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: 2011-04-20 2011-04-22 Chile West

2011-04-21:

16
Distance today: 0.0 km (Accumulated: 24808.0 km)
Elapsed time: 00:00:00
Country: Chile West

[4.day in Santiago searching for a support car after the old one broke down 250km N. of Santiago].

A Car !

It has been some very hard days nearly loosing any hope for continuing the run (but beeing prepared to in worst case run w. a backpack - though heading into the Atacama desert up the road in this style would leave a slim chance of making it across in fair condition as its the worlds dryest desert).

An avelanche of unluck pouring down untill a point where its hard to see any good principles at work here, and not least to keep the focus strong for the running which hopefully is left across this and the next continent. As you can see from yesterdays report we had a puncture right as we had gotten the old car startet and was on the main highway through the 4.9million people city of Santiago; on our way to try to trade it in so we could afford a better new car; but ending up mainly fighting to get it off the busy lanes of highspeed traffic while driving on the steel rim and the pieces of tyre left after the explosive puncture.
This was only the tip of the iceberg, unfortunately. And had it not been extremely disencouraging to keep trying to get the motivation back in place, then it would almost be humorous how many things thats gone absurdly wrong:
Besides the supportcar itself breaking down after a large number of problems and expensive repairs (but miracously making it across the Andes Mountains to support me while I ran at 4000m. alt. - see video in the "News" section), then the phones has broken down in the hard conditions whereupon the new one bourght in Chile cant be used to communicate back to Europe; once in Santiago to search for a new car I got a root-infection/inflammation in one of the teets (a bit painfull, but it eased off after 2days and I can eat w. the other side of the mouth), then early this morning fever and throwing up - just as we are to go and seal a negotiation w. a dealer who was willing to trade in our old battered car as part of the deal.
Not to mention the slight problem of having missed proper runningshoes since the beginning of March when argentinian customs took the contents for themselves instead of processing the contents forward (a surprisingly open form of corruption ;-), though my sponsor Ecco has done a huge job trying all methods to get a new packet through to me.
There are various minor things to add, but I guess most see the 'humor' of the situation: We have in our small team stopped to ask "what more can go wrong ?" as we have learned that we'll soon see anyways ! ;-)

But, no matter what. As long as the legs function and there is an earth to run on, Ill try my very best to continue.

And there Are Positives.

Mainly that I have a great team supporting me; my family helping getting my sponsoraccount avaliable on my creditcards here in Chile; once again Ecco for also their financial support (else it would be w. backpack towards an unknown destiny in the Atacama desert!); runners back in denmark which has given very valuable encouragement here at the peak of troubles; and not least the stubbon way my little 'Road Team' of english Jamie and american Alex has stood their ground and refused to let pessimism take over.

During the days here in Santiago where I nearly couldnt see a way to continue they have kept working on solutions; Jamie w. his knowledge of cars (and lending me the money missing to make a ourchase of a good car!) & Alex with his impressive spanish language knowledge, translating for hours and getting through various challenges like explaining the law-sections of the car deal as well as trying to solve the "Chile only" trouble w. the locked cellphone.

And together we finally arrived at a solution today: we got the old car (barely moving without overheating) traded in to an amount where the run just had finances enough to buy the new car that is a nearly 10years younger Peugeout Partner van w. a diesel engine which also should give us a bit better economy further up the road.

So it seems that some of the main obstacles are beginning to clear up after some hard days. I plan to continue the run where I left off 250km up the Pacific Ocean coast on sunday when we have prepared the new car properly, got all supplies and seen if we can do something about the shoe and phone situation while we still have the benefit of beeing in the capital as the options out in the remote coastal areas I am running through are limited.

Ps: Today I did a small 7km jogg around one of the main recreational areas of Santiago (see pic.). The previous 3days the disillusion has been too big to have any focus to run, however it was Great to be out running again and I miss the open road ahead toward new coasts, cultures, landscapes and learnings :-)

- You can see the pictures and the story which goes with the video (below) from running at 4000m across the Andes Mountains, at the report of 8. April.