While the hundreds of runners who invaded Bermuda for International Race Weekend might have been disappointed by the cold, blustery winds and rain squalls which greeted their arrival, not everyone found the weather a problem.

In fact, when one's training regime has been divided between the sub-zero temperatures of north eastern Canada and the searing heat of Africa's Kalahari desert, then Bermuda's fickle but comparatively mild climate is nothing short of idyllic.

At least, that's how 27-year-old Canadian Stephanie Hodge might describe it.

An ultra-distance runner of some note, Miss Hodge breezed into Bermuda to run both the 10K and the marathon, before pondering her return to some of the most wild, beautiful, but unforgiving territory on earth.

A teacher with the Volunteer World University Services of Canada, she has spent much of the past three years in Africa -- two of those years in a tiny Botswanan village, Tse Tse Bjwe, where she was the only ex-patriate.

It was there, she says, her running career blossomed. Her home consisted of a small hut next to the school -- the only brick building in the village. And with little else to do outside her school duties, she took to running vast distances across the Kalahari, often in the middle of the night.

"If there was a full moon I'd get up at 3.30 in the morning to run to avoid the heat,'' she explained.

"But then there were other dangers...the leopards, the hyenas, the baboons, even lions.

"I soon learned it wasn't wise to run at dusk, because that was feeding time for the leopards!'' Escaping the wild life, she often ran with the local villagers who would skip over the rugged terrain barefoot.

"I'd always been a runner, but I'd never taken it seriously. Then, I found myself wanting to run longer and longer distances. I discovered I had more endurance than speed.'' Venturing away from Botswana, Miss Hodge competed in Zimbabwe -- finishing second in a 33-mile race -- and in South Africa where she completed the notorious Two Oceans race over 56 miles. Numerous other ultra-distance events were entered and conquered.

In comparison, Bermuda's 10K (6.2 miles) and marathon (26.2 miles) were completed with relative ease.

"I thought the weather on Sunday was just fine,'' she laughed. "In fact, the rain was just enough to keep you cool.'' She placed sixth female in the marathon in a time of three hours and 14 minutes.

Having returned last year from Africa to her native Labrador, where temperatures recently dipped to a bone-chilling minus 42, Miss Hodge found even the worst of the weekend weather "pleasantly warm''.

But it's unlikely she'll be among the hundreds who regularly return each year for the January running feast.

"If all goes well, I'll go back to Africa,'' she says. "I'm waiting to hear if I've got a job with the UN.'' And in the meantime she'll continue to pound the roads...come rain or shine.

STEPHANIE HODGE -- "I soon learned it wasn't wise to run at dusk, because that was feeding time for the leopards!''