World Run II / Reports

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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: 2011-12-23 2011-12-25 Colombia

2011-12-24: 13
Distance today: 42.0 km (Accumulated: 31716.0 km)
Elapsed time: 03:58:23
Country: Colombia

Start 07:55am., 21c, almost clear & medium wind, at km-stone "52/49-02" on hwy. 49. Finish 13:44pm., 30c, half overcast & light wind, at km-stone "18/8801" on hwy. 88.
[a long stop at 6km to visit an internetcafe and upload a temporary report; stopped at 8:36am., resumed the run 9:22am. from the same point].



A Merry Christmas !! :-)


In one way a much more peacefull day compared with yesterdays falling tree (see video link below), little car-accident and frantic search for internet. Still, absolute calm I wouldnt say my Christmas was ;-)

This report is written with a days delay as the internet was overloaded at christmas evening so I was lucky to get a few emails through to family and friends and share some of their Christmas celebration !

However, the Christmas spirit here in Colombia more than made up from the lack of the usual exchange of sms' w. friends in Europe, Russia, Arabia, Australia and North America on christmas evening as the tradition has become while beeing on the road in world run 1 & 2. I doubt I have experiensed as 'powerfull' a celebration of Christmas - or any other holiday for that matter - than what went on in the street of the small colombian city where I spend my Christmas evening:


After a nice tropical 42km run to get in my Christmas spirit I fealt I was ready to take a closer look at how the celebration is done on this continent.

As a warm-up there were the usual rush' for the shops, supermarkets, licor-stores and bars (!). Then followed a short silent period from 6pm. to 7pm., where the police patrolled the main street and the only noises were the usual honking of horns, yelling greetings across the road and screams and sounds from children, chikens and the occational donkey. But, then the "Christmas peace" certainly was over - wether it was the police who in their megaphones shouted encouragements to "Start CELEBRATING !!" I cant say (my spanish isnt good enough to understand all they said, and they apparent had a lot to say) - In any case a chaos broke out wich in my experiense only Southamericans can create at this high level of perfection...

- First of all obviously the music was turned up to Full volume on every decent (or non-decent) stereo, playing Christmas music of any decent (or non-decent ;-) kind. Southamericans, and for sure Colombians, Love music. And the louder the much much better. I was fortunate to have my hotelroom just above a bar so I didnt miss anything !

It was no problem to catch a few newsbroadcasts on the tv, though, and I could get a little glimpse of what went on back in the part of the world where I used to live. All I had to do was to put my ear to the loudspeaker of the tv-set.

Yet this kind of tranquility and bliss' couldnt last forever; from 9pm. and onwards bombs and fireworks were detonated to underline the peacefull message of the evening. At first I got a little anxious and rushed to the window to check what I thourght was gunshots - but it was only a car driving past the hotel throwing firecrackers out the window. Probably a generous 'Santa' wanting to make sure that no one along the dusty road missed anyting of the party ;-)


But even the happiest of evenings comes to an end eventually and by 5am. it seemed like the whole thing had lost its pace ! Only the occational talk in loudspeakers (they are normally used to make certain no one can turn the 'deaf ear' to commercials for washing powder, restaurants, cheap hardware sale in the store next door etc.) kept me from risking falling into a Christmas sleep. Or so I would have sworn - because eventually not even the infreqvent high-pitch car alarms, wich is a must' during any night in a Southamerican city, failed to keep me up any longer.

Sweet Christmas Rest... :-)


While I was sleeping, ofcourse it got morning in Australia, Russia, Europe, Arabia, Africa and eventually also North- and South America - And I hope all my friends have had an EXCELLENT Christmas wherever they are in the world !!

But I also hope that Your Christmas was of a bit more quiet kind; I know my next one will be :-)




Christmas calendar, day 24:
To me perhaps the most important advice in order to avoid injuries is to "Enjoy Your Running" :-) Usually its a very good sign of wether your body can keep up to the training you offer it, or wether you need to take it a bit easier for a while. Its one of the first warningsigns of injuries waiting to happen when you little by little begin to loose the joy and pleasure in the daily training. And besides this, I guess for all runners no matter what level, ambitions, culture or geographical place - running is a great and cheap source for extra daily Joy in your life; so it would be a pity to loose that quality !

... A famous runniners quote goes "Training is 90% hard work and 10% joy". In my experience it can be the opposite: 90% Joy and 10% Hard Work - if you learn to listen to and respect your body and balance this with your ambitions :-)







Below are the short bits of information wich I was able to post through the day, as a memory of the strangest Christmas I have had - stranger than in 2008 where I spend it in a small tent secured by rocks during a storm in the Jordanian desert; or eating a "chicken burger" at a remote village on the outskirts of the Nullabor Desert in Australia in 2004 - in good company of ultrarunner David Billet & his mother by the way (what an effort to drive out there to keep me company through the christmas-days !); or the year that.. or ... or... Yes, none of them as strange as a Colombian Christmas !








Temporary report:
-An eventfull stage yesterday where the 51km run went fine, but a tree falling across the road and the supportcar beeing hit by another car (ofcourse by a driver without insurence...or driverslicense !) posed some challenges for the run, though not more than they could be solved quickly.


- I had much hoped to find internet so I could send out a Christmas Greeting to friends, family and all who follows world run 2; it brings me a lot of motivation to know !!

Unfortunately after driving up and down the remote roads here in the Northernmost part of Colombia we were not able to find any cities or villages nearby wich had internet. Instead I have stopped at an internet cafe wich suddenly was at the roadside 30min. into todays run :-)

I will upload the reports, pictures and a little "tree-falling video" (from yesterdays run) as soon as todays 40-42km Christmas run is done !


Untill then I wish all a Merry Christmas :-)) I look forward to meeting somewhere further up the roads during the new year !

Due to the 'overload' of the internet here in Colombia at Christmas evening, it may take untill tomorrow to upload photo's and full text including the reports from the last two days. But it was an enjoyable stage today and I much enjoyed a calmer traffic and a another day of beautifull scenery with a strong Carribean' ambience - both from landscape, people and music. If all goes well... I should be able to reach the Sea at the Northern tip of Colombia in 3 days from now :-)

Then Cuba awaits.




NB: I dont have cellular-coverage for my danish simcard in Colombia, so the usual SMS-greetings wich has been a huge joy to exchange each Christmas on the world runs will have to wait. I do expect to have signal once I reach Havana, Cuba for 5 rest/planning days 31. December.