One more marathon on the books! It was my fifth full marathon (42 km/ 26 miles) overall, my third marathon of 2025, and my very first trail marathon. Dirt roads, forest trails and a few little hills in cold and slightly rainy Drenthe, which is in the northern part of The Netherlands. It's only a 30-minute drive further north to get to Groningen, the city I'm from. The event was relatively small, which is typical for off-road running races. There's nothing commercial or hyped

I'm in one of those periods where nothing tastes right. This happens several times a year and it usually lasts for a few weeks. It’s often related to stress, having a cold, or not being able to eat home cooked food for a while. Or: having to eat on a strict schedule. For example, during the 10-day Vipassana meditation course I did earlier this year I was forced to eat at exactly the same time every day, which bothered me. Strangely, I could tell that my body actually loved it

The Gambia’s food scene is pretty interesting. As expected, the local food is completely different from the tourist fare and because I live in a very touristy area I have easy access to both. The necessities As soon as I arrived in The Gambia I realized that while options are limited, I’ve got everything I need here. Supermarkets are small, but they import from Europe, Asia and even the US, so all the familiar stuff is present. At least the basics—not so much the fancy stuff.

Note: this post is a work in progress! Because there’s little publicly available information about road running, or any running, in Banjul/The Gambia, I'm sharing my experiences and collating the snippets of information I manage to gather. I'm a happy amateur runner living in Fajara since August 2025. When & where to run in The Gambia Sports and fitness are common in The Gambia, but long-distance running doesn't seem to be a thing here. As far as my observations go, there are