There was no wake up alarm today as it was a support team change over day in Dodge City.
The overnight stop was the car park outside Deb’s hotel. It was pretty quiet over night but I only managed 5.5 hours of sleep. I didn’t feel too tired when I woke up. When Deb was finished with her room, I was able to use the shower. A shower at the start of the day is a rare thing indeed on this tour.
Deb, Alan and I had breakfast at IHOP. It was absolutely tremendous and made a change from porridge.
We then dropped Alan off at Dodge City Airport and waited for Thomas’s flight to arrive.
Alan has done a long old stint on this tour. His contribution has been immense. It quite simply would not have been possible without his help.
Thomas arrived on time and we all drove in the RV from Dodge City back to the day 58 end point.
We reached the start point for the day at 1230. It was 12 miles west of Newton, Kansas. I was out for the first session by 1238. The temperature was hotting up nicely with 32 Celsius showing on my watch.
The aim for the day was to make it to Hutchinson, Kansas. It was 17 miles away.
Having had 26 hours of recovery, I felt pretty good at the start. It was good to see those long straight Kansas roads again.
The first water refill point was at 3 miles. I took a bottle and was joined by Thomas for a few miles.
A police car slowed down to check on us. I gave him the thumbs up and he drove off.
At mile 5 I noticed the largest flock of birds so far in this tour. I think they were swallows. They seem to hang out near decent sized sources of water.
I was back again solo by mile 8. By mile 9, the southerly breeze was blocked by some trees. It was then that the full heat of the day hit me. As per usual, I started to feel a little groggy.
I messaged the team to ask about taking a break at mile 11 with a view to coming back out much later on. Quite rightly, I was instructed to carry on. That’s all that was needed to keep me putting one foot in front of the other in the ferocious Kansas heat.
I checked the temperature on my watch at mile 12. It read 38.5 Celsius.
I could feel the heat rising from the tarmac. It was suffocating. Just then, a car pulled over on the other side of the road. A man got out and ran over to bring 2 bottles of water from the trunk of his car. They were nice and cool. I gave him a leaflet in return. His name was Jay.
That very kind gesture, along with a brief bit of cloud cover was enough to start a “pace revolution”.
Deb was just down the road and I handed my backpack to her. It was time to try and pick up the pace.
The miles started to tick by pretty quickly. It wasn’t getting any cooler either. I made it to mile 16, knowing the hard work had been done, and took my foot off the gas.
I reached the finish point on Highway 50, south of Hutchinson at 18:26. It was a good 30 minutes earlier than I’d expected.
While I’d been running those last 5 miles, Deb had dropped Thomas off at a nearby laundromat. Unfortunately we hadn't had any washing done for about 8 days. Apparently my running kit was very smelly.
Deb picked me up at the end point as soon as I’d finished running. We then drove to the laundromat to meet back up with Thomas.
I downed my usual Cherry Active recovery drink in the laundromat. Deb had me ice my feet while we waited for Thomas to finish the laundry.
We got talking to some really friendly locals in the laundromat. I commented to Deb that almost every day here in the USA, there’s some kindness or friendliness shown. I don’t remember it ever being like this in 2011. This particular tour has done a lot to restore my faith in humankind.
Given that we face a few days of no facilities and that fact that there’s not a lot of good fresh food in the RV, we decided to go to a local steak restaurant.
I’ve got to say that my 16oz Ribeye with all the fixings was superb!
Much to our amazement, we found that a lady sitting nearby called Janice had settled our bill. She’d overheard our accents earlier and I told her about my journey and gave her a leaflet.
The kindess that I referred to earlier in this blog had continued. I looked at Deb and Thomas when the waitress said that the bill had been settled in total disbelief.
I made sure to thank Janice for her kindness before we left. There was just enough time for a photo (and also one of her dog Carlos).
We drove to a nearby Walmart. There were supplies to be bought. Before that, Deb inspected my feet for damage. It was then time for a massage on my legs and feet. That did a lot to provide relief. Poor Deb was doing this in the sweltering hot RV.
I wrote the blog while Thomas and Deb shopped for supplies in Walmart.
It had been a hugely productive day on many fronts. Getting the laundry done, without impacting my miles was the big win. Oh and Thomas and Deb have made themselves right at home and completely rearranged the contents of the RV. I think that was done by mile 3 actually.
TUNE OF THE DAY: Back with the boys again - Auf Weidersehen Pet
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The bonus photo of the day is when Thomas shook some bedding in the laundromat. It got caught in the ceiling fan. I half expected him to get caught up with it like some fairground ride. Oh how I laughed!
