What a week. I was away in Sapa, Vietnam, where it rained for the first half of the week, and then it was cloudy for the last couple of days, which meant, inevitably, I got incredibly bad sunburn.

It was good to get away, but I never quite got the “training camp” I had imagined. Perhaps I should have braved the rain a bit more, or neglected work a bit more, or my partner a bit more… but the whole idea is that it is possible to do something as silly as this Japan run without grinding out the miles and sacrificing everything for the cause. I’m hoping that hypothesis holds true, but I know that I’m going to have to get myself back on track now that I’m back in the heat of Hanoi.

🚂 Training Summary

Training has been adequate. There hasn’t been anything much in the way of supplementary training this week. No strength training, no yoga. There has, however, been a bucketload of walking around, hiking in the hills, and plenty of running uphill.

I haven’t managed to run as far as I had hoped this week. If the weather had been better, if we hadn’t had a last-minute accommodation switch, and if my work had gone smoothly, I’m sure I’d have run well over 120 kilometres. In the end, I’ve just fallen slightly short of 90 km, although I have managed to get over 2200m of ascent into that distance.

☀️ Photo from the Road

🧠 Running Through My Head

I spent a lot of time this week thinking about how much we have, and how little some make do with.

I found it sad walking around Sapa, seeing the children hard at work late into the evening. A girl under three dressed in traditional clothes, made to dance for the cameras; another who can’t have reached four, with a baby strapped to her back, walking alone through the streets; another barefoot, selling trinkets to tourists. It broke my heart not to be able to help.

Perhaps the other thought was this: I want to help make the world a better place.

🗓️ This Week I Have Mostly Been…

🎵 Listening to: (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay - Otis Redding
📚 Reading: I Tried To Run Really Far - Lewis Matthews - about one man’s 3000-kilometre run along the Te Araroa Trail in New Zealand
🎥 Watching: Joy’s videos from Hong Kong and China - Hopefully she’ll have one about Sapa, Vietnam, soon!

📺 In Case You Missed It…

We finally got that video of me running a 100-kilometre week on YouTube:

🚀 Next Up

It’s a hot week ahead here in Hanoi, but I’m hoping to hit the mileage hard and maybe even make it up to a 100-mile week. Wish me luck.

🏁 Finish Line

I didn’t plan on doing anything for charity on this run. It’s not me doing something terribly uncomfortable or impressive, and I don’t like the idea of asking people to sponsor me to do something I’d do anyway. But after seeing the children in Sapa, I’m not so sure.

In an ideal world, we wouldn’t need to support charities to fix things that our taxes should be paying for, but we do not live in that ideal world. I’m tempted to use this run to support a children’s charity, but which one (or ones!) should I choose? Any ideas are welcome.

Thank you for reading and for all your support.

Take it easy,

Phill