World Run II / Reports

The map shows the position of which the pictures for the day are taken (if any). The start and finish markers are placed at the first and last valid registered position. This is not nessesary the actual start and finish position, if GSM or GPS signals was not available.

Goto: 2009-09-19 2009-09-21 Africa

2009-09-20:
Distance today: 15.0 km (Accumulated: 16169.8 km)
Elapsed time: 02:00:05
Country: Africa

Start 08:15am. at sign "Palma 40km", on the Mozambique side of the Tanzania - Mozambique border. 24c, clear and l. wind. Finish 11:01pm, at beginning of village "Quionga" on the road/sandtrack to Palma. 37c, very humid and no wind.

!

The support-arrangements I had didnt workout and as I waited at the borderstation in the morning I realized that the local driver I had spoken with yesterday wasnt going to come anyway (he drove by w. a full car as I was getting ready at our meeting time at 8am).

With none other options there was really no reason to stand and wait in the remote settlement - it would only get warmer and more humid. I checked the stroller & the supplies once more and then it was time to get running !

The first2km went well !!
- Then the sand in the wheeltracks/road through the tropical forrest got increasingly filled with loose sand. After 8km it was evident that even w. rest & water breaks each 20minutes I was dehydrating and worse: it was not really possible to run w. a stroller (much less a 40kg supply-filled stroller) on the sandpath through the rainforrest; it kept getting stuck in the deep sand each 10meters..

This is a hard moment when you have big projects like this ! In world run one it worked out even through Siberia (wich is still my pride :-) but you need an amount of luck if its to be running all the way.
And it may just not be there in this 2. run around the globe.

Surely if you 'cut corners' and cover some of the distance by other means thanrunning it may be possible - but then I'd raughter do something else; it would have nothing w. world running to do to begin taking out the 'impossible' parts. The whole point, as in wr1, is to proove that it is possible to run the entire way, and also to gain the experiense or 'knowledge' of physicallyexperiensing our world this way.

If I would have to 'cut corners' the run would have no more meaning to me than if I sat at home in the couch. So, there is a hard but obvious decition ahead:
- If I dont find a support I can trust out here and can continue the running; then it stops here. I will use afew days to research the oppotunities and I have found a ride the 100km up to the nearest city w. infrastructure, Mocimba da Praia.

I definately dont want to stop especially not due to all the support I have recieved from many places in the world; Finland, Syria, danish runners (one has paid for a supportcar in S. America ! Imagine :-), Australia, Czeck republic and many more places. And not least the sponsors !

But I dont honour their Grand help by 'bargaining' with the honesty of the run: eighter its running all the distance, or its stop.

We'll see in a few days !
- And, to fight some of the negativity/weight of the moment: If I can solve this support-problem in Mozambique the actually Cape Town isnt that far away anymore !!

.. There is a big difference between looking difficult realities direct in the eyes, and giving up, :-)