Training In Iraq

By the banks of the Euphrates, 135 km west of Baghdad in the city of Ramadi. Not sure whether it is a sunni stronghold or a shia frontline, but the consensus is that it is a stronghold of Al Qaida and other foreign militants whose sole job is to prevent my training to proceed as in a normal day back in the real world, also it may have to do with the thousands of US troops based here trying to rebuild Iraq and stop civil war.

have just found out it is a "sunni stronghold" and that the shia's would have trouble fielding a football team here, so the sunni's are to blame for my lack of training facilities, it is hard to run laps on the streets here, well you cannot so my training is restricted to the bases here, Camp Ramadi the main camp here is big enough to run in but the potholes and tank tracks make it a dangerous place, oh and the threat of mortars also make it les than an ideal location. That being said I did manage a nice 5 and half km run yesterday , hence the photo of running with the tanks as i approached the halfway turn around point a US tank was screaming up the road. If you think a crazed person on a SUV constitutes a life and death prospect, then avoid a 80 ton tank going full pitch towards the same intersection, I slowed down to allow him to pass before turning back.

I have promised Simply Stu (podcaster of Simply Stu a photo of a T shirt he sent me for competing in his inaugral worldwide triathlon last year - so Stu there you have it , Simply Stu's worldwide tri now includes Iraq.

This morning it was to the gym and that is the subject of my next blog later

Mal
Ramadi
Iraq