J73 – 2/28/2006

The first 17 kilometers made for very stressful running.  This small road between Fatsa and Persembe is on the side of a hill which falls straight into the sea, without any shoulder.  Obviously, this makes it very dangerous.  Serge is constantly ready to jump or to grab onto the crash barrier when there is one.  To make matters worse, this morning he is out of sorts with a stomach ache due to stress and a sore right ankle.  Since yesterday he changes sides when he runs: once on the right and once on the left.  He ends up by feeling better the three last hours of the race.  This “lack of juice,”  as he calls it  is also connected to the fact that last night he didn’t eat much because he was too tired.

Everything is peaceful for the follower’s: crossing cities like Ordu or Bulanca doesn’t make it easy to meet people or to have tea, as we have been doing for the miles already covered on this D010 road, which we will leave tomorrow to face serious business: the mountains.  Life outdoors and the sunshine of the past few days have given us good coloring.  Every day we get tanner.  The whole team has a good morale and the motivation of every member remains intact.

Thanks go to Joel for the photos taken during the last few days.  He’s a true reporter.  On this expedition the followers take on many different jobs.