WoW! We're in the same time zone as our finish line (E.S.T.) with just 11 days to go! I'm psyched because I realized today that I don't have five more night runs but just three, given that two of them will be after sunrise. Team Green has one more day on the 9pm to 3am shift, before we move to our last graveyard shift, 3am to 9am. Then it's a 9am to 3pm home run!!!!

After resting in Burbank, Illinois, it was an upbeat night in South Chicago. Apparently our Chicago downtown event was well televised on the evening news. I knew from teammates who were there that it had been a great success. As I ran through some of the South Chicago ghettoes, I encountered lots of fans hollering things like "way to go," "good luck," and "you're too cool." One large black woman stepped out from a gas station and exclaimed, "I wish I'd known you were coming this way. I would have brought a crowd! You go girl!" It was great. Alessandro from our night crew was biking with me and commented that this was better than being in town. After the ghettoes we passed through a manufacturing area. It was a run of logistics, on again off again sidewalk, negotiating over interstates and through lots of parking lots. I was amazed that Alessandro never had a flat tire given all the broken glass and other debris we went through. We were surrounded by lightning and distant thunder when, about 8.5 miles into the run, the storms hit full force. Inches of rain filled the streets in minutes as we were washed clean of our perspiration and immediately refreshed. The rains continued throughout our shift as we jumped in and out of the pilot van for safety in the path of the violent strikes. It was slow going but we got there, meeting up with the Blue Team at 3am just before the time zone change. There were shades of Russia given the road conditions, humidity and even the mosquitoes that attacked us at one of the exchanges.

"Don't be a sap, go to the tap." Someone sent me this quote, not sure of the context. I think most who opt for other than the tap when the tap water is good just don't think about the issue. But then there is taste. The BPR team goes to the tap but here we are in America and, although the tap water is safe, for the past week it has tasted awful. I've had it with ice, mixed with Gatorade and other taste additives, but when I want straight pure water as I love it, it just ain't happening from the tap here in parts of middle America. Funny, since you can get some of the best tasting water from the tap in a place like New York City. This just goes to show that the water issue is more than just availability and safety, which is why the bottled water industry has become so attractive to many. The message we need to pass on to them is that good taste can easily and inexpensively be acquired by using a filtering device like a Brita. For BPR, the message remains that we need to get safe water in a sustainable method to the 1.2 billion people who don't have it and get sick and die.

When not raining, the heat is back in the mid to high 90's and the humidity continues. In the states around us the flooding and wild fires persist. We push on to New York City inside our BPR bubble, a self-reliant mobile unit of runners, staff and vehicles. We are now in Warsaw, Indiana, heading to Michigan tonight and on to Toronto and Niagara Falls where our teammates Jason from Canada and Taeko from Japan will be wed by the great waters, one of the natural wonders of the world.

Water is life. Pass it on!