Day: June 25, 2006

Like a sine wave: ups and downs.  Serge left with short steps which grazed the pavement. It was as if his feet were sucked into the burning asphalt. With every step, he seemed to be close to the fires of hell.  At the 13th kilometer he exploded.  All the pulses of her arteries were on alert, beating like the countdown before an explosion.  Serge lay down, he couldn’t go on:  2 hours of hell, 2 hours during which his body was drowning in a seething inferno.
For lack of ice cubes, we bought cold drinks that Serge held to his temples and Stephanie rolled a bottle up and his neck, from top to bottom.  “During the night I wasn’t able to evacuate yesterday’s heat and I’m exploding, I can’t go on.”

Little by little, Serge got over it, even if he ran bent over, with sunken eyes and the soles of his shoes glued to the ground.  On the road, a man on a motor cycle offered cool drinks to Serge.  What kindness!

As for Mr. Fang, it’s his last day of the race and unfortunately, he twisted his ankle.  He won’t be able to finish the last stage.  Serge stopped next to him because he doesn’t like to see people suffer, then he took off again, knowing he would find Mr. Fang in the evening at the hotel of Zhenping for an exchange of gifts: a beautiful calligraphy which he painted in front of Serge. After a friendly hand shake, Serge went to his air conditioned room.  This evening, his only desire is to sleep in the cool and evacuate the heat in order to start in good shape tomorrow.

Steph is delighted to be in China to celebrate her birthday — Happy Birthday Stephanie!