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: 2011-09-26 2011-09-28 Peru

2011-09-27:

11
Distance today: 40.0 km (Accumulated: 28635.0 km)
Elapsed time: 03:45:36
Country: Peru

Start 10:27am., 26c, clear & light wind, at km-stone "795" on hwy. 1N. Finish 15:33pm., 25c, half clear, strong wind and light sand-storm, at km-stone "835" on hwy. 1N.

...A different Story :-)

After the more political (/political science) or philosophical reports a few days ago, I will try to give you another impression of how a daily stage is in the world run. This report is inspired by my friends from FDDB - the danish federation of deaf-blind people, whom I have had the pleasure, challenge and inspiration of working with inbetween world runs, lectures, training and the professional-ultrarunners life...

When you are deaf-blind like my friends there, then you have to experience the world in a different way than we are used to. It struck me on the last two stages that what I write in the reports - may not make a lot of sense to them. So here is a different take on the last two days of running. And, it might give the rest of us a new way of appreciating our sourroundings to shift perspective for a moment, even though it ofcourse to us will be only the luxury of diversion:

... The day starts with the high-pitch honks from cars and mini-busses trying to attract passengers on the road outside my small hotel. Then barks from street-dogs and exited yelling from children wakes me fully up along with the first beams of the intense morning light.

- but this isnt how it is, in the deaf-blind world:

The soft quilt of my wollen bed-carpet is what I feel first, when I wake up. The humidity in the air tells me that Im getting closer to the tropics. The scent of dogs, car-fumes, dust from the steet outside; discsrete smells from nearby toilets blended in with foreign spices in the air - reveals to me that Im in South America.

I brush teeth, try to enjoy the artificial flavor of my toothpaste and cherish the few teeths Ive got left after 1.5 laps around our world by running. Get in my running shoes and start on the daily 40km ahead..
Immideately the smell of car fumes is stronger. The thick bursts of disel-fumes from the many heavy trucks with in-bad-shape engines occationally fills the air and lungs when they pass close by; close enough to feel the air-dragg` after them.

The texture of the surface I run on; changes constantly. Unlike the streets back in Scandinavia and Northen Europe the pavement is seldom in one piece and neighter the tarmac: small rubble make my push` off a little less certain, but it also coushions my landings in a nice soft way. Often small kinks and cambers in the broken pavement or missing bits and pieces of the tarmac twist my foot left and right as I run on forward.

I now pass through a city; its easy to know because they are in South America usually precedented by a streatch of open garbage-dump, so for a few hundred meters the strong smell of raw garbage and rotting vegetables is stinging in my nostrils. You can nearly feel the air getting thicker by the amount of mixted garbage-aromas which is packed into it ;-) Then follows the scents and smells from shops along the street: the fresh exotic symphony from the fruit-stands with their bananas, pineapple, papayas, oranges, lemons, plantanas, mangos, apples and other fruits which I dont know the name of but can identify by their deeply sweet smell..

A fish market is on my left side; destinct odeur of fish rapidly getting "less fresh" ;-) A bakery with the wonderfull warm air from fresh bread and the numerous delicious pastries which the sweet-loving latin american people enjoy at all occations.

Then Im out on the other side of the city again. The air gets clear. Clean. But also without smell of any kind. More clear than we are used to from any part of europe except the northenmost parts of Scandinavia and remote mountain-passes in Eastern Europe - the last clean places of nature left in crowded Europe.

The texture of the ground under my nice new runningshoes from Ecco (Ecco Biom Trail, which makes sure I dont get injured during the long run :-), has changed. Now there is soft spots which give` when I land and push off. Sand. The wind picks up and I get a light sandbrush` of my lower legs by the sand in the air. Little by little the steps gets more heavy. Am I tired or is it just the sand in my shoes ? ;-)

Another day of running is gone by. Its not easy, but I couldnt be happier elsewhere in the world :-]

With best wishes to all my friends, seeing and non-seeing !

PS: This report is send from a little internetcafe in a temote village in Northern Peru and thus I didnt have a connection to upload the gps-track from the run nor the usual amount of pictures. That will have to be done when I reach the next city in 3-5days of running from here.