So now we have entered Russia, and we will be spending nearly 4 weeks here. It has taken 25 days to get here and will take 27 to get through, that gives you some idea of the size of the area we will be running through. Two days ago team yellow finished an eight day shift without a day off, this works because of the change of shifts. It was during the final few days of this that you find things to think about that motivate you enough to get through that shift. On the final day my main thoughts turned to the lovely ladies and not so lovely men from Jog Scotland, who inspire me with there determination week after week. It has been so great seeing these people start from not running at all to doing 5ks, 10ks and even half marathons in the short period they have been running. They are such an inspiration.

As is a lovely lady from the running club I am part of at home, her name is Anne, I won't say how old she is but put it this way I think she is entitled to her bus pass. Anne took up running only a few years ago but has improved so much over this time. She turns out week after week for interval sessions, i.e. hill reps, and speed sessions, and can be seen out at a weekend doing her long run. She does this with a constant smile on her face and is so encouraging to everyone in the club. She is such an inspiration. The reason why I'm here on this amazing adventure is to highlight the problem of the lack of safe drinking water around the world. Unlike most of the other people on this challenge I have never seen this at first hand. This changed on my last day in Belarus when I saw an old women bent double on the side of the road washing her cooking pots in a road side puddle, I could not believe my eyes.

We take it for granted in the west that we can turn on a tap and safe drinking water will come out. We complain if this service is disrupted for short periods of time. How are we going to feel when this seemingly endless supply starts to diminish and our future generations are living like this old woman on the side of the road, looking for a small amount of water to do her daily chores. Is this what we want for our children, surely not and its not what we want for other human beings throughout the world. So lets start thinking about the problem.