When my alarm went off at 6am this morning, I must admit I was not the happiest of people. My muscles ached from Monday’s run and my daughter had decided to sing me the song of her people several times during the early hours which had not resulted in a particularly restful sleep. Nonetheless, I got up, got dressed, and stumbled out of the house in the direction of the lake.

Tirana is beautiful at this time in the morning- no cars, no confused tourists, and no daredevil motorcycle delivery drivers on the pavement doing their utmost to run you down. Blissful. The sun was shining, I had vintage Justin Timberlake blasting through my headphones and off I went.

Today’s half shuffle, half jog was incredibly tough. I kept thinking of my daughter, partner and three cats still snoring away in bed and I kept asking myself “what the f*ck am I doing here”. To motivate myself, I thought of Caroline chasing me for a deadline.

Smashed Monday’s time by three minutes.

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