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Writer's pictureCathie Rooyen

Running a city

This morning I woke up wondering where I was and then I remembered that the bathroom sensor light had randomly switched itself on a few times in my double sized bathroom. My morning meeting had been changed to closer to lunchtime and check out time was a gracious 11am. How to plan my morning?


To run or not run, was my biggest question.

I have run on a coffee tour of Johannesburg before and that was amazing but then I was with three young strapping men. This time I was 'stick, quiet, alone' -(a direct translation of a local expression). So do I risk taking the chance of my solo venture when the staff were almost dissuading me from walking alone the previous day? The traffic was minimal being early Saturday morning and the streets looked quiet from my third floor window.


Suddenly I was in my lycra, tiny phone in pocket and ready to go. If I can't run in one of my local cities, how will I manage my world tour alone? I had an idea of where I wanted to go so off I went. On route, I had numerous eyebrow raises, a few good mornings and one sweetie chanting 'faster, faster..'




I laughed and clicked my tiny phone's camera, grateful for my new memory card to store the pictures. Sadly the quality of the photos date back to 1998 so I can't load many, but what a fabulous run. The undesired runs are often the best.


My research trip went fast and furious with my very quick colleague driving around most of the places I had serendipitously run a few hours earlier. This time I was armed with my smart phone.




Like much of South Africa, the city is full of contrasts but has a magic of it's own and is hard to describe, but best to experience.

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