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: 2011-05-26 2011-05-28 Chile West

2011-05-27:

10
Distance today: 0.0 km (Accumulated: 25890.0 km)
Elapsed time: 00:00:00
Country: Chile West

REST !!

Today I have taken my monthly restday. And seldom has it been this SWEET :-)))

The past 5 days running on an incresingly rough trail along the remote coast of Northerne Chile gave an interest test, combining the daily challenge of keep pushing the run forward, navigating in a region where the maps contradicted themselves and the actual roadmarkers, making the logistics function - balancing supplies of food and water towards an uncertain "next supply-point", setting aside enough energy to pitch the tents at the end of the run and prepare the recovery (easy for my part as I usually eat cold food during the world run´s, it saves time & energy and gets the recovery going quicker; but harder for my supportdriver Alex who have had to find shelter to cook his food each evning along the windblown coast..).

But its the reward and thrill of meeting challenges, and especially those challenges which brings you very close to the nature across the continents of our earth; that is one of the main Joy´s of the world run´s, and is part of why I didnt settle for one lap of running (the world run one :-)

Yet, part of the joy of difficult challenges - is the Pleasure of the brief moments of intense rest which follows.

As you can see from the pictures its somewhat of a luxury accomodation I have treated myself to this time: a 4 room suite at a luxury appartment hotel. It may seem outrageous with this kind of luxury suddenly, and its not absolutely inexpensive either. But part of beeing able to handle runs where the finishline isnt 10km, 100km, 1000km or 10 000km away, or 1 hour, 1day, 7days, 1 month or half a year away - is to once in a while ´´stuck up on comfort´´ too, the same way one would stock up on food, water, runningshoes etc., before heading for the next long remote streatch of running.

Else the thought of home, of the well-known, the convenienses; of "comfort" will bit by big become a daily nag´ especially when running across the continents different from Europe, North America and Australia where a 30-40km run a day, as for example when traing for a race, might be a much more pleasurable challenge as far as comfort goes :-)

It may not sound obvious, but one of the main obstacles to overcome is that of "not beeing home" for more than a year at a time, and contrary to when beeing abroad for work - the constant running forward which as far of nature and culture experienses is fantastic, also means that each day concludes with that a new place of the world must become "home" for the night. It can draw much much more energy out of the body than any given distance I run each day. I guess it perhaps is because where we as humans through evolution have developed to be able to move and be in motion (walk or run) for many hours per day and even enjoy it ! - Perhaps just not doing this the last couple of decades where officework has become still more common - then we are as species also adapted to settling down at a specific place for long periods at a time; even nomads seem to stay at the same territory for long intervals during the seasons. And as strongly as I after a few months of running in each world run begin to feel how running the daily distances feels profoundly "natural"; then the constant "not beeing at the same place" can slowly begin to drain energy and feel difficult to cope with eventually.

So; an ´injection of luxury´ once in a while comes in handy, staying at the same place for a day or two, and its a way to prevent it from becoming a problem. And I am very gratefull to especially my good financial sponsor, Ecco, for making it less of worry when it comes to the financial part of the luxury. Then I can focus on the exiting ´worry´ of how to get the running, logistics and navigation to come into one unity for the next remote but amazing streatch ahead :-)

I´d like to take the oppotunity of the restday to also send a big GREETING to all the running friends in the different contries: Your messages and support is what creates luxury when I am not near to any kind of hotel, city, supplies or shelter and am uncertain of when I will reach comfort again. Amazing to have such friends and amazing that you keep track of the run :-)) THANK YOU !!!