The trouble pretty much started next day, our “day off” spent baking under the desert sun in the camp unable to get any rest in preparation for the first night shift. The only shade could be found under a tarp while sitting at a coffee table, and I was killing time taking tents down in the sun and help packing up camp. We left camp at 5 pm in order to reach our 9 pm exchange point via bumpy dirt roads into the Gobi desert. Our first shift went rather well, considering we had been unable to rest. I enjoyed the peaceful night in the desert while running on sandy two-tracks and watching the night critters running to safety from the headlights of the pilot car. The next morning brought a very unpleasant surprise. The hotel where we where supposed to rest had no water and no electricity, and construction noise made it impossible to get more than two hours rest in the hot, sticky hotel room. Pretty miserably already, we prepared for our next night out. The more than 5 hour drive in the cramped van left Paul and me utterly car sick, I spent the next few hours behind the car trying to get it back together. The consequences of running a second shift on minimal sleep were not surprising. We were all pretty fatigued to begin with, but it got a whole lot worse. Paul first misstepped and twisted his ankle. He managed to run it off only having to almost quit several miles later due to severe sickness and stomach cramps. Later on I run the last leg of our shift when I was suddenly hit hard from behind at my left hip,
pushing me forward into the dirt – and, to my utter surprise felt a car moving over me. I frantically clawed my way away from the weels when it came to a stop. The driver of the night pilot car had fallen asleep, and only the alertness of our doc had saved me from being run over by one of our own cars in the middle of the night far out in the Gobi desert. A bit shaken up I was able to continue on a while later. Luckily I had gotten away with only a few mirror scrapes on my knees and elbows, although my whole left side was pretty sore from the bump with the car. When arriving at the second camp there was more bad news: Paul was totally sick, hardly even remembering the last couple of hours. Rest was short again, and after just a bit more than 3 hours we left the camp in order to cross the boarder into China.

After a short break in a hotel at the Chinese side we were on the way with our new Chinese crew to the next shift. The days in China I only remember through a haze. While country living appears hard and difficult at times, the bigger cities are vibrant and colorful. Although passing through rather quickly, my most obvious impressions are some of really bad air, garbage at the side of the roads, smog, and pollution making it difficult to breathe. For us, things were quickly deteriorating further from here on. Rudy, without proper rest was now unable to run for the first time due to a worsening of his injury. And just within the next few hours I got so sick that I was unable to stand on my feet. Paul felt he had no chance but to run his whole leg. We desperately were looking for some help, but didn’t get much relief due to a mistake in the daybook and had to make it through without a replacement. Thankfully, we had met the Sean and Simon’s team earlier that day the crew took 10 miles from us without hesitation. So, Laurel set out first, managing her full 10 mi under a blazing hot sun. In the mean time I was laying behind the car trying to get on my feet. I finally managed to get up and started walking down the road, later slowly beginning to jog (not run). I don’t remember much of the whole thing and had to step over relieving myself several times. At the finish I collapsed into the van while Paul took on his shift. We later stopped in a small town for some photographs when Paul staggered past us with about four km to go. He managed to finish, only on end up on the pavement in cramps and agony without being able to get up for several minutes. Just a short time later we were back on the road, we had to drive straight to Beijing airport in order to catch the plane to Japan at 8 am in the morning. Needless to say we were just worn out at this point. We stopped at a hotel at the airport for two hours, just enough time to repack and board the plane to Japan. Although everything went smooth, we didn’t get to our hotel in Hiroshima before 4:30 pm, at this time being on our feet again for more than 30 hrs. At the hotel we learned the next crushing news: we were already scheduled to run another double shift, for 9 pm the next day, and 3 pm the day thereafter, which means running two full shifts in less than 24 hrs. The good news: We had a great welcome by the Japanese team and the hotel in Hiroshima was very comfortable and we are hoping to get things back on track within the next few days. As you can see, things are not always going as smooth as you may think while reading the daily updates and look at some of the beautiful – often staged – photographs taken somewhere along the route – some in locations we don’t even pass through while running. I am not sure why much of the actual run is focused on only a few of us and is being portrayed as some kind of a beach vacation where people are worried about massages and getting a manicure. The running schedule is rather harsh at times, and real daily life on the road is shown rarely. While the Blue Planet Run is a great adventure for all of us, we should still remember the most important reason why we are on the road. And there are the days when the runners as well as the road crews literally have to do the extra miles in order to make this great adventure a reality.