Day: April 12, 2006

Serge set out at 7H50.  He followed the contour of Bukhara and joined the road to Navoi.  Yesterday we saw a lot of German and French tourists.  April-May and September-October are the best months so the tourist season has just begun.  In the summer the heat is too extreme.  The streets of the ancient city are tree lined and right now the city of Bukhara is nice and green.  Between Bukhara and Qiziltepa there is one village after another and we saw a lot of children on bikes who came to get a closer look at our vehicles.  The roadside is also green but it seems that in the summer all of the vegetation is scorched.  After Qiziltepa the scenery changed radically and we found ourselves in the desert.  In the sand there were only rare tuffs of grass, enhanced by a desolate decor.  It will be this way until Navoi.

Serge had a difficult day. In spite of almost flat terrain since Turkmenistan, the stages are long.  He didn’t talk: he was concentrating and most of all, when you know him, it meant that either physically or morally he wasn’t feeling well.  Jean-Marc asked if he and Benjamin had done something wrong.  We had to reassure the followers who accompany Serge daily: it’s normal, Serge isn’t a machine and he can’t run 75 kilometers a day without punishment.  He subjects his body to a harsh diet and sometimes slight fatigue can exacerbate  minor physical discomfort.

These situations are often difficult for the followers, who join us wholeheartedly.  I’m often asked what qualities a follower must have and I think on this race I have finally found the answer: “patience, humility, self sacrifice, adaptability to all the situations involved in precarious living, adaptability to the rhythm generated by the race, management of fatigue, enjoyment of living in a group, not being a stickler for cleanliness, being natural, belief in Serge’s project and in Serge.”  Those who would come for the opportunity to travel, to pass judgment on the race and the lifestyle it engenders or to rebuild themselves after a difficult period in their life, are unsuited.  You have to be strong, you have to be a rock.

After receiving several questions, I return to the matter of the Mizuno running shoes. Serge wears the same pair for about 1000 kilometers, contrary to the crossings of Australia and South America, where he rotated his shoes, which were numbered.  An anecdote, Serge has a few problems with his toe nails.  During this crossing, in China, we will have a chiropodist from Rennes, Stephanie, and I think she will have a lot of work.  Right now Serge is incapable of reaching his feet.  The simple gesture of putting on his socks in the morning is a difficult exercise.