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: 2009-12-31 2010-01-02 Africa

2010-01-01:

8
Distance today: 28.0 km (Accumulated: 19391.0 km)
Elapsed time: 02:33:42
Country: Africa

Start 08:50am at entrance of the \"Ghost Mountain Inn\" on the exit rd. through Mkuze city, 3km off the N2 highway to Cape Town. 25c, overcast, humid and light wind. Finish 12:44 at the \"Baboab Inn\" on the N2 highway to Cape Town. 31c, almost clear and same.

Happy New Year to all !!

- The new year began very pleasantly with a surprise: 400meters after I started out on todays run I was met by Linda and her husband and daughter. We had previously run in the same multiday race, the South African 6day race near Johannesburg in 2008 and.. during the long multidays we all tend to become family after af few hundred of kilometres on the same track :-))

So Nice to be met and equally positive to find out that they had come to make sure I had support for the day, driving with food and water for me; a grand relief from pushing the stroller in front of me, filled with extra watersupplies, while keep running. And after the stage taking me to their house to stay for the night and the next couple of days !! The positives of the beginning of 2010 doesnt stop there, though: they have offered to take care of beeing support-car & crew for the next 3 days - wich makes the running immensely Easier to overcome. Comparatively I ran the last stage of the old year pushing the 40-45kg runningstroller together with Sarah for 51km hilly kilometres across a small mountain range at the border between Swaziland and South Africa. I have to admit that is a tall task when having 19 000km in the legs and 40c heat at midday on an african summerday. But it should also give a picture of How Much their support is appreciated !!

There is a chance that some runners will come out on the tarmac road and keep me company during the run both saturday and sunday. A great chance to catch up with other parts of the ultra-family.. :-)

And it comes with precise timing too: Sarah has just gone to Johannesburg to fly back to Australia to tend to her business and start preparing and training for the new season of multiday races she has lined up - She has been World Class company on the road when we ran through the kingdom of Swaziland together, and she is perhaps the only runner I know who could have struggled through the difficulties we faced and yet kept wanting more km to run !! No coinsidence as she is amongst the absolute top runners in the multiday races. And even through my pride forbids me to mention it, she is at the moment too strong a runner to be content with the short (comparatively to her daily training!) stages I can run untill I get to a climate more suited to my Scandinavian genes and untill I can make sure I am clear from a fair range of tropical deceases I have encountered and enjoyed while running through East Africa ;-)

But the new year good-fortune didnt stop at the support. The Ghost Mountain Inn where I stayed and celebrated New Years evening and also rested the previous day after the somewhat challenging 51km stage insisted in treating me to the stay !! And, it was indeed a Luxury Accomodation so it would have taken a fair cut in my finances to stay there. Instead I could run cleanwashed into the New Year after a dip in the swimmingpool and freshening up in the airconditioned room :-)

Something seems to suggest that the year that has just begun is going to be better than the one wich has just ended. And I cant help feel that maybe; Maybe, it will be possible to recover fully from the african challenges in this first half of the run and continue into its second phase: the 20 000km in direction North through South and North America. Certainly help like that of Linda and her family makes it one step closer to beeing Possible !