D113 – 77.0Km

SUNDAY, APRIL 9
N38 23.893 E63 04.417 (186m) – N38 58.270 E63 30.393 (184m – Police station of Turkmenabat)
77 km – 10H42′
Hello to everyone and once again thanks for the dozens of messages that arrive every day.  Below is a message we received from Marc:

“A brief exercise:  Describe  S. GIRARD and his adventure

Athletic

Ethical

Resistance

Grandeur

Achievement

Generosity

Uncompromising

Rhythm

Self sacrifice

Boldness

Determination

Once again Bravo! »

A few of you noticed on April 1st two items of information: one concerning a change of itinerary and another hinting about a round-the-world race. The latter was an April fool’s joke; however, the fact that we will not go through Tibet, as originally planned, is very real.  The Paris-Tokyo race has to adapt daily to situations, which are linked to the legislation of the countries we cross.  It’s much easier to travel on foot, on bike or on roller blades than with vehicles and we are already dreading tomorrow’s border crossing between Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

Serge enters unchartered territory at the end of this stage because he has bettered by a few kilometers (8302.6 km) the distance he ran in Africa (8295 km in 124 days).  Time passes quickly, very, very quickly, no doubt because of the diversity of the countries we cross.

English Translation by Lee Hecht