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News The latest 7 news 2010-02-22:Life Pilot online tracking system is working again. It uses less power on the GPS, and is therefore preferable. 2010-02-05: Jesper is now sending live data with Nokia Sports Tracker. Use the link below, and select "Running", zoom and pan to South Africa. Find the user "Worldrun2" in the list. If you want fast access to all the "workouts" you have to register your self. You can invite Worldrun2 as your friend. >> Nokia Sports Tracker >> Direct link to Worldrun2. Needs login 2009-12-24: Second Video from Tanzania is edited, and available here. Some speach are in danish, and are subtitled. Remember to enable subtitles. Video is encoded i divx. Use the divx player to avoid problems. >> Video from Tanzania (140MB!!) >> Divx codec and player 2009-12-12: Video from Kenya is edited, and available here. Some speach are in danish, and are subtitled. Remember to enable subtitles. Video is encoded i divx. Use the divx player to avoid problems. >> Video from Kenya (140MB!!) >> Divx codec and player 2009-09-26: Now pictures from Sudan are available in the gallery. You can browse backward day by day. >> Gallery 2009-07-01: One year report 1 year and nearly 15 000km has passed since the start at Europe's most northern point, at Nordkapp in Norway, 1. July 2008. A run across 3 regions; Europe, Middle-East and N. Africa, through 17 contries: Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Czeck Republic, Slovak Republic, Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia. But in runs & expeditions as this its always more important to look ahead than back :-) So I'll start by an overview of how the road ahead feels at this point, w. a bit over 25 000km left to run ! Beyond Cape Town ? While it does not appear impossible to reach the Southern tip of Africa, roughly 6000km away through Tanzania, Mozambique and S.A. - it is a quite different matter weather I can continue beyond that. There is a series of things wich makes it Unlikely that I can or will be able to embark on running through S. America, Cuba and N. America: First of all the body has several times been near or at its 'breaking point' in this run; not only due to physical fatigue for months on while running through 6 deserts (Syrian d., Jordan d., Sinai d., Sahara, Nubian d. & Marsabit volcanic desert), across 3 mountain chains (Transsylvanian mts., Anatolian mts. & Ethiopian highlands) and through periods of food and water shortage. No, mainly the body simply seems to recover slower than in world run one wich I completed at age 33. Tomorrow I have my 38. birthday and while I feel 28, ... ;-), the body ceartainly struggles more to recover from one expeditionday of running, tenting, finding food, adjusting to terrain, climate, cultures, illness and navigating the maps (geographical & motivational :-) to the next. Yet this is not the main thing marking the run beyond Cape Town w. a big "?". As always in ultrarunning Motivation is The Key Factor ! And I've struggled in this area like never before in my 24 years of competitive running. In short because especially Ethiopia w. stonethrowing as the rule, not the exception, and its general shocking lack of decent or even just not aggressive behavior made me consider stopping many of the approx. 50days it took me to run through this hellish contry (please excuse the expression, I prefer truth for politeness and this was how I expiriensed it, as did bicyclists whom I met and/or discussed w.) and forced me to take restdays to recover after stone hits, ending the non-stop part of the record attempt. However its not as simple as that ! I am at another point in my life than during the 26 thousand km of wr1. Now there are other priorities and concearns than 'just running' into the horizon and compleating the Goal. And, if one thing, expeditions and run's around our planet require Clearity and absolute Focus every day of the run. Else it can at best go wrong. - to give an example of many: I have a sweet girlfriend who visits me and follows the joys & dramas of the run. But.. No one can be expected to wait forever. So, if I reach Cape Town and have yet a year and a half ahead; a choice has to be made. Anyone can imagine its not an Easy one. Painfull eighter way ! Another is the question of economy: All personal savings and financial backup has been used in order to get safe through the extremely demanding parts of E. Africa and buying a supportcar for water & security. I have a Very good financial sponsor - Ecco, who also provides me w. their running shoes (THANK YOU for beeing there all the way !! And a number of excellent product sponsors :-) - but w.o. other financial backup Ill 'run dry' early in S. America. Not very big amounts, but enough to make food and water an issue beyond my personal eco. reach if I also buy a cheap support-car wich is crucial for supplies in S. America like it has been here in Africa. So.. that would ofcourse end the run ! But, there is fortunately also a number of positive factors wich makes it a "case not closed" :-) - The Curiosity, the Urge to get to, and past, the previous limits of long dist. running. The temptation to try to pass the Andes Mountains running (more than 4000m. alt. to cross and several 3000m's). To add the last runable continent to the list conquered and to compare the micro-knowledge' w. what I found and experiensed when feeling each km of the other continents in wr1 & 2. Besides, but not least, having Fantastic Support from my logistics coordinator mr. Phil Essam from Australia, my webmaster and creative technical-solutions wizzard' Kasper, Sarah who ran w. me the first 7000km making me able to start the run, my friend Vlastimil and fellow ultrarunning competitor who picked up my courage when I reached his home-region in Cz. Rep. after tough stages through Poland, Kelly "Rambo" who has run w. me at several points on the route, and old & new running friends across the contries and continents :-) THANKS !!! Yet when all is said I think its safe to conclude that many of the troubles and obstacles is partly due to not planning proper for Africa. In essence I didnt have an understanding of just how difficult the logistics and how unavoidable severe illnesses would be (for ex. during 3 weeks I had 40c fever, sharp stomack pains, nausia and vomiting, regularly twice per week; not ideal for running in the tropics and not the only illness 'enjoyed' ;-) - To get an idea, many of the devastating things in planning, executing and personalities can be found in Torkil Hansens account of the Carsten Niebuhr expedition to Arabia more than 100y. ago.