2005.08.18.
31km, 2:48:11h. Excl. food, water, road-finding, toilet etc. stops
Total 24332km.
Start: 09:12am.
Finish: 11:23am.
Time GMT - 7 hours
+21c, overcast and light wind at start.
29c, humid and same at finish.
Ups & downs...
Today I had compagny during the entire stage by members of the running community in Valparaiso ! I had a great time while we made good pace & negative splits running past the flat cornfields along highway 30.
Different runners stayed up in front with me and all had air enough to keep up conversation as we laid the miles behind us. At the end of the run my host, Joshua, kept up a really good pace and even had energy left to wave at the many trucks passing by on the highway - up to the point where he kept statistics on how many drivers honked as they went by - earning him the nick-name "The Waver from Valpariaso" ! :-)
After the run a couple of us shared some big pizzas in the backroom of the running store back in Valparaiso where I am staying untill tomorrow and had a long talk comparing different food around the world; especially that of USA compared to Europe.. They seemed horrified that we back home sedate the pizzas with a healthy layer of ketchup, just to even out the taste... ;-)
But not everything was on the positive side today. After getting back at my "home" for the day, I checked my email and found out that I dont have a crew for the last long streatch out to New York after all.
- A pretty big blow as that else had seemed to be the last hurdle towards the finish. Earlier in the run I wouldnt have worried that much about pushing the stroller a months and a half alone, but now with more than 24 000km in the legs its a different thing. There is a reason to that the previous records for the longest run ever done stood around 22 - 23000km (and that without pushing things...). By now it doesnt look too likely that I will be able to make it pushing 40kg infront of me to New York.
Luckily I have some very helpfull people in Valparaiso who will come out and crew for me next weekend, so that I only will have tomorrow to push the stroller in the first part of the way to New York. Later on, after Fort Wayne I will have to see how it all turns out. I would be happy to pay a crew for the last 800miles out to New York but it seems difficult to find anyone with that short notice.
Schedule from Chicago to New York:
19/8 To: Plymouth
20/8 Warsaw
21/8 Columbia City
22/8 Fort Wayne
23/8 Van Wert
24/8 Delphos
25/8 Cairo
26/8 Williams Town
27/8 Upper Sandusky
28/8 Bucyrus
29/8 Mansfield
30/8 Wooster
31/8 E. Greenville
1/9 Canton
2/9 Minerva
3/9 Lisbon
4/9 East Liverpool
5/9 Cross of hwy. 30 # hwy. 18
6/9 Pittsburg
7/9 Wilkinsburg
8/9 Irwin
9/9 Greensburg
10/9 Ligonier
11/9 Stoystown
12/9 Bedford
13/9 Breezewood
14/9 Mc Connellsburg
15/9 Chambersburg
16/9 Gettysburg
17/9 Rest day
18/9 Abbotstown
19/9 York
20/9 Lancaster
- All the above on Highway 30.
21/9 New Holland
22/9 Reading
23/9 Boyertown
24/9 Allentown
25/9 Easton
26/9 Washington
27/9 Long Valley
28/9 Morristown
29/9 Irvington
30/9 New Jersey City
1/10 East Manhattan, New York City.
