Dear all,
Thanks to all for your collaboration and your help, last but not least evening news….we’re back home !
Attached pictures of French part of the team in the plane… on face book the picture of the team in front of the “Atelier Renault”
Facebook it’s now more than 500 “likes”
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Alliance-Running/405821826200164
Sincerely yours
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Van 2 news :
We had to defrost the windshield, colder and M5…we thought having reached the dangerous road, but today we were really In!
Hopefully we had the opportunity to join the crazy bats team (van 1) for a typical breakfast…
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Our run was finished by 3 runners together under a rain with was beginning …. Again with more than half an hour in advance.
Support Team 3 with at de meeting point because the rain was starting to increase seriously.
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The running was not really funny, but we found our totem and had the opportunity to finish early and took a Russian soup in a typical restaurant for trucks drivers.
This restaurant in the middle of nowhere had a wifi access with permit us to share a lot of pictures in “live” of our adventure on Facebook.
Our hotel is without hot shower but fitted with a nice sauna….team meeting in the sauna to schedule tomorrow departure and breakfast (no breakfast in the hotel) |
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Van 2 news :
We faced snow while we were going to the meeting point!
We had the opportunity to take a coffee with the crazy bats at the meeting point that had been moved to a petrol station.
Our stage start on M5 and we stay on it during 50 kms starting with a slight rain which stop very quickly…
We had the opportunity to get out of it and to “visit” Syzran and to follow the Volga river. We took some sightseeing’s pictures.
We nearly lost Emmanuel; we left him run across alone a closed bridge because we thought that it was closed for the cars only ….hopefully we were blocked in the traffic jam and Emanuel could find us not far from where he left the car.
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The rain restarts just when we finish to run,….lucky Chicken runners!
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Van 2 news :
We had the opportunity to take a coffee with the team 1 in a petrol station, and to participating at the at event with team one at Tambov Lada dealer, who offer to each of us a pot with honey.
In order to exit safely of the Tambov city we were escort by two police cars during ten kilometers. Policemen accept nicely to be with us on a picture.
This stage was longer than scheduled, we’ve done 100 km instead of the 90’s planned, we succeed to do them within 7 hours (14,3 km/h in average) despite the beginning of roads difficulties, lot of trucks and narrow roads without safety lanes.
The temperature even during the day start to be low, we start at 4°C and during the day we reach 8°C at max .
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The Hotel is located In Kalinka at 200 km from Gerard Depardieu new home, hot shower (in the beginning) but very good price 60 € for three double rooms (Slavgorod was 25 € for three doubles, but without hot water)
- The finishing line to Togliatti is coming closer and we’re starting a section composed of motorways only which makes our progress quite difficult. We end up thinking that the only pleasure we take running on those roads is that they’re between Paris and Togliatti – meaning that running by night on motorways is clearly not fun…
- Jean Francois made an impressive stage today with 20 kilometers covered to the relay point.
- We also attended a dealer event at a Lada dealership in Tambov. It started with the relay between team 1 and team 2 in front of a few cameras. We responded to a few questions from the press. We met with engineering students from the city that where invited from the dealer for an open discussion about various topics. We were offered some gifts and the atmosphere was nice…
- We then made our way to the next city by car and we realized how difficult today’s stage would be for all the teams: motorways with a lot of traffic and no room to run on the side of the road.
- Last quick word about a topic that is becoming consistent for us: we will be sleeping in an hotel that reminds us from our trip to Belarus.
- One of the toughest days since the start of the race. We only got two hours of sleep before starting running again. We even had to wake-up at 10:30 AM to join the relay point with Team 3 that was 90 kilometers back.
- We performed 90 kilometers on two types of typical Russian roads: either small in bad conditions or more frequented roads where runners are sometimes vulnerable
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- A quick note about weather because some people in Russia promised “Indian Summer” conditions. However, we’ve gone as low as 7° Celsius with heavy rains and it is clearly not getting better. Some even forecast snow in Togliatti next Monday.
“Word of the day”
* Jean François said: “A nice pit-stop along my way as I watched the train crossing the road with more than 30 wagons”
* Sylvain said: “Crazy night for a crazy run with good sensations and pleasure on Russian roads at fast pace”
* Jean Pierre said: "The crazy Bats are now flying to Togliatti during cold nights”
* Andrey said: “Hard work today because no doc available the day before”
* Alexander said: “Flying on the road was awesome! I would have loved to do an additional run around Elets”
* Jerome said: “First day with a tentative ‘siesta’ between 8:00 AM and 11:00 AM that was rejuvenating”
* Kevin said: “Nice run and our final day is coming closer everyday”
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Van 2 news : Cool beginning of the day, the team 1 change the relay and arrived directly at the hotel. Keving was running ,.. we welcome him !
We quickly face google map problems while we were going of the city, the road indicated were forbidden or closed…
We follow the map through the lovely Russian Nature….the Nissan finish bogged in a dirt track, hopefully like by magic a small 4x4 truck just appear and help the chicken truck to joint Daniel who was running away. At 11h 30 we were back to the schedule.
For the last relay, Andrey joined Emmanuel for the lasts km. He enjoy it even if Andrey had been hard to follow.
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The relay to Van three had ben givent on P119 road, a very big and crowdy road…good luck van 3.
