Friday- the wind down day, everyone’s favourite day of the week, the beginning of a relaxing few days…but not for me, oh no. Because I, for some unknown, godforsaken reason decided to commit to running 10k in October which means getting out of bed at 6am every day and lumbering around a lake while everyone else is still tucked up in bed.

This morning I got an unusual amount of strange looks. I am accustomed to getting stared at- being 6ft 2 with blonde hair, I tend to stick out somewhat in Mediterranean/Balkan countries. I soon realised that the extra attention I was receiving was due to the fact I was wearing a t-shirt that said “Run Against Corruption” on the front, in both English and Albanian. I ran a 5k last November (whilst 2 months pregnant but not knowing) which was organised in honour of running around Tirana in a bid to fight corruption.

Now let me explain something, running against corruption in Albania would be like running against guns in America or running against money laundering in Malta- absolutely bloody pointless. It has about as much impact as making a cup of tea with a chocolate teapot and anyone seeing me with that shirt would have probably found it quite hilarious.

Strange looks aside, today was extremely hard. I really struggled to keep up the pace and although I finished in the same time (40 minutes- my target is 30 mins for 5k and 70 mins for 10k) it felt a lot tougher on my stomach muscles, leg muscles, and my poor old lungs. To be honest, I felt a bit sad and disheartened but then I remembered that even Olympic athletes have off days so I should cut myself a bit of slack.

Thankyou to those of you that have donated so far- just knowing that people are prepared to dip into their pockets to support me and more importantly, The Shift News is an incredible motivator. Day’s like today, after only four hours of sleep, every bit of encouragement makes a huge bit of difference. Without your support, I would not be running and The Shift News would be struggling to keep producing the important, independent journalism that has become synonymous with its name.

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