Travel Reference
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fresh cream. Delicious. It was almost my daily intake of 8000 calories
right there in that pie. Certainly, it was fuel for the next 30 kilometres.
It hardly touched the sides as I scoffed it down.
I talked to the locals about what I'm doing, and one fellow with
white hair, wearing a black T-shirt, nailed it. He said, 'I bet you've been
told a million times that what you're attempting is impossible. Well,
my philosophy is, if your dream is big enough, the hurdles, the facts
that say you are biting off more than you can chew, don't matter a
damn. You can do anything you set your mind to.'
As I left, Laura, who runs the Halfway House, gave me a laminated
menu, so any time I feel down-hearted on the road I can pick some-
thing from it and the crew can whip up grilled ham and pineapple,
steak, rhubarb pie, maybe even blueberry pie. I reckon they'll have
trouble topping hers!
One of the great things about this expedition is meeting new
people. And, America being America, everyone has a story to tell you.
This afternoon, I bumped into a champion arm wrestler. His sport, like
mine, is often seen as a pastime for oddballs, so we got on fine during
our brief chat. I asked him the secret to arm wrestling, and he told me
it's all in a special grip that allows you to control your opponent's hand.
Do that before he does it to you, and you're on the way to victory. He
had bulging biceps that looked like they were carved from steel. I was
tempted to ask him if he was up for a job as my bodyguard when I run
through the notorious Darién Gap between Panama and Colombia.
A woman who donated to the Red Cross website, inspired by my
run, told me she was eternally grateful to the organisation for the help
they had given her and her family when her home burned down when
she was five years old. She invited me to have a dip in her swimming
pool. It was tempting, but I had to thank her and keep running.
June 12
We're in upstate New York, about 120 kilometres north of New York
City. Maybe it's because a full-on media day in the Big Apple on June 15
is looming, maybe it's because I've had a fragmented, frustrating day
on the road being filmed, meeting wellwishers and doing a long radio
interview on the phone with a broadcaster in Boston, but I'm feeling
jaded tonight. I ran 80 kilometres today. The terrain was awesome,
