Day: June 27, 2006

Another suffocating day.  I hope Serge’s body is going to get used to it because until Shanghai and then in the south of Japan, the temperatures and humidity may well increase.

“I’ve had it, had it, had it” are the few words that Serge exchanges with us, aside from his prediction about tonight’s football results.  His face is drawn, his body is bent forward, leaning to the left, which is a sign that things are not going well.  It has been like this for the past 3 days. But we are getting closer to Shanghai every day.

The crossing from China to Japan:

When he reaches Shanghai, Serge will have done more than 15,000 km.  The last day in China will consist of crossing the city of Shanghai, about 40 kilometers, before reaching the airport the same day to fly to Fukuoka in Japan, on the other side of the China Sea, a 90 minute flight.

The next day, Serge will leave from Fukuoka for about 40 kilometers.  On these two days, Serge will run less and I know that he is already thinking about his Excel spreadsheet and his average, but we have to give the team the time to prepare this rather complicated crossing, since our vehicles will stay in Shanghai so they can be sent back to Le Havre by ship.  These two short stages will allow Mizuno to organize some events for Serge in Shanghai, as well as in Fukuoka.  We will have 3 light vehicles in Japan which will have to be prepared quickly.  In spite of this crossing, Serge will run every day.

Explaining the route and the mileage:

Once in Fukuoka, if you trace the most direct route to Tokyo, there are only about 1,000 kilometers.  If he took that route, Serge would run somewhat more than 16,000 km and the point-to-point Paris-Tokyo would be reached.  Serge likes to complicate things and in this challenge he put in an additional difficulty: to break the record of Gary Parson, an Australian who ran 19,030 km around Australia, without a day of rest.  So Serge wants to better that performance, in less time, and by doing so set a new record.

Some would say: to be the first man to make a record crossing Paris-Tokyo is already pretty good so why so much zeal?  Because Serge is a challenger.  Because Serge knows it’s possible and as he told me before he reached 10,000 kilometers “I think my legs can do it.”  Because Serge needs a carrot to keep him going and you don’t put so much into something every day for nothing, or if you do, you would just take off with a back pack and walk 40 km per day.  Serge’s race is against the clock and his one objective is to do as many kilometers as possible per day and to repeat the effort every day, come what may.  This is the sport aspect of the adventure.

To reach these 19,000 plus kilometers, Serge will run nearly 4,000 km in Japan by going around the Island of Kyushu and then heading to the north of Japan by the West coast, before going down to Tokyo.  This summer the logs will be posted on the site until the first two weeks of September, which is the estimated arrival of Serge in Tokyo.

The best part of all this is that these crossings have been giving ideas to other runners since 1999 and, as far as we know, after 2 tries (that of a Frenchman, Eric, and another by an Australian), the record for crossing Australia fell in May 2005 (you can go to the News category of the site www.sergegirard.com) and there are several projects concerning the USA.

I have only one thing to say: May the transcontinental races continue …..from dream to reality.