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: 2010-01-08 2010-01-10 Africa

2010-01-09:

41
Distance today: 42.0 km (Accumulated: 19704.0 km)
Elapsed time: 04:12:40
Country: Africa

Start 07:35am. at green km-sign "Durban 17km" on the M4 hwy. 26c, o.c., humid and l. wind. Finish 12:34am. At green rd.sign "146 Amazintoni, .." at intersection of N2 to Port Shepstone & rd. 102, on rd. 102/Joyner rd. 28c, rain and same.

A Fascinating run through Durban !!

Today I was once again lucky to have good support from local runners as Kylie from Durban transported my luggage from start to finish making the run Much more enjoyabe - The best support I can get :-)

(pushing 40kg when having 19 000km in the legs takes out a lot.. but is needed to keep a low budget to enable the last half of world run 2 through South and North America).

And the stage today turned out to be one of the highlights of running through Africa !!

- The diversity of running first the laidback rural highway in the early african morning, then the beautifull beachfront next to the newly build landmark: a stadium for the soccer world championships later this year, then a streatch along a hectic up-class promenade between the waterline and the expensive highrise of hotels & restaurants, followed by a somewhat disoriented (despite Kylies good directions :-) run through central Durban w. old collonial building and grand architecture, along the harbour wich is one of Africas largest !, into the wharf area and by mistake running between railroad cargo and dusty heavy goods & recycling facilities where no white person was to be seen for a few km - but the black africans were helpfull and giving directions (and not violent criminals as the news often has it..) in an area where you might have expected to be helped off your mobile, gps etc ;-)
Finally into the old indian naighbourhood w. lots of small family businesses just South of town along the narrow streets of South Coast Road and out along the busy highway where the day started good and well 40km North of the finish.
What a Day :-)

- pictures & video from this odusse through Durban can be found in the live coverage section for todays stage !

ps: A little reminder from yesterday where Alister introduced me to the local shelter in Durban for abused children, women & men where they as well as offering help and housing 24h. a day, 7d. a week, also host a free medical clinic and testing facilityfor aids. Unlike in Scandinavia these social institutions are w.o. any public funding and entirely based on voulenteer work & private funding !

And while I dont promote large charity entreprises (but perhaps small-scale by showing by world run 1 & 2 that the "other" cultures are a lot more friendly and peacefull than you might come to expect from watching the evening news in any given contry :-) then I do like to help promote local charity. And "TheOpen Door" crisis care centre in Durban, wich I was given a tour of after the run yesterday, definately does an amazing job. A few statistics: 40 000 people has recieved free counselling, over 7000 free meals has been served, it hosts 15 rooms for accomodation and 10 counselling rooms.

You can read more & how to donate on www.opendoor.org.za (official non-profit org. Reg NGO 005 920).