Why everything starts at 5:45

People ask me why the club runs so early. The honest answer is heat: after 7am, running in Accra is a different, harder sport. But over five years the early start has become something more than a practical decision.

At 5:45 the city is not yet itself. The traffic has not started. The beach belongs to the fishermen and to us. There is a shared, slightly absurd commitment in being awake and out there together — and it bonds people faster than anything else I know.

Nobody remembers their split times. They remember who they ran next to.