The overnight stop in a motel room for me meant that I managed to get nearly 8 hours of sleep. Absolute luxury. You can see from the chart below how much I need (green line) versus how much I’m getting (light blue line).
Deb drove Thomas to Pueblo airport very early. They’d stayed in a Walmart car park overnight. By the time Deb got back to La Junta, drove us to the start line, cooked some porridge and I ate it, it was 0750.
It was due to be another scorcher today. Unfortunately, to keep the flies off, I had my tracksuit bottoms and a base layer on. In chose to use the walking poles again. They really help to take the pressure off my badly damaged feet.
There were some interesting sights as I made my way down the remaining miles of highway 194 to La Junta.
First up was a most unusual sight. I had to do a double take when I saw a zebra staring at me.
Next up was what I thought was a golden retriever the time. I’m now wondering if it was a Pyrenean Mountain Dog.
I met Deb at the RV for a bite to eat at the 8 mile point. When I got back out I was greeted by a man wearing an England football shirt. His name was Ivor. He’d been looking for me. He left his car at the side of the road and accompanied me to the town centre of La Junta.
On the way I met some of Ivor’s colleagues. Pictured are Austin, Ken and Ivor. The guys made a kind donation in dollars which I paid in to https://www.justgiving.com/page/rungeordierun2025.
I said goodbye to them and managed to find the notorious highway 10 at the 13 mile point. That was mile 1800 of the tour.
Highway 10 has no facilities and no obvious overnight stopping places. It’s going to be a challenge. I did notice that it was lined with sunflowers. That’s the symbol that St. Benedict’s Hospice use. I therefore started calling highway 10 the “sunflower road”.
Unfortunately, at the 19 mile point I saw flashes of lightning up ahead. I decided to get into the nearby RV and wait for it to pass. When I got inside the RV there was an almighty gust of wind. Thankfully, it didn’t last long and I was back out on the sunflower road.
There was a bend in the road at mile 25. By that time I could see the tips of the Rocky mountains. Also, I could clearly see the Spanish Peaks near Walsenburg. They were 60 miles away!
The sun started to set and made for some spectacular scenes.
A solitary sunflower stood at the side of the road as the disappearing sun sank.
The last 3 miles were done in almost complete darkness. I hadn’t run on such a long straight road at night since the Australian Nullarbor in 2013.
The advantage to running at night is that you can see traffic miles away.
Deb played a blinder and managed to find a great overnight parking spot (at the time of writing). There was not a train line or golf course in sight.
I called it a day at mile 30.8. Given the late start and storm interruption, I was very pleased with that.
TUNE OF THE DAY: I’ve been everywhere - Johnny Cash.
The fund for St Benedict's Hospice is now £23,500 thanks to some incredible generosity throughout this tour. If you would like to make a donation, please visit my JustGiving site:
https://www.justgiving.com/page/rungeordierun2025
