Yesterday I came across an article by Jurgen Ankenbrand about the 2003 Trans-Europe race. Jurgen is an ultrarunner and a photographer who accompanied the Lisbon-Moscow event and was part of the organising team.
I met him in New York when he came to spend time and take some photos of Jesper Olsen when Jesper was arriving in New York at the end of a long leg across America and Canada. In 2006 Jurgen was hit by car and severely injured but recovered with his tremendous spirit.
The article is called Running Across Europe in 64 Days and gives a good idea of what life on the road is like.
This years event has a few more runners, a slightly shorter distance and the benefit of previous experience. Russell Seckers blog is also worth checking out as the enormity of the project sinks in and he adjusts “to the real life” as Stutisheel Lebedev put it.
Rainer Koch, who has run in Flushing Meadow in the Self-Transcendence Spring races, is leading René Strosny by some 2 hours overall and Hiroko Okiyama has a 14 hour lead over Ria Buiten. Today, day 20, the race passed the 1300km/800 mile mark and the stage is travelling from Seeg to Pfaffenhausen in Austria – almost 65 km.
There are links to blogs, (Race Director Ingo Schulze also posts) in several European languages, daily and overall results, photos and route details on the website. Also one can email a runner. Its nice to get email during these long races…
Checkout Europes longest race The 2009 Trans-Europalauf
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