J193 – 6/28/2006

Because there is some wind this morning the air seems less stifling, even if we continue to drip.  Serge isn’t suffering, in spite of the heat.  His face is expressive and he has been talking during his feedings.  He agreed to have Maxime run 4 ½ kilometers with him, turns his head and even surveys the landscape.  It’s the first time in three days that he hasn’t stopped to sit or lie down.

The scenery is superb: there are mountains in the background, rice paddies as far as the eye can see in the plain, a multitude of rivers and ponds where the water buffolos bathe… We feel that we are in the heart of Asia.  In spite of the fact that the cities are closer and closer together, we are still in rural China with its farmers.

Even though he has been eating well, Serge thinks he has lost weight so the scale must come out: He weights 54 kilos, nothing alarming, we just have to make sure he doesn’t let up and continues to eat well.  The new team brought us 40 kilos of food, purchased and packaged by Dominique.  It was just in time because the boys of the previous team were beginning to have problems knowing what to feed Serge.  Stocks were running out.  For the past week Serge has his rice with milk, his Bolinos, his energy bars, his Petit Beurre Lu (which are now coming out of his ears)!  An extra treat: some Camembert and sausage…our noses and palates are delighted.

In spite of the return of Bolinos, Serge still eats lyophilized Clinutren, a high protein, high calorie, vitamin rich food supplement.  It’s the first time on a crossing that he has eaten so much solid and salted food: 1 bowl of Clinutren, 1 Bolino, 1 or sometimes 2 bowls of dehydrated Chinese noodles, and meat, which we can often buy along the road at noon when we have lunch.  In spite of the heat, he continues to have his well-salted soup at the beginning of the afternoon. We usually alternate sugar and salt.

Serge doesn’t appear to be tired of all these feedings, even if for the past six months they have been more or less the same.  His regularity is rather incredible both from a mileage and a psychological point of view.  He has never had the desire, even fleeting, to stop the race.  The only thing that he can’t control is the time it will take him to arrive in Tokyo: “As long as my body can do it, I will run my 75 kilometers per day, but I don’t know for how long.  I can visualize the arrival in Tokyo, but I can’t be sure of the date because anything can happen.”