Last time I mentioned that I will give you some suggestions on how one may be able to "simulate” our days on the road in Siberia at home. The first thing you would need to have is plenty of time for an extended “active” vacation. A nice place to go to would be either Kansas or, better still, a place in northern Michigan. Find a nice parking lot which is at least several hours away from the next town, make sure you have good visibility of about ten miles in each direction. Also, you need to find another five persons to come along with you, since there are at least 6 people in the van on every shift. Load the van with one large duffel bag and one backpack per person, food for the road and other items for “entertainment” need to be placed strategically between the seats. Our drives from and to places to stay for the night can be experienced as follows. Pick one nice hotel, approximately 3-4 hours away from your parking lot that can be reached via a small, bumpy country road. Pick a second place, about 2-3 hours away, easy to drive to, which should be a trailer home (single-wide, please), not air-conditioned and located at a busy intersection or at a construction site. The first thing to find out is if you would either spend extra time on a bad road, or have a miserable night at a closer place. Also, the van needs to be loaded and unloaded at every hotel stop. Don’t worry, because over the next three weeks there is plenty of time to figure out what would work best for you, and also, for more variety, practice the drive at any given time of the day. The running part is easy to simulate. The first runner leaves from the parking lot for a ten mile run (just do five miles out and back), there is no need to drive the ten miles until the start for the second runner. Just drive around in the parking lot once and park in a different spot – this will give you probably plenty of new scenery to see. When the first runner arrives, one set of a mostly soaking wet running outfit plus shoes needs to be strategically placed in the van, best done so in the luggage compartment…

While the next runner leaves, the remaining persons spent the next half hour to remove or kill off any insects (mostly mosquitoes and horse flies) that have made it into the van during the exchange. (Note: It is good practice to occasionally remove the dead bugs and the splotches from the inside windows and the screens of the lap tops). The routine is now repeated three more times over a total of about six hours. At the end of a “shift”, there are now four used running outfits (male and female) plus four pairs of used running shoes located in various places throughout the van. After covering the required forty miles (or 64 km) the shift is now completed, and the drive back to the hotel can begin. One more technical detail is eating after the shift: It will mostly depend on the time of the day how, or if anything reasonable can be located. This is where you can practice some creativity – since any time spent extra on the road after a shift will cut into your recovery time. With the drive from the hotel, the shift, and the drive back (or to some other place) you will most likely have spent at least 12 – 14 hours on the road. The next three days will pass pretty much the same, then you can take one day off from running, however, you still need to do the driving from and to the parking lot. On occasions, practice the routine for eight days straight, this will give you the experience of a typical eight day shift after which, I am sure of, you’d really look forward to a day “off”. (Note: a day “off” means not running, but everything else). Of course, the above is a rather simplified version of our schedules, since none of the extra activities, like media events, photo shoots, blogging, laundry, ferries and boarder crossings are included. Also, you will have the advantage that you KNOW where you’ll go every day to run, and also where to spend the night, and the choice is yours. There are some other minor issues such as odor management or not being able to shower for a few days, and, hopefully you will remain healthy - but you won’t have to deal with that. So, in short give it a try for about three weeks, also practice running at any time of the day – 12 noon with the sun right over your head, or at 3 am in the morning. You’ll really get to know your team mates, and, if your choice was a good one. We’ve been at it for more than fifty days now, and (speaking for the four of us) so far loved every minute of it.