J110 – 4/6/2006

This morning Serge left a bit later than usual.  Every time he goes into a different time zone he has trouble finding his rhythm, especially because his days are long now.  It has been a long time since he spent 11H00 on the road.  For the past three days he has been struggling against a slight head wind and the recurrence of pain caused by a problem with the crural nerve.  It has forced him to walk the last 25 kilometers.  Serge, who could have stopped in the center of the town of Mary, where we will be at a hotel tonight, kept on going with one idea in mind; the famous Chinese border that will close it’s doors for ten days from April 29 to May 9.  He has to maintain his average, against all odds, so as not to be blocked in the no man’s land between Kirghistan and China, nor obliged to have stages of only 10 kilometers per day, which would considerably reduce his overall kilometer average per day.  All these things make this race a true sports performance.  Serge and his team are not out there just for a walk or to have a good vacation.  To run more than a marathon and a half each day amounts to meeting a challenge and it’s our challenge in spite of the uncertainty of such a venture.  We have often been asked the question “What could keep Serge from succeeding?”

There are many things:

Serge and his health: a fatigue/stress fracture, paralysis connected to a  severe  attack of sciatica  or damage to the crural nerve, being hit by a car, getting kicked in the wrong place by a mad camel, being bit in the leg by a dog.  There are lots of minor injuries that could stop the race.

Political events in some countries: Iran, for example, in the present international crisis and a bit further on at the border between Uzbekistan and Kirghistan by internal revolts.

Natural catastrophes like earthquakes, which are frequent in Iran and Turkey (luckily we got through the one in Turkey without damage or injury).

Not being in the wrong place at the wrong time is a daily preoccupation.

And the last point that makes our organization complicated: Serge has to run and progress along his route every day, in spite of all the borders to be crossed.  With two vehicles following him the border crossings will become more difficult from Turkmenistan until we get to China.  If the logistics would be provided by team members on bicycles or roller blades, things would be a lot simpler but then Serge wouldn’t have the level support he needs to meet his objective.

From now on we will be navigating in countries governed by peculiar regimes and that are often crushed under the weight of administrations, the military and the police; countries where rules which have been made can often be changed or overlooked if you know how to be generous…..

The Paris – Tokyo race is subject to all these hazards and every day that passes is a step toward the objective: Tokyo.  But who can tell us what tomorrow will bring?