Our last run in Colorado ended about 15 miles from the border to Kansas, and things were about to get a lot less exciting for a while. For the next couple of days we will be running across Kansas and Missouri, and the landscape is definitely a bit less diverse in comparison to the western part of the country... Nevertheless, crossing Kansas was not bad at all, and we had some nice runs in the country side, passing through endless fields of corn on rolling hills and dirt roads. I started running on all of the four 3 am shifts, and the early mornings in the farming backcountry were quite pleasant for me. Farmers were out early, using the hours before the heat of the day to get their work done. I talked with one of them for a while, and he predicted some relief from the heat and humidity for the next couple of days, badly needed for the farmers, but also good news for us since we were about to move on to the day shifts for the next couple of days. On our third day of shift the 9 am exchange pints was located in the small village of Park, right next to a church, and a few of the local residents were curiously checking out what was going on at this hour in their small little town. I spend some time talking to Bobby, a young girl from the neighborhood who was spending the summer at her grandma’s home. We got into talking about our favorite summer activities, and I told her that I myself had spent a lot of summers with my grandparents when I was in her age.

The next few days went without too many exciting episodes, and the only one worth mentioning occurred when our pilot car got pulled over for speeding on our way to Lawrence, KS. At the end, only a warning was issued, and the police left satisfied with our explanation, and a couple of BPR stickers and T-shirts. The next few days we spent fighting the heat and humidity, and a few times I managed to run a few extra miles, despite the difficult conditions. Our exchange point in Kansas City was nicely picked, right in the vicinity of a water fountain park in the city center. A lot of kids were playing in the fountains, and were having fun cooling off in the heat of the day. We reached plenty of people that day – one of the few occasions when our exchange points turned out to be a real attraction. Later that day we moved on to Marshall, KS and were now close to cross over into Missouri. All in all, Kansas was quite nice – and better than I remembered from driving across on occasions - with its large sunflower and corn fields. I have to make an exception for the food though, which was quite marginal – at least in those few places we visited on our way through…

The country roads on the first day in Missouri were beautiful, but also pretty hilly. The temperatures were still soaring – despite some rain showers overnight, and the humidity made running for me pretty miserably. On the second day, a nice, friendly dog from a farm in the countryside decide to join me for a couple of miles. Very much to my frustration, the playful dog caught a little bit too much of my attention, and I misstepped off the curb on the left side of the road, badly twisting my forefoot. I managed to finish my run, cursing at myself to let my guards down for just a short moment. Things got worse overnight, and the next day turned out to be painful enough to have the foot X-rayed at a local urgent care. Thankfully, nothing appeared to be fractured, and I managed later that day to at least run five of my ten miles into St. Louis for the day, while Paul and David covered the remaining distance for me. The exchange point was located a good half mile away from the famous Arch, unfortunately only a few people were aware of it, and the turnout was – once again in a big city – pretty dismal. Later our team went for a walk to the Arch, and we were greeted by a security guard telling us that a lot of people had been looking for us around the Arch and along the river front, but had left disappointed… We concluded the day with a ride up to the observation area inside the 630 ft high Arch, enjoying the aerial view of St. Louis and a very nice team moment.