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: 2012-03-27 2012-03-29 Usa

2012-03-28:

31
Distance today: 40.0 km (Accumulated: 34222.0 km)
Elapsed time: 03:42:53
Country: Usa

Start 12:00, 19c, cloudy & light wind, at cross of hwy.896 & hwy.40. Finish 16:28pm., 23c & same, at cross of Yates Ave. & Hwy.13 in Wilmington.

Wilmington-moments...

One of the better days: I did a 40km run for the 3.day in a row and oddly enough the legs seemed to get a little fresher for each day ! Even though I doubt that they really are "fresh" after a few continents, then atleast when I looked at the stage-time it actually became slightly better from each day - I dont think one can talk about "fast" at this 'grandad-pace' Im down to by now ;-) from 3:50h., 3:45h. yesterday and 3:42h. today.

I know that there is a balance, and that the bill' is going to come in a few days. Still I Enjoy it while I can :-)) And to the ultra-runners following this: Yes, 3 days of 40km can hardly be described as "difficult" by ultra' terms, however similar to the first world run back in 2004-2005; each day beyond the 20 000km mark brings the feeling of carrying bags of cement in legs, arms, ...and perhaps head (judging from the lack of 'poetic level' in these reports ;-) Why it is exactly at 20 000km this around-the-world running Wall stands, I dont know. But its curious that it came at around the same time each of the two world runs. And that it appears that other very long runs often stops, ends or are given up around this point (though there isnt that many people running beyond 10 000km yet). Somehow one would suspect that there is a physical or motivational/mental barrier around that 20 000km mark. Or; it could be unique to lazy runners from Scandinavia ? ;-))

Apart from the running this day also brought some interesting views of urban life. The first part, though, was the usual 'russian roulette' situation of the American highways on the East Coast, where there doesnt seem to exist "rights" for the non-motorised transport, so you have to look out for your life on the main parts of the highways where there is no room next to the road (a pity in relation to that it ofcourse discourages exercise as walking, bicycling etc. - I dont think I eighter in world run 1 or 2 have run through a developed contry that has so few pedestrians and bicyclists !)

Still, once inside the larger cities, there are pavement and space for pedestrians, especially the more North I get through the contry. This also gives more surplus to take in the life around me and appreciate the experienses: My route through the Philadelphia suburb of Wilmington turned out to be almost exclusive through coloured neighbourhoods. Sometimes this raises concearns from the people I am in contact with here, but I have to say that I more often get a positive response to the world run 2 when running through these coloured areas (afro-american, I think its also called) than most other places on this East Coast route ! An example from today... On a fairly hectic part of the highway wich I had to run through to get into Wilmington the thunder' of trucks and cars passing me suddenly was broken by applauding and "Go On, You can make it !". Surprising since there as mentioned isnt any other people on the highway besides the cars themselves - it turned out the be a crew of roadworkers who had surplus enough to give this encouragement even through their situation must have been more stressfull; working on the metal barrier in the middle of the 6-lane highway. Later on, well inside Wilmington city, a group of teen-age scoolchildren were walking from the schoolbus - as I came running by they at first had a few comments that I seemed to recognize from the "gangster rap" lyrics (Im no expert through ;-). But I stopped up and asked if all was ok (or "cool" as I remember the word is, or atleast was back in the 80'ties). After a few laughs we had a quick talk and a couple of them actually ran along with me a block or two, school-books-in-hand and everything. That made my day :-)

Usa in many ways is a tough place to run, and certainly compared to my first streatch across the contry in 2005 as part of the first world run. But there also are many positive moments to balance things !

NB: The expected over-view timeline for the next streatches of the run is:

30. March, Philadelphia.

2-4. April, New York City.

14. April, Boston.

18. April, Portland.

22-28. April, SCMT 6 Day Race, New York (restdays from world run 2). Resuming the wr2 where I left after the race.

08. May, Bangor.

15. May, The Canadian Border.