Kevin Carr concluded his run across Australia yesterday, finishing at Clovelly Beach, just down the road from my place. I dropped him at his starting position yesterday, 15 km west of the city, after we picked up several items that had been sent ahead to various places for him. I then met Kevin at the Sydney Opera House and ran with him the final 9 km to the ocean.

Kevin has stayed with us the past two nights. This morning I dropped him at the airport for his flight to New Zealand. He will be running more than 1,000 km on the identical roads to which I ran at the beginning of my world run. I was able to offer Kevin some important hints about bridge crossings on the South Island, including how to get across the 2 km long Rakaia River, which has no pedestrian access.

You can continue to follow Kevin’s journey on www.hardwayround.com. Although there are obvious differences, he will be covering a lot of similar ground to what I did, including his route over the Andes. His timing in early January will make it much easier than it was for me in early November, when the snows had not yet melted.

As mentioned yesterday, I will tomorrow be doing a time trial around Centennial Park. My previous effort on this course, back in November, resulted in a somewhat slow 15:09. I hope to at least beat that time tomorrow.

On This Day

Jun 4, 2012

Distance today = 51.97 km; Total distance = 7269.47 km; Location = Clark  – 44 52.679′ N, 97 44.436′ W; Start time = 0821, Finish time = 1624

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/185682690

I reached a big milestone today – I’ve now completed more than 25% of my run around the world. When I passed 7,250 km today, it meant I was more than  one-quarter the way through. It’s taken just a little over five months.

It was another hot one, and even now, at 5:15 pm, it’s over 30C. Remember too, whatever the official temperature is in the shade, I’m experiencing it quite a bit hotter on the road in the direct sunshine.

I think it got to me, as my legs had nothing by the end of the day. The busy road with no shoulder (yes, I was back on one of these today) did nothing to improve the day. The forecast is for the next week to be above 30C, and tomorrow will be on the same road as today, so I’d better steel myself for another tough day.