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: 2011-12-22 2011-12-24 Colombia

2011-12-23:

29
Distance today: 51.0 km (Accumulated: 31674.0 km)
Elapsed time: 04:52:29
Country: Colombia

Start 09:42am., 25c, overcast and medium wind, at km-stone "2/4902" on hwy. 49. Finish 15:55pm., 31c, a few clouds and same, at km-stone "52/49-02" on hwy. 49.

51km's & a fallen (Christmas- ?)tree...

Another day with low humidity; how I have waited for this :-))) The decrease in humidity suddenly makes it possible to put in longer runs than the 40km's wich have been the max. for a week or so.

While I handle warm weather fairly well (up to 40 to 53c, while running through Sahara in Africa back in the first half of wr2) as long as its dry heat - then once the humidity builds up to tropical levels... I suddenly am struggeling from start to finish, dehydrating slightly as the km's pile up, no matter how much I drink, eat salt extra salt etc.
And 40km seems to be the safe limit in this kind of steamy humidity if I want to be able to continue the run the next day.
So a real thrill to once again have a possibility to put in a few more km's as far as the 30 000km-tiredness will allow me ;-)

The scenery today was beautifull with the last foothills of the Andes Mountains in the horizon. All was calm and good (ok, there were parked quite a few military tanks and armed veichles along the highway as well as patrols on foot w. machinguns on the sides of the road, but it was peacefull enough; no pictures though - I had the strong impression that it could ruin the nice 'christmas spirit' if I began taking photo's of the military along the highway;-),

After 30km, though, there were a bit of unexpected trouble: The strong wind that was sweeping across the road had earlier on broken off some branches etc. But now right in front of me a tree keeled' over and fell across the highway, effectively and instantly stopping traffic in both directions ! As you can see from the pictureseries this was no match for colombian holiday-traffic though:

Within 5minutes the drivers had gotten out of the cars, pulled and shaken the tree with much enthusiasm and since apparently manchetes' (huge knives) are standard equiptment in the cars the branches was swiftly chopped off - and the road was cleared almost before I could streatch the legs and drink a cool bottle of water; Southamerican efficiency at its peak :-)

Later on the day was added a final touch of drama by my supportcar beeing hit by a holiday-driver in a rush to get to his celebration, I imagine. He didnt have insurence - or even a drivers license, so that was a bit of a setback. But not more than we can find a way to continue the run. Luckily my supportdriver, Alexander from Colombia who is doing an Outstanding job for the run, got through the incident without harm. Wich is more than we can say about the car.

Christmas calendar, day 23:
Todays injury prefention advice is a social one: Share your training ! Running is in my oppinion a sport wich may be "individual" but is best enjoyed as a social sport :-) When running with your local running club, sports club, friends from work, school or naighbours you not only gain energy for your training - you also get a source of input to what to do in order to avoid injuries. Usually no matter what group of runners you find yourself training with, there will be a fountain of knowledge and experiense in what works and what doesnt work in relation to injury advice ! Partly because... Running do often involve injuries if its not done while respecting the body's rate of progress since it is afterall one of the toughest physical challenges you can give yourself, no matter what level you are at :-)