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: 2012-05-04 2012-05-06 Usa

2012-05-05:

20
Distance today: 17.0 km (Accumulated: 34831.0 km)
Elapsed time: 01:58:45
Country: Usa

Start 12:15, 12c, overcast & light wind, at "Red Roof Inn" on hwy.1, just North of Boston, 1km after mile-marker "56". Finish 14:24pm., 16c & same, at mile-marker "66.4" on hwy.1.

A hard day and a tougher night !

Running with 15-20kg on the shoulders wasnt easy. In fact it quickly turned out to highlight the impact of adaptation: While it hasnt been a big problem for me to on occation run stages of up to 100km's and doing more than 100km pr. day while talking part in a 6day race last week - then running with a heavy backpack became a battle after just half an hour of running. One hour into it and nearly everything from achilles, to knees, calves, stomack, neck, shoulders, arms... were fairly well beaten up.

I cant say that I wasnt warned; my good friend Tony Mangan who is himself running with a 5kg backpack in South America (www.theworldjog.com) had warned me that it would be difficult. And the advice coming from an experiensed runner like him definately made me choose a very short stage to start with. Only 10-12kms.

And atleast there were light at the end of the tunnel, or so I thought: At 13km's the motel where I had planned to stay was situated right at the highway, at the bottom of a series of stairs at mile-marker 64.6. I took the finish-picture. Stopped the gps-tracker and took a deep breath of Relief !! It was OVER for the day :-)

- Upon check-in it turned out that there was no rooms avaliable. It looked pretty empty to me, but no. The receptionist informed me that the 3 other motels nearby, a few miles back, also were full. Not so good. And suddenly similar experienses came to mind from world run one: Usa is not the easiest place in the world if you are wearing a backpack or pushing a runningstroller (world run one) and doesnt look like you are carrying a bundle of creditcards ;-)

Ok, up the stairs and out on the highway again. I knew from the research that there was a long streach ahead with no accomodation now that Boston and its northern suburbs were behind me. The next place would be some 30km up the road - out of the question in the state I already was in now.

What to do ???

The receptionist assured me that there was absolutely no chance to find a room nearby "all sold out". Hmmm.. No other option than to push on' then !

After 3kms wich took nearly half an hour to run - some nice uphills to complete the 'fun', finaly a gasstation and a little forrest came into sight. I jumped (ok, not exactly jumped ;-) at the chance, bourght myself some water for the night and jogged to milemarker 66.4, bulldozed up a small hill, over a stone-fence and there was my accomodation for the night: A clearing in the forrest, my sleepingbag and a raincover/bivuark sheet to wrap around the sleepingbag to take the worst dampness from the night. I put on 4 layers of runningclothes, tried to eat a little bit (was too exhausted) and fell asleep with thoughts of american hospitality and the road ahead.

Yet, in all situations there are some positives; though in some cases it takes a while to find it. And also in this situation was not totally hopeless - even though I did look ahead with a little bit of horror as the sun went down and the night began to settle, and the cold and the insects began to get closer to my sleepingbag. My good supportdriver in South America, Alex Hamlin (from Sun Valley, Usa), already two days ago immideately offered to drive up and meet me as soon as he could. So, if I can hold out untill the 12. May things should be allright. I wonder what's ahead untill then, but even beeing "a planner" by nature, I try not to think too hard about the next moments and days.

NB: Since I stopped the gps-tracker at the motel, todays track is split up in the first part, 13.6km, and the last jogg of 3km's. As you can see, the weight of the backpack had a clear impact on the pace but I did my best to keep it a run despite the unhandy extra weight.