat 3.15, muta voi olla etta nekin teetattavat toita. Viime vuonna en juossut radalla metriakaan ja tyydyin valokuvaamiseen ja kuntopiirin tekemiseen. Tanaan pitais myos vaihtaa majapaikkaa, kun lisaa norjalaisia tulee meidan asuntoon. Kaymme myos Jaakon kanssa uima-altaalla, jonka vesi on viileaa. Kay samalla kylmavesialtaasta ja nakoalat ovat komeat altaalta. Niin ja tanaan piti viela syoda pannukakkua sunnuntaipaivan kunniaksi. Kuuluu perinteisiin!

kolmas päivä

Herätys tänään kasin maissa ja saman tien reipasta tekemään. 5km verr ja 5km reipasta. Syke oli ehkä noin 160 ja km vauhti 4.20 eli aivan hurjissa vauhdeissa täällä ei liikuta. Mielenkiintoista on seurata kuinka vauhdit paranevat sopeutumisen edetessä ohueen ilmanalaan. Mielenkiintoista on huomata, kuinka kropassa on jännä stressin tunne. Tämä johtuu siitä että elimistö kalibroi itseään. Ilmeisesti siis jotain tapahtuu ja toivotaan että se suunta on positiivinen. Illemmalla vielä kevyt lenkki ja 5¤100m reipasta.
Muuten elämä alkaa olla jo rutiinia. Lounaalle ja nettiin, kämpille ja reenaamaan. Välillä kaupassa käyntiä ja taas syömistä. Otin koulukirjan mukaani ja sitäkin on tullut lueskeltua aamupäivisin. Tilanne Keniassa ei ole muuttumaan päin ja Punainen Risti yrittää päästä kriisialueille ruokaa viemaan. 350 ihmistä on kuollut ja 250 000 ihmistä on paennut kodeistaan. Toinen 250 tuhatta on näiden muutosten vaikutuspiirin alaisena. Säipän mukaan kyseessä on vain prosentti väestöstä, mutta mielestäni kyseessa on jo aikamoinen kansanvaellus. Ruoka ja vesi on vähissä sekä lääkkeistä on pulaa. Seurataan edelleen tilanteen kehittymistä. Toivotaan että parempaan suuntaan. E-Afrikassa satelee ja aurinko paistaa aina vuorotellen.

vesisadetta

Eilen illalla alkoi satelemaan. Satoi ja ukkosti sen verran, etta ei ollut kannattavaa lahtea lenkille. Menimme Jaakon kanssa punttisalille polkupyoraa polkemaan. Puoli tuntia sita ja voimaharjoitus sekä 3km holkkaa paalle. Aamulla olin juossut 6km. Kummasti sekin treeni vasytti ja uni tuli nopeasti, varsinkin kun sahkot olivat poikki eika mitaan tekemista illalla. Tanaan aamulla olimmekin jo kahdeksalta juoksemassa ja yllattaen taas satoi vetta. Onneksi keli on lammin ja vilustumisvaaraa ei ole. Vesi lainehti silti aika kivasti tiella, mutta se ei menoa haitannut. Aamusta siis 1.20 ja tarkoitus on illalla verrytella kevyesti seka tehda koordinaatiota ym. Vahan on ollut jalat tukossa matkustelujen ym. vuoksi, mutta eikohan se pikku hiljaa tasta. Eka viikko on muutenkin syyta ottaa varovasti. Tanaan huomasin, etta syke oli selkeasti koholla. Oma kroppa siis reagoi korkeaan ilmanalaan herkasti. Toivotaan etta se on hyva merkki ja kunto seka veriarvot kohoavat reissun aikana. Ennen matkaan lahtoa mittaututin veriarvot ja saa nahda mita testit nayttavat helmikuulla.

Olen siis Etela-Afrikassa "turvassa" Jaakon kanssa. Taalla on talla hetkella aika paljon suomalaisia seka lisaksi norjalaisia, ruotsalaisia ja sveitsilaisia. Lisaksi yksi puoli saksalainen Johas Hamn ja pari valkoista nandia :). Eilen illalla käytiin sportsmealilla muiden suomalaisten kanssa ja aika paljon finskeja naytti olevan. Valokuva on Nairobista, missä kavimme valipaivana apinoita morjestamassa. Mites Risto se sanonta menikään: Apina pois selästä? Katsotaan kuinka se projekti onnistuu lähivuosina. Tätä tekstiä kirjoitettaessa huomasin, etta Markku "shadow" Varjon koneesta löytyy myös ääkköset!

hullu saa olla, mutta ei tyhma

Laitetaan nyt tulemaan hiukan enemman paivitysta, kun muutamaan paivaan en ole nettiin paassyt. Saavuimme siis varhain tiistai aamuna Nairobin kentalle tietoisena siita, etta maassa on kaynnissa melkoinen konflikti. Emme Jaakon kanssa kuitenkaan muuttaneet lippuja vaan lahdimme riskilla matkaan. Tarkoitus oli paasta Eldoretin kaupunkiin mahdollisimman turvallisesti. Maantiet olivat kuitenkin tukossa, eika maassa liiku bensa ym. rahtitavara. Kaupat ovat olleet monin paikoin kiinni vaikka on ollut arkipaiva. Kauppoja on ryostelty ja taloja poltettu. Paakaupungissa Nairobissa oli rauhallisen oloista paivasaikaan, mutta illalla oli rahinat kaynnissa. Tiedotusvalineet ovat ottaneet tilanteen vakavasti samoin kuin suurlahetysto. He ovat kehoittaneet suomalaisia siirtymaan turvallisempiin kaupunkeihin ja onpa heita uhattukin ja haettu helikoptereilla ja lentokoneilla turvaan. Oppositio ei ole hyvaksynyt vaalien tulosta ja vaatii aanien uudelleenlaskentaa. Ylankoalue on aluetta, missa kahden presidentti ehdokkaan kannattajat asuvat. Istuvan presidentin kikuju heimo on ollut painostuksen alla paikoissa, missa rahinaa on esiintynyt. Juoksijat ovat paa-asiassa kalenjin heimoa, joka on hyvaa pataa opposition ehdokkaan luo heimon kanssa. Seurauksena on ollut vakivaltaisuuksia ja suotta ei olla pelatty Ruandan kaltaista kansanmurhaa, jossa kolmessa kuukaudessa tapettiin miljoona ihmista kivilla ja veitsilla. Pahinta tilanne on ollut ylankoaluieilla, joten sinne ei ehka kannata menna vaistelemaan kivisadetta. Saippa on paikan paalla reenaamassa ja toivotaan etta mies palaa sielta vahingoitumatta takaisin. Spedeilla ei kannata, mutta eihan KipSaiPpa edes juurikan erotu paikallisten joukosta. Niin hyvin mies maastoutuu!

Tama paivitus tulee OP:n toimistolta, rauhan tyyssijasta, ja paasen kirjoittelemaan kuulumisia jatkossa useammin. Kuva on otettu Nairobista, missä ehdin yhden lenkin tehdä ja senkin juoksumatolla.