As said in our last update, Gary and our guide runners finished the second section of their running journey on April 3. On April 4, day 11, Team B’s leader passed the baton to Team C to help Gary to carry on his challenge, starting in Taikang County, Gary and Team C ran 50.8km and 52km on day 11 and day 12 respectively.
On day 13, Gary sat down and talked to us about his experience (see video), he was thrilled that he and the guide runners have so far completed 1/3 of the total distance, starting from Beijing, went through Hebei and arrived in Henan. Gary was happy to learn about the sceneries (with guide runner describing the surroundings to him), to experience the local delicacies and to talk to some local people along the way. However, he and the team also encountered problems which they did not expect at planning – pollution and dust storms, changing weather conditions and different road conditions (team has to meander on busy roadsides filled with trucks and tricycles). Since health and safety always go first, Gary decided to lower the daily run distance target to about 50km, because running shorter distance per day would hopefully give him and the team more time to rest and recover at the end of each day after exposing themselves to changing weather and pollution.
Gary and guide runner marched on day 13 and 14, arriving Xinyang City in Henan and finishing on an average of 50km each day. On day 15, after running a series of uphill and downhill paths Gary and his team entered Hubei, where Team C bid farewell to Gary and let Team D carry on with Gary and his challenge. Go Gary and Team D!
P.S.- One may notice in some of the photos that there is a big tall gentleman in blazer and trousers and he does not look like he will be running with Gary or his team, he is the volunteer driver for Gary’s Charity Challenge, Mr. Li – he helps to drive Gary and his guide runner teams during the entire challenge and he also looks after Gary and the teams’ meal arrangements, safety, logistics in all the cities, thank you Mr. Li.
We are very grateful that there are so many people helping and supporting Gary with this Charity Challenge, if you wish to support Gary, support Mother’s Choice, we invite you to be a HOPE Giver and donate: https://www.simplygiving.com/event/hope-anchors