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: 2010-01-30 2010-02-01 Africa

2010-01-31:
Distance today: 0.0 km (Accumulated: 20229.0 km)
Elapsed time: 00:00:00
Country: Africa

Restday 6 of 6, healing the infection in right arm.

I have now spend 6 days near East London in South Africa waiting for the right arm to be ok again after yet another severe swelling & infection (first time was in Tanzania and later again while running in Mozambique).
I recieved excellent help & medical treatment by dr. Watson (!) in East London and I should be ready to continue the run tomorrow; starting where I left theroute last monday and running towards Cape Town, ca. 1200km away.

I was very lucky to kindly recieve free medical treatment by the doctor who gave himself good time to take care of the infection. Much Appreciated !! :-)

Also Grand help from Tony & family in E. London who took care of all formalities and logistics for me !!

However during the quiet restdays I begin to realize that there is a high probability that the run ends in Cape Town. The body & mind have been very worn down by the 10 000km long streatch of running straight through Africa in conditions we simply dont know of (luckily !) in the western contries. Even when preparing seriously & detailed for two years its not possible to imagine or prepare for the amount of monthly deceases to endure or the effects of lack of proper food, water shortages and 30 to 53c heat during 11months. All factors wich drains the body of energy to an extend I have never experiensed before.

In all reality its ofcourse lucky to have been able to run this far - and if reaching Cape Town becoming the first person to complete a run through Africa as well as to run from Europe to Africa etc.

But still its very difficult to make peace with, if I stop in Cape Town. As a runner you set out to complete what you start; and Cape Town is only half way of what I set out to do. And not least I find it difficult to let down all the fantastic people who has helped me on my run through their fascinating, strange & beautifull contries !! As well as the sponsors who has put in an equal effort to help me proceed running forward.

So we will see once in Cape Town in approximately 1 1/2 month. But I do know that the body is tellingme stop while its still good & in one piece - and despite the many things I have put it through over the years (100kms, 24hs, 6day races and the first world run..), its always been a point to listen to and respect the body. And that is a principle Id like to hold on to, instead of beeing forced to stop by breaking or injuring the body, so one way or the other I have 1200km to make my peace w. a decition :-)

Nb: The LifePilot system seems to also haveits problems. At present we are working on it and hopefully I should atleast be able to send pictures live to the website. If not sooner then when I reach Port Elisabeth in 2 weeks I should be able to repair the hardware problem and thus again also transmit the gps position live to the website. Sorry !!