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: 2012-01-06 2012-01-09 Colombia

2012-01-07:

22
Distance today: 0.0 km (Accumulated: 31900.0 km)
Elapsed time: 00:00:00
Country: Colombia

[waiting-day 7, Bogota, Colombia]. (21km, 2:00:29min, not counting in the world run 2 total).

Last day in South America !

If all goes well - and I can't say I've been used to that lately w. the visa mixup - then I should depart early tomorrow morning bound for Miami and the start of the North American part of world run 2.

Todays run through the streets of Bogota was a light 21km, trying to take advantage of the altitude at 2600-2700m. to get a little extra strength for the 4.th. continent of the run. On my way, passing different areas of this 8million people city, I saw a man in the financial district - in his suit; trying to catch a leaf as it was falling in the wind from a tree...

- A childish thing, a play-like attitude you perhaps wouldnt expect of the suit-and-tie segment. Yet very typical of the continent I have used the last year of running straight across: South America :-) The serious and at the same time playfull way of life is a thing wich in many aspects define this continents compared with the other I have run across. Both in its positive and its negative - Music flowing from even the smallest huts up in the Andes Mountains; hardly a village or city without atleast a couple of dance halls; the sight of young women breaking into dance/salsa/tango steps while shopping in the supermarket; the smile wich always seems to be right around the corner in any conversation...
And the same playfullness when sitting behind the wheel, making traffic the most dangerous I have run through in the 58 000km of world run 1 and 2; state economies where one can get the impression that the hard realities of economic laws isnt really understood - as for example with Argentina, wich declared the world's largest economic bankruptcy 11 years ago upon failing to repay an international 140billion usd. debt.

As I experiensed it, its a continent with lots of hospitality, much time for eachother and foreigners; and rarely without a helping hand should you need it. Its also a part of the world with a nature that I only can say Siberia/Asia can fully match in wonders and amazing difference from one area to the next. At the same time it can seem nearly endless along the huge coastlines and through deserts wich streatch (and keeps extending due to climate change) up along the Western coast of the continent. Its people can come across as having sometimes not so much carefullness for other persons life. But far from the "dangers" and absolute risk of your life when visiting for example Colombia, that mainstream media in other parts of the world might make you think !

Else I would not have survived a run like this, straight across its territory. And that litteraly without a scratch or as much as one dollar stolen of my belongings.

- People and even more so, journalists, sometimes ask me what charity I support when I am doing my world runs. I have never had any official charity connected to the projects when I conduct these around-the-world efforts. I feel that its often the case the charities is beeing used to gather money or attention to the event itself; I prefer to say honestly that I do these runs first of all because to me its a sports-event like any other and the highest challenge I can set myself as a longdistance runner on this planet.

My 'charity' is one aimed mostly at the middleclass around our world ! And what I strive to do with these runs is to bring another picture of the world than what you see each day in the evening news. Because once I embarked on my first run around the world back in 2004, I little by little became stunend as a runner, as a person and not least as a political scientist by education, by how far there was between what I has seen and heard in the news, learned during many years at univercity - and how the world is when you see it "at people level". Step by step, village by village, city by city, mountain chain by mountain chain, and from ocean to ocean across our 6 inhabitated continents.

The people, reguardless of what religion, ethnic group or corner of the world they live in - are shockingly kind :-) I am guessing that the picture we get each day of the world via the media is at best 1-2percent of what happens. And the 95 to 99percent of the world's inhabitants who proceed through their day peacefully and without posing any danger to themselves or us; are rarely heard. It makes good sense that its not selling any headlines that the huge majority of arabs, russians, asians, africans, south-americans etc. do not want anyting other than a peacefull life and even extend a helping hand to other cultures or religions. This may sound naive, and I certainly was doubtfull when I first experiensed this. But during these runs, that has been the daily life I have seen around our earth.

- My hope with these reports, daily pictures and small videoclips are to give you a chance to see how the rest of the world lives. And not only know the world by what leaders, dictators, fanatics or criminals it has - but by how people live their lives. And maybe, perhaps, that there is not as much need for us to feel that we must attack, intervene or condem cultures, religions or other parts of the world, even if it looks like they are definately not like us... when they are presented to us in the 15minutes news'.

These small impressions spread km by km around the world, East to West and North to South; is for you to enjoy and free of charge ofcouse. And made possible by the people who help me along the route, runners who join me for a mile, a day or a continent, as well as the sponsors who provide the finances and the equiptment to make me able to devote my energy to the physical challenges of the run. The only thing I ask is that you, for a moment, forget what you have learned from the tv and give the other parts of the world a chance :-)

Below is the scedule for the North American part of the run:

OVERALL PLAN, NORTH AMERICA 2012:

1) KEY WEST to RICHMOND, 10. January - 4. March. 2171km.

2) RICHMOND to NEW YORK, 4. March - 19. March. 500km.

3) NEW YORK to BOSTON, 19. March - 30. March. 400km.

4) BOSTON to HOULTON/BORDER, 30. March - 15. April. 700km.

5) HOULTON/BORDER CANADA to NOVA SCOTIA, 1. May - 1. June. 900km.

6) NOVA SCOTIA/PT. AUX BASQUES to ST. JOHNS, NEW FOUNDLAND, 1. June - 1. July. 900km.

Total for NORTH AMERICA: 5600KM.

DETAILED PLAN:

8/1, Arrival Miami International Airport, American Airlines 2170, 12:35 noon.

10/1, Start Key West - Miami, 300km.

18/1, Miami - Palm Beach, 100km.

21/1, Palm Beach - Palm Bay, 150km.

25/1, Palm Bay - Daytona, 150km.

29/1, Daytona - Jacksonville, 150km.
(1 restday in Daytona or J.ville.).

3/2, Jacksonville - Savannah, 200km.

9/2, Savannah - Manning, 200km.

16/2, Manning - Southern Pines, 200km.

23/2, Southern Pines - Durham/Raleigh, 100km.

26/2, Durham/Raleigh - Henderson, 80km.

28/2, Henderson - Richmond, 200km.

4/3, Richmond - Washington, 200km.
(1 restday in Washington)

10/3, Washington - Baltimore. 60km.

11/3, Baltimore - Philadelphia. 150km.

15/3, Philadelphia - Newark/New York City. 150km.

19/3, Newark/NYC - Mystic. 200km.

25/3, Mystic - Boston. 180km.

30/3, Boston - Portland. 180km.

4/4, Portland - Augusta. 100km.

7/4, Augusta - Bangor. 120km.

10/4, Bangor - Canadian border/Houlton. 180km.

15/4, arrival at Canadian border