The road to 100k

Until today, I had only had five weeks in my life when I was able to run more than 100 kilometres. With a real-feel temperature of -20 degrees outside, I felt that another half marathon out to the airport in order to repeat this feat would be flirting with hypothermia, so I ended up cutting my morning run short. This, however, left me with a nagging 11 more kilometres to run to reach the 100 km milestone. Luckily, I was able to get into the nicest gym in Kiruna for an afternoon treadmill run and some strength training, so now I can, with good conscience, put a sixth 100k week behind me.

Listening to the BBC on my run, I was thinking that while we cannot say anything definite about the drone killing of Qassem Suleimani, as we do not have all the intelligence, the basic trajectory of US policy in the Middle East under Trump remains as counterproductive as ever. Instead of integrating Iran into the world economy and building on the progress of the 2015 nuclear deal, America is once again creating more chaos and instability. Even if there were to be regime change in Tehran (which I find even less likely now that the country finds itself pushed against the wall), the last decade in the Middle East and Africa should have made it clear that the real question is not whether authoritarian leaders can be toppled, but what will follow in the ensuing power vacuum.