Its been another frantic 3 weeks in another country, we flew into San Francisco, California and met our drivers for the next 5 weeks who would drive us to our exchange points as we ran across the states. My team, the Blue Team were introduce the delightful Millie. I have meet so many of ‘lifes Characters’ on this trip and Millie was no exception, she reminded me of Woopi Goldberg and with that sort of personality Blue Team welcomed her with open arms. Blue Team have managed to create a good balance between getting the Job Done but also being able to have a good laugh!

America so far has provided me with some of the toughest elements in which to run, the state of California was a nice introduction into the states and it was back to familiar food, good roads, nice motels and Starbucks. Whenever I travel overseas I venture in to a starbucks to write postcards and have a Venti cappuccino and blueberry muffin and I immediately feel like I am back home, it’s a nice comfort to be in familiar surroundings.

Blue team was straight back onto the 3am -9am shift which was a bit unfortunate as we had been on this shift in Japan but because of the travel from Japan to the USA they did a whole team rotation and blue team ended up being back on this awful shift - oh well……….I did have a fantastic run from 7.30-9am along the Big Sur Coast south of Lucia and I slowed down to watch all the early morning surfers who were out catching their waves. I tried a bit of surfing in Hawaii a few years back and it was a million times harder than I imagined it would be to catch a wave, since then I have had a real appreciation of the sea and the way these surfers catch and ride their waves.

We had a day off in Santa Barbara and so went to an exchange point downtown to try and create some awareness and educate these Californians on the water crisis, they all seemed very receptive and it was interesting people watching. I felt everyone was walking about, busking, or eating at the ’right’ restaurant just waiting to be noticed by that famous director or music producer who would make them that next STAR! Got to say the buskers were exceptionally talented and as I past this girl singing and playing the guitar I just wondered if she would become the next Cheryl Crow or Jewel, really it comes down to a bit of luck and timing.

Santa Monica Blvd was a hype of activity, I had the Cheryl Crow song ‘on the Santa Monica Blvd’ echoing in my mind as I walked along. The beach was a about 20 times bigger than Oriental Bay and beautiful Golden sand, Millie and I couldn’t resist, so put our togs on and joined those bronzed and beautiful Californians. I love being by the water and always feel a wonderful sense of peace, I get a similar feeling when running through the bush - I am that ‘free spirit’ without a care in the world, it is a great space to be in for that period of time. The beach was a real treat after 8 straight days on the 3am-9am shift, and especially needed because a couple of my hardest runs were about to come!

That hard, hot run came when we left California and entered into the states of Nevada we were back on the 9am-3pm shift, this was great because our body clocks could regulate back to normal time and bio-rhythms get back into sync but it did mean that we would be running in the hottest part of the day.

What a challenge it was as we made our way through the Moabi desert towards Las Vegas, in these hot conditions we always let Richard run in the coolest part of the day as he really does struggle with the heat, but even at 9am when he started it was getting into the 30’s! He looked like a cascading waterfall when he finished. I had to step out of the air-conditioned van and face running 16km in 44 degrees of dry heat. I have never, ever experienced that heat before, I don’t think it has reached that high in New Zealand’s history ever.

What got me through was some wonderful team support from a few people I would like to thank from the bottom of my heart. Firstly BLUE TEAM, we have a great team spirit and every mile Victor, Millie, Richard and Taeko would jump out of that van armed with ice, cold sponges and water and provide the necessary work on body ( ice under the hat and down the back, cold sponges on the arms and legs) to get me through to that next mile where Dill from ignition would be waiting to hand me an electrolyte or water drink and send me on my way to that next mile with some positive words of encouragement. Dill’s company Ignition has put this relay together, logistically it must have been an absolute nightmare, but I have got to say they have done a fantastic job and everything has gone just like clockwork. And good old Dill, there he was with the hands on approach spending up to 14 hours a day giving each one of us water every mile. Thank you so much Dill and to my wonderful supportive team BLUE.

Our treat at the end of this 44 degree run was reaching Las Vegas , it was like driving into Disneyland, neon lights and an escape from reality, gambling does not interest me in the slightest and so had no desire to put even a quarter into one of the machines, but I did enjoy the energy of this make believe city. Certainly couldn’t live there but like I said it’s an escape from reality for a few days. If you love live acts, music and theatre this is the place to be and for me I could have stayed for a week taking in the shows. They have these huge bill boards advertising the up and coming acts as you drive in and well who should I see plastered on one of them but DON HENLEY from the Eagles……boy did I get excited, but unfortunately he was playing in Las Vegas about the time Team Blue would have well and truly moved on to Utah and Colorado……