Day 78 - Bavaria, Topeka and Lawrence, Kansas

Lansing, Sunila and Brynn are welcomed by Bill Bunten, the Mayor of Topeka.

It was a beautiful, yet scorching and humid, Kansas day, with temperatures soaring to 100F degrees. Of note, Mary had an unexpected guest runner join her during her leg. A young man, Jeremy, had car problems; he was not familiar with the area but set out on foot to find an auto parts store. He noticed Mary and started running about 100 ft behind her. He soon realized that he couldn’t keep up with Mary; looking like he was about to pass out from exhaustion, Blue Planet Run staff acted as Good Samaritans and picked him up. They gave Jeremy a ride to the auto parts store and later returned him to his vehicle.

The folks in Wamego, Kansas are kind hearted and have a sense of humor. During Shiri's run, the pilot car went through a McDonald’s drive-thru - but forgot that they had a bicycle attached to the top of the car! There was a little mishap with the bike scratching the building, but the employees from McDonald’s just smiled and said for BPR not to worry. Apparently, BPR was not the first carload to make this sort of mistake.

Simon flexes with his new friends at Grandview Plaza.

As Team Green was leaving their first exchange point, a local pulled up and said he'd been hoping he would find the Run. He had the BPR map from National Geographic and wanted to touch base and contribute to the cause. Later, Jason ran past Heritage Park, in Junction City, Kansas, a memorial to Civil War heroes and a perfect backdrop for photos and videos. Contrary to all information on the flatness of Kansas, there are hills – according to Dot, you just need to get off the interstate to find them! There was a great gathering of locals who cheered Laura into Manhattan where the Little Apple Running Club and Mrs. Kansas showed up to run the next leg with Simon. With less than 12 hours left in the state, the runners reflected on the warmth of the Kansas communities, best articulated by a runner earlier in the race; “sometimes the small cities offer some of the most lasting memories.”

Jaason approaches Junction City, Kansas.

Team Oragnge poses with Bill Bunten, the Mayor of Topeka.