Today, we’ve all run in pairs to cover a rather short distance and it all started with Jean-Pierre and Jean-Francois. They ran within the city of Bryansk: they loved it even if it was raining and even if the pavement was sometimes tricky. They were really sad when we told them to pass the relay.
- We met with Team 2 in Marinichi where we passed the relay to Kiril on time.
- We’ve also found a nickname for our team. From now on, we will be called the “Bats” team because we’re the early birds of the Alliance Team that run during the night.
- We tried to find an alternative hotel to optimize sleeping tomorrow. Unfortunately, we ended up in very small cities with nothing for us. So we finally had to go back to the initial plan.
“Word of the day”
* Jean François said: “Just fun running in the water”
* Sylvain said: “Difficult to restart after a good rest day”
* Jean Pierre said: "Always a thrill to run during the night”
* Andrey said: “Running for pleasure reminds me week-ends in my city”
* Alexander said: “It is really sad to enter the last part of our way to Togliatti; but I made some new friends and I hope we will all keep in touch later”
* Jerome said: “Flip-flop running with my friend Andrey as we spent some nice time together sharing pain caused by our injuries”
* Kevin said: “It’s really sad that this project is coming to an end on Sunday (i.e. sic)".
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Van 2 news : A bad beginning of the day the breakfast was served at 7 h 30 and we had to leave the hotel at 7 with empty stomachs in order to be on time for the relay rdv with Van One (bats runners)
Bad road starts, we face a lot of trucks linked with a cloudy and cold weather.
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We took a picture with road workers in Narichkino, we provide to one of them an “Alliance Running” cap.
Dogs were hardly defending a working area that’s obliged the runner to cross the road..(dogs or trucks…rapid decision to take).
The entrance of Orel was particularly a hard moment due to traffic and road conditions.
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At Orel we relay with Van 3, we were so quick that we were able to take our lunch with them in a good restaurant “Labirynt”…. |
The new report on the official blog :
http://intra.blog.alliance-renault-nissan.com/blog/keep-running-music-thats-driving-alliance
22/09
- Last day in Belarus with a 96-kilometer stage that brought Team 1 right before the border between Belarus and Russia. The team even performed a cumulative distance of 110+ kilometers.
- Succession of long straight roads for about 40 kilometers until Jean-Pierre’s turn. The navigation skills of two members in the team led him to perform an additional 8 kilometers – i.e. we took a wrong turn as we were trying to go around a city that we were passing by. In the end, Jean-Pierre had the opportunity to run on nice hills as the sun was rising early in the morning.
- We passed the Russian border in about 5 minutes. This was really surprising, but Belarus officials explained that there were some agreements in the region.
- We had a nice gathering with all the teams in a restaurant next to the hotel as we were kicking-off the rest day.
23/09
- Rest day for all teams with a visit of Briansk with city officials. Unfortunately, the pouring rain made the tour shorter than expected with only a few pictures taken here and there.
- Lada dealer event at midday with press conference and cocktail. Nice atmosphere with salesmen showing Lada models, etc.
- Team 1 went back to the hotel to rest as the rest of the team went for some activities with city officials.
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Van 2 news :
We start with a picture under a tank with team 1 at Staryja Darohai with only 20 min late on the schedule, incredible after the yesterday crazy day.
The Russian initiate us at “Super Good” a Leningrad group’s song.
On the road we’ve meet our Doc Renaud and Sacha with join us wo provides us food and water, two bananas, local sausage and 2 big bottles.
Our running passed without any problem, at the meeting point with van 3 in Babrouisk, we bought local lemonade. After a team taste, we decide to don’t buy more !
The “surprise” was the hotel ….very cheap 8 euro for a double room for this old hotel. Of course no hot water, no breakfeast…We went to the city bath to take a shower and a sauna, and dine in a small restaurant.
Doc check our earth rate and practice to each member of our van massage or electro stimulation…and we start to need it.
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We welcoming the Van 3 at their arrival around midnight and an improvised party took place in room 15
Team 1
- Today’s motto was trying to catch up with the initial schedule and the 11-hour delay accumulated yesterday. This meant two hours of sleep and going back on the roads for running.
- We started running right in front of the hotel on an endless straight road that we never left during the whole stage.
- Nothing much to say… However, we are always trying to make our journey pleasant by running in pairs or running at high speeds.
- Also, it was pleasant to run on quite big roads with surprisingly no traffic, which meant running freely but safely with headlamps, etc.
- Finally it was nice to be back on track with the schedule and meet with team 2 to take a memorable picture in front of a typical monument: a tank showing the glory of Belarus!
- One quick highlight: we crossed the city of Berezina on our way to the hotel – i.e. the city where Napoleon was defeated.
“Word of the day”
* Jean François said: “The warm atmosphere and the friendliness of people in a local shop at 7:00 AM made my day!”
* Sylvain said: “I am very happy and impressed that the team overcame yesterday’s difficulties and tensions.”
* Jean Pierre said: "Very nice and friendly grocery shopping and breakfast among locals.”
* Andrey said: “Fantastic night run with nice temperature: enjoyed every bit of it!”
* Alexander said: “I realize that locals in Belarus haven’t forgotten what happened during the second world war: monuments with tanks, soldiers and gun.s”
* Jerome said: “Still feeling the pain in my leg: f***k!
* Kevin said: “Enjoying every minute: discovering a completely different world and running hard with great people.”
