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: 2011-04-15 2011-04-17 Chile West

2011-04-16:

9
Distance today: 49.0 km (Accumulated: 24784.0 km)
Elapsed time: 04:26:42
Country: Chile West

Start 09:19am, 12c, almost clear & no wind. At green citysign "La Ballena", 100m. off the Hwy.5 North.
Finish 14:46pm, 26c, cloudy and w.wind. At blue km-marker "km 228" on hwy.5 (Panamerican highway) North.

Shaken.. ;-)

I have now run nearly 200km North on the Panamerican highway which, if all goes well, will be my ´companion´ for the next approximately 6-7000km as it winds its way up along the South American continent.

My main impression so far is that of the Pacific Ocean - its always in the world runs a Joy to once again see the ocean after a few thousand km´s inland when growing up in an ocean-side contry like denmark ! The other main impression so far, on this West side of the Andes´ is the "daily shake":

Chile is located on a very active spot where the tectonic plates of the earth grind together resulting in both volcanic activity as well as earthquakes. Contrary to what I imagined earthquakes isnt always dramatic destructive incidents, though ! Its daily events here, where I have come accustomed to falling asleep feeling the tentground or logcabin vibrating gently for 30sec. or maybe a minute. There are even websites here in Chile which keeps track of these ´small earthquakes´ and apparently there are normally several per day.

.. A strange but not at all unnatural way to feel a new connection to the ever-developing planet we live on !

But I have also in other ways been shaken´ during the couple of days since the last update. The amount of difficulties has been very close to overwhelming; all in all its perhaps small things but at present amounting up to a wall of troubles making the focus to run the daily stages a bit hard. I am hoping that the shipment of runningshoes (which got delayed due to customs ´problems´/corruption?, now more than 6 weeks ago, in Argentina, will soon arrive so I again can have my running shoes from my good sponsor Ecco), the car has now daily problems meaning that I at some point soon will have to return to Santiago, the capital of Chile, to try to eigher get it properly repaired or buy a new car - though there isnt at the moment room in the budget for eigher of that ! The documentationsystem by endomondo has for reasons that I dont understand, started to not be able to track the entire stages continually, meaning that it shuts down randomly several times during a stage, resulting in the daily gps-data beeing spread in 2 to 10 small ´sets´, which you probably have seen in the live section. I hope that it soon will be possible for visitors to browse the entire data so that people atleast can add together the daily stages (it is details perhaps, but documenting the run fully and properly all the way is one of the highest priorites for me and when that isnt happening smoothly it strongly affects the daily run). Added to this little list of ´fun´ its been nearly impossible to find a place to camp after the daily stages in this part of Chile, resulting in hours of driving around on the small rural sideroads after the stages are finished; trying to find a campspot while the car is overheating.. Once getting stuck in a gravel ditch to top up the experience ;-)

The phone - by accident broke down and I had to buy a new four days ago. Which cant use my danish simcard - thus communication is nearly cut off as well as the normal sms-update of the website.

Yes; its ceartainly not only the small earthquakes which has shaken me lately ;-)

STILL, the legs are functioning well and there are several other positives to be found within the fight to continue the run, that I am in at the moment. To mention two main factors which brings me forward is that I am lucky to have an excellent webmaster who have uploaded and edited together some of the video´s from the run across the Andes Mountains (which contrary to now, went Lucky, as much could have gone wrong when running at 4000m. alt.) and I hope you can enjoy those moments captured up there untill I am able to find another internetconnection and upload the previous days reports along with the daily pictures and gps-track. Its not been the only time where mr. Leonhardt has been one of the foundations of the run :-) Thank You !!!

The other positive factor is the new supportdriver and cameraman, Alex, from Usa, who has taken over while Jamie from England takes a rest in Santiago and edits some of the video already recorded the first 3500km since Punta Arenas. Alex is planned to drive the supportcar for three months untill I, if things go a liiiitle bit more smoother than now, should reach Peru - and my 40y. birthday ! Alex, whom I have never met before, has quickly proven to be able to handle all these problems which has been ´raining´ on our little team w. a strong positive spirit and had it not been for his "I think we can get it working again" attitude, I would be in far bigger problems w. continuing ! Nice to experience a person putting such entusiasm into the run; it ceartainly comes at the right time :-)

So; shaken but not stopped in my tracks I continue and hope for your patience reg. the updates. It may take a week or so before I have found a way to get communication & updates working from the remote areas here.

PS: And THANKS for the positive emails I´ve recieved lately !! Not least the encouragement from friends and runners in South Africa, Sweden and Usa.. It is Much appreciated :-)