Reconnected in Russia. We’ve been sans internet for several days now. I just ran the last leg in Belarus to the Russian border where alternate Will Dobbie took over. Will came to us a few days ago to cover for runners who have other obligations or need down time. Simon has gone off to a Dow summit in Moscow and Jason is taking a day off. Will is a speedy runner and a great guy. He ran the first leg in Russia. Laura and I ran the last legs in Belarus. We’ve had another time change and had just three 10 mile segments to cover tonight. The Green Team is on the 9pm to 3am shift. We will sleep in Vyazma, Russia before heading on to Moscow. After that we will be going straight, straight, straight, until we take a right turn into Mongolia almost a month from now.

A number of us had amazing massages today in Orsha from a woman named Tatiana. She was large and powerful, with a mouth full of gold teeth, and gave a deep and effective ½ hour leg and lower back massage for 10,000 Belarussian rubles, equivalent to about $5 U.S. I also had my first Eastern bloc internet café experience, very well run and very inexpensive. The remainder of the day was spent eating breakfast at 8am, lunch at noon, and dinner at 5pm, with lots of cucumbers. It was a very pretty day, sunny, dry and breezy. Orsha is a town of 10,000 people but without high buildings, with only one hotel, and with a very warm, laid back feeling. Toilet paper is a luxury and sweet swelling bathrooms an oddity. But our room was clean and we had fresh air through the open window. A funny blue box on the wall captured our curiosity. After guessing whether it might have been a bug eater or a fan, Laura plugged it in and it was a radio with one station, the type you’ve seen in Gestapo movies running loud brainwashing messages in the background.

I’ve christened our van with the Maratova with fish and ORS onions. The van is owned by our driver Sergei and looks like a funeral van. The inside is padded with tassled, pom pom curtains, wood floors and leather seats. Quite comfortable. You can see it on the website if you look at the photos on Day 22 which show Jason climbing around our bags in the back of the van.
My run tonight was good, but uneventful except for the border crossing. Luckily I was transported by the pilot car because the short distance between the toll station and the actual border was back to back semis with their engines running. Gag! I had great company when Ellen our night medic came along on one of the mountain bikes.

We hope to have a good media event in Moscow and then our appeals will be to individuals in small towns along the way, and hopefully to a lot of kids. Internet access will be very sketchy through July but I’ll keep blogging and send them when I can. Happy trails!