Running in the heat of corona medicine

Running in the heat of corona medicine

My Monday run was done in the most blazing heat that I experiencing for the first in over five-weeks.  I started the run at 12.40pm when it was already shinning overhead.  The usual overcast weather of the last month was gone.  I hoped that the sun would relent, and probably give way to a cloud cover, but this did not happen.

“This is bad!,” I talked to myself as I passed the 3km mark on the other side of Waiyaki way.  I would soon run under the Uthiru flyover, and turn right to head towards Ndumbo.  The shine persisted even as I passed by Ndumbo.  If anything, the temperature was added a notch higher.

“At this rate, I shall surely collapse!,” I heard that inner voice saying.  I was on a routine Monday run, where I would normally not carry my water bottle.  It is a run that would last for about 100 minutes.  I would normally manage such a run ‘without a sweat’ when the weather is favourable.  

But today?  Not today.  I was already suffering a thirst when I hit the 7km at Lower Kabete road junction.  I was soaked sweaty even as I now faced the uphill run that would result into the left diversion to Mary Leakey, then through the deserted university farm.

The heat continued.  My thirst started up.  I kept going.  The run would continue at a steady pace despite the heat.  I somehow managed to get to Kanyariri ACK church, then to the shopping centre, where I would normally U-turn back.  I however, kept going.  I wanted to add one kilometre to the day’s run.  That meant pushing myself into the hot draught upto Gitaru market where I would do a U-turn.

Gitaru market came, and Gitaru market passed.  I did not do the U-turn.  I kept going.  I had now decided to just go round the big circle around the Gitaru market.  That would mean getting to Nakuru highway at the Southern by-pass turn off, then taking a bit of Wangige road, before getting back around Gitaru market.  

This is the second time that I had failed to do a U-turn when I had the opportunity to do so, but sometimes the run can get the better of you and make you forgo even the best of pre-plans.

The heat was however unrelenting on this day.  I could hardly notice the now completed tarmac road towards Wangige.  The very section that had been blocked and full of soil for the longest time possible before today.  The tarmac was still under finalization, but the vehicles were already using it.  I ran on it for about a half-a-kilometre, before I was forced to turn right to get back to Gitaru market.  

I was then faced with the run back on Kanyariri road.  The route that would take me back to Ndumbo.  How I survived that 6k back to Ndumbo is still a mystery.  It was hot!  I was thirsty!  I was dehydrated!  My fuel reserves had all evaporated in the sun.  I was just forcing a leg forward followed by another.

I regained confidence that the run would somehow be finished when I rejoined Waiyaki way under the Uthiru flyover after about two hours of running.  I now had only 3km to go.  I would have to finish these 3k, even if it is the last thing that I did….

My mind would drift back to a meeting a had hardly 24hrs before, in a house just behind my back at Uthiru.  It would not take long before the corona topic came up.

“Hakuna korona,” I would inform them.

“What do you mean ‘hakuna’ and people are dying like the end of the world even in the US?”

“My conclusion is based on the study of the TZ case.  Their last corona case was in early May.  They have never had another statistic since then.  That surely means that there is no corona!”

My sis-in-law would immediately confess that a colleague of her’s – the next desk person – was surely diagnosed with TT in June.  It forced the whole office staff into tests, isolation-as-they-waited-for-results, before they were cleared back since they were not infected.

“Imagine the guy just complained on a sore throat.  I jokingly encouraged him to go for a covid test.  Little did I know that the test would be positive!  I was kind-a-joking but it happened so fast!”

“Hata mimi I had some flu-like symptoms two weeks ago,” my brother updated us, “And I was forced to go for the corona test!  I am glad I did not have it.”

“Na hiyo test,” my in-law started and shook her head, “Wacha tu!  Hiyo test!”

‘Wacha tu’ would mean leave the test(ing) alone.  Do not dare.  Do not try it!

“Wana kuingiza ka kijiti kakubwa kwa mapua!  Ni uchunguuuu!  Wacha tu! I tell you!”

That is it!  Do not dare!  Do not try it!  The test is nasty, bad, something not to wish on your worst enemy of enemies.  However, what must be done must be done and there is no gain without pain.  So, when the time comes, do a ‘Wacha tu’ after the test!

Soon we would get suggestions on all manner of medicine for COVID-19, as volunteered by the discussions among the six or so adults in the room.  They recommended the ‘corona medicine’ as a mixture of ginger and lemon.  There it is – the corona medicine.  Do not say that you did not hear of the medicine.  There, you see it?  They did not go into the details of how many parts of what goes into the mixture.

“There it is!  That is the medicine.  Take it or leave it!  Do you want it or not?”

The discussions at that meeting of yesterday just filled my mind as I kept running on autopilot.  I was all smiles as I finished my 27.5k run in 2hr 15min 06sec on this hot run.  I am glad that my mind had drifted into the TT territory, since that had kept me going and finally smiling.  

However, the number of global infections had just reached 20M or 20,147,024 to be numerically correct.  736,098 people had died while 12,990,691 had recovered.  That meant that the active cases were about 6.4M.  Kenya’s numbers were 26,928 infections, 423 fatalities and 13,495 recoveries.  My smile would momentarily change into a hopeless stare at those grim stats.

WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, 10-Aug-2020