Run Across America - 6th August - Day 54

It was a very uncomfortable day of running as the weather in Kansas was very humid which is making me sweat so much, especially in the afternoon session. The first town I visited today was called Mankato and it was again a very small place with very few places to run by. I had to give my Annie a call today so when running through the town I was trying to find a payphone, but believe it or not the town doesn’t have one anywhere (someone said it’s because of the mobile phone invention). I had to speak to Annie and Poppy so I stopped by an old man’s house and he kindly let me use the phone (using my phone card of course).

The team joined me using the bike (added with a fat person’s seat) for the last 20 miles of the day with each doing 10 miles each. As it was uncomfortable running having Natasha as company first took my mind of the horrible heat. Alex then joined me for the last 10 miles. Even though the weather was uncomfortable I still ran my quickest time (7hrs 37mins) which is 3 minutes quicker than my previous best. We are trying to get Ben to also join the ‘support biking crew’ but he doesn’t seem to have the motivation for cycling and just wants to drive instead. Ben does go for 6 mile walks with Natasha most days as the team do get bored as there’s not much to do when I’m running most of the day.

I have another full day of running tomorrow (40 miles) and then a half day (20 miles) on Wednesday before heading to Kansas City. We will be picking up young Matt from the bus station and then drop Alex off at the airport as he is going to his friend Roddy’s wedding in Charlotte. Roddy’s parents actually live in Norwich and when I was preparing for the run across America I’d often see them either walking up Gas Hill or through Norwich City centre doing their walking exercises.

We are staying at another RV campsite tonight and at this minute we’re watching ‘Frasier’ on the TV, which is so funny.

I’d like to say a big hello to everyone that lives on my old playing ground, the Heartsease estate, which when listening to the Skinnyman album today reminded me of the good times I had when younger on my estate.

Artist of the day – Skinnyman (council estate)

Regards, Jackson and Team