("Det Lykkelige Arabien", only in danish language, sorry !). Nor how tough conditions my very loyal and persistant supply-driver in E. Africa, Tommy, would face on a daily basis. Im Amazed he still hangs on and masters the task w. a smile and a joke !! But in my oppinion its not wether you prepared optimal or not wich counts; its wether you complete ! I think many who like me are fascinated by the expedition/explorer heritage, also admires the Heroic efforts; perhaps most of all that of Ernest Schackleton - not reaching across the Arctic but saving his entire crew from almost certain diseaster by a titanic effort (and thus opening the chapter of modern expedition values/modernity). - But not so for me. My 'heroes', if I had such, are expedition leaders as Roald Amundsen, Vitus Bering and Scott: accepting huge expenses and meeting the worst of possibilities but reaching their destination, even if it comes w. a Cost. That is my inspiration or 'nature' along w. the Joy of Running and that is the main strength (and weakness ;-) in relation to get towards the wr2. (But my real Heroes are raughter the average people who go out of their way to help people as me w.o. getting the credit or tasting the sweetness in the cases when huge tasks suceeds, yet They are often what constitutes the difference between success and the opposite :-) .. The warm meals offered by Siberian babuskas' in wr1; the protection from stonethrowing kids by a teacher in Maksenit village in Ethiopia; the outstanding help by Heitham amongst others at the danish embassy in Damaskus; the accomodation, grand meals & friendship by Amos in the small cholera plagued village of Laisamis in the Kenyan desert; the incredible kindness by the people in Sudan/The Nubian Desert and .. the Warmth & hospitality of a danish girl in the middle of Sahara :-) - They are many like the stars. And as the night sky would have no beauty w.o. them; so also the world run's would be Unbearable without ! Higlights: The peak experienses so far in the run are - Running in arctic Scandinavia during the 24h a day sun above the arc. Circle the first weeks in N. Norway and entering Finland. - The reception, support, hospitality and entusiasm in Finland; a heaven to be an endurence runner in :-)) - The extreme Support by the sports federation in Syria !!!! You have to read the reports and see the pic. from that part to get a glimse.. - The sweetness and wellcoming I was met w. in Sudan and particularly the Nubian Desert. A contry wich by all officials came w. a warning sign due to religious & pol. controvercies w. denmark - but wich proved to be so gentle and giving at each village & step of my way that Im sorely Sorry that the main media also in this case sees their 'mission' (?, apart from revenue) to present only the negative or extreme story. Indeed, in no other region did I feel more safe than when running in the muslim Middle-East once I learned to understand their world. With pol. science as my education I know the dynamics and mecanisms of int.politics; but I cant help feel that its such a Loss to us All that we after the cold war replaced the Communist threat w. the Muslim threat. Daily life in those contries are so far from what we learn from the media 'reality'. Go there and see for your selves; but be prepared for a lot of invitations, friendship and quriosity but not critique (!) towards our world :-) - The nature in Romania, running the ancle deep snowtrail at remote areas of the Transsylvanian Mts. (home of the dracula/vampire myth ;-)) Pushing the stroller through mud, snow and vast silent pine forrests surrounded by mtn. peaks and wild riwers. - Tenting w. Sarah at the surprisingly Beautifull inner areas of Turkey w. a fantastic variation of nature ! - Meeting my girlfriend at mid. Sahara / Khartoum; making a tired desert-runner see the road ahead. And see the Beauty of the moments. Not to forget the continuous support from Phil, Sarah, my extremely enduring supportdriver Tommy 'the gun', the friends & runners 'back home' - wich perhaps by now means the contries I've had the pleasure to run through in wr2 or wr1 :-) The 'Bad': Egypt's corruption in police and public sector along w. "forreigners are money, not people" mentality, Ethiopia w. its surprisingly unpleasant way of disrepecting themselves and others. A contry w. much potential but precious little initiative, in extreme contrast to how for example their naibourghs like the Kenyans seems to grasp any oppounity to develop themselves, their land and their relations w. others :-) Other hard moments was reaching "empty" motivationally several times so far ! Tropical deceases. Unluck/troubles in generous amounts ;-) - Wich once again translates to not beeing properly prep. for Africa !! So, wether I can continue after Cape Town ? As my good friend Aimo fr. Finland would say: "It will take one h... of a Fight"; and in all realities of it, it is probably not possible. But, I do love the fight - the one that is not possible to win, except is you refuse to accept other than your 'Sisu' and the road ahead ! I hope the last chapter in wr2 is not written at or before Cape Town. Yet that is not possible to know - wich is part of what makes it interesting to me; that you never know what follows the next step when you are proceeding the extreme Limit, except that it will demand everything. Wich Life often does at its best :-) 2009-06-11: Jesper has reached GPS coverage in Kenya. He Expects a few days with live data before he reaches "the middle of nowhere" once again. >> Live coverage 
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