My mother is worrying about Emma’s knees. She hasn’t met Emma but she’s worrying about her knees and threatening to not sponsor us … I promise to allow Emma days off.
Handily, Emma turns up at the climbing wall and we can chat about the route and her knees. I discover I have been wrong about her terrain preferences.
Gravel and sand – yes, tarmac – no more than a few kilometres. She likes up hills but running downhill is bad for her … knees. How am I supposed to get her up a hill and not down? Anna, who’s listening, suggests roller skates. Perhaps we should change the challenge to 3000km uphill, then we can justify putting her on a sledge to go down.
Emma: “Can we include Kilimanjaro? I quite fancy running up Kilimanjaro.”
Me: “Are you serious?”
Emma: “Yeah”
Me: “Ok, I’ll have a look”.
Fortunately, Kili is north of northern Tanzania, I estimate an extra 1000k detour and Emma agrees to go some other time. Phew!
Head over Heels 2014 