I’ve often been told that Azadi Park, a nearby amusement park and green space, is packed with joggers in the early morning hours. I’ve always imagined it as an ex-pat haven packed with blond ponytails and friendly hellos. The problem has always been the early morning hours part– a key component when considering the 100 degree heat and unusual appearance of jogging here.

Then my cousin and I decided to drink coffee at 1 am in an attempt to be awake when the next halparke kurdi or kurdish dancing song came on. Which is how I wound up still wide awake at 5 am: problem solved.

I threw on some leggings under my shorts, grabbed a pair of my cousin’s gold soccer cleats, and headed out into the pre-dawn glow.

By the time I made it back to the Fuad Family Compound, I wanted to limp– those sweet gold shoes were a tad too small, and I now have eight neat blisters on my feet. However, I was determined not to show any weakness in front of all the pesh merga soldiers, who looked at me with consternation when I’d left. I felt like I’d just finished a big race, though the competition– social norms and public scorn– was a bit different from the well-trained athletes of high school track & field. I arrived home with not only a much needed route for independence and escape, but also a better sense of my geographical surroundings.

Google maps doesn’t have any road names for Sulaimaniya, despite a twitter campaign to modernize the map. Though the roads actually do have names, as of recently, landmarks are the preferred method of orientation. My grandpa always insists on giving me joke directions: turn left at the first pile of manure and turn right at the second pile of manure, he’ll tell me. (He’s also known to once have found the airport in an unfamiliar city by following airplanes as they landed, so the joke is half on him). You get around this city by learning the names of hotels and shopping centers and the locations of politician’s houses.

Still, I’m a map person, so when I got home at 6 am I logged onto GoogleMaps and then MapMyRun and roughly located my route. I’m not sure when I’ll be awake again at such an early hour, but I can’t wait to go running again.