J48 – 2/3/2006

We have had sunshine for two days, but there is frost in the morning.  The first part of the run on small country roads was pleasant.  We are surrounded by plantings of red and white cabbages and fields which have been plowed  and will be planted with cotton  later in the season.  Cotton is everywhere: on the roadside and in the trucks of which there are many around the city of Chakidona. 

Serge turned south to avoid a four lane highway with crash barriers and very heavy traffic.  We reached Thessaloniki through an industrial zone before going around this immense city by the West and northwest.  Thessoloniki has a population of 1 million inhabitants and is Greece’s second largest port.  It goes without saying that stress was at its peak among the followers who had to find the correct road for Serge to get to Kavala.  We can’t count on sign posting and maps; we have the sun and our sense of orientation.  The reconnoitering to cross this town took us two hours and the timing was tight because Serge, as always, moved ahead at a good pace.

The Cyrano method: miracle and patience.  Serge read an article on the subject in the magazine “ultrafondus.”  It was applied to 100 km over 24 hours.  Serge then applied it to his distance and modified the time run and walked when he had his problem of the pain which spread along the front of his right thigh.  The pain went away and the rhythm of the race improved.  Patience: yes, all day long Serge looks at his Garmin watch, like he would a metronome.  When I asked him if he wasn’t tired of doing this for all these days and long hours he said that ultra running is also a question of patience!

English translation by Lee Hecht