Liftoff - then back to earth

That's it, I've booked our flights to Kenya. Liftoff is December 20. We'll be spending Christmas in tents in the Lewa nature reserve.

I thought booking the tickets was going to be an exciting moment, but instead it was pretty stressful. It was a few nights ago. Marietta wasn't feeling well and had gone to bed early, so I was sitting alone in the dark in the kitchen, my face peering into the computer screen as numbers added together like some frenzied multiplying machine until they were up to £4,000. The digits were losing all meaning. Was that a lot? Then I had to fill out hundreds of details for five people. Long passport numbers that seemed too small to see. Then the site crashed. Back to the beginning, start again. And once I finally clicked BUY, it wasn't clear if I'd actually bought them. I got a "transaction successful" message, but also an error message telling me to call the airline. It was after midnight. I went to bed grumpy.

Nonetheless, flights booked - I checked the next day, it was all fine - it was back to running. Except I've got a little tweak behind my knee. Hopefully nothing serious. I've been reading Christopher McDougall's bestselling book Born To Run. He claims most injuries are actually caused by running shoes. He makes a pretty good case for it too, in his gung-ho American way. Those damn shoes make you land like some goddam clown on those ol' heels, when you were always supposed to land on your soles, like god intended. McDougall is revered by the barefoot running movement, which is getting stronger by the day. Most of them don't actually run barefoot, but in shoes that offer some minimal cushioning and support. Even Nike do a pair now, which shows how big the movement has become.

I tried it out, running sans shoes, this afternoon. I ran to Regent's Park in my lunchbreak, took my shoes off and then ran around some football pitches. It was too short a test to be conclusive, but I found my running style instantly changed to a shorter, faster stride pattern. This is supposed to be good, according to the barefoot runners. I felt like a runner from the 1960s - when of course shoes had less support. Did people get injured less then? I don't know.

It was quite nice, however, putting my trainers back on afterwards. They felt warm and soft like pillows. Heavy pillows.