[HN Gopher] Ugandan runner due to arrive in London after 516 day...
___________________________________________________________________
Ugandan runner due to arrive in London after 516 days, 7,700 miles
on the road
Author : thunderbong
Score : 251 points
Date : 2024-12-23 14:08 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.theguardian.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.theguardian.com)
| cjbayliss wrote:
| Having to deal with police four times a day on average on the
| part of the journey through Croatia is insane. I'd have given up
| and flown to the next country.
| gerdesj wrote:
| Thankfully our hero is made of sterner stuff than either you or
| me:
|
| "On other occasions, however, he almost packed it in. In
| Uganda, his one-man support crew resigned, leaving him without
| a support vehicle or help at a time when his funding for the
| run was almost exhausted. To compound matters, all routes ahead
| involved either conflict or extreme risk."
| ptspts wrote:
| Why would someone start this long run without enough funding
| secured for the whole length?
| hipadev23 wrote:
| Why did you have so many issues in Croatia? Traffic police and
| ID checkpoints?
| noman-land wrote:
| "The police stopped me at least four times a day. Sometimes,
| I caught locals taking photos of me and reporting me to the
| police," he said.
| alwa wrote:
| It's pretty wild, although if I were Mr. Kato I might be
| somewhat more grumpy about being jailed for 3 weeks in South
| Sudan, apparently on the authorities' opinion that their
| immigration laws required ministry approval for his run [0].
|
| I have to say I don't find myself too surprised that anybody
| non-local doing extreme-long-distance running through insular
| Croatian towns might arouse the interest of the local
| constabularies--and I imagine the runner being a Ugandan guy
| would be an especially surprising sight to people in Croatia
| (91% Croat, 3.2% Serb, officially recognize 22 other ethnic
| minorities, none of them from Africa) [1]. Which I suppose is
| the point he was trying to raise.
|
| What an astonishing extreme of human endeavor.
|
| [0] https://archive.is/4T13g [1]
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Croatia#:~:t...
| aprilthird2021 wrote:
| > I have to say I don't find myself too surprised that
| anybody doing extreme-long-distance running through insular
| Croatian towns might arouse the interest of the local
| constabularies
|
| I don't live in Europe, but just help me out, why call the
| cops on a guy running down the road, in running gear, even if
| he's an ethnicity you rarely ever see?
| em-bee wrote:
| exactly this, and add to that, the demographics are similar
| in all eastern european countries. so what's special about
| croatia? https://brilliantmaps.com/european-black-
| population-by-count...
|
| after reading the article i found the links to other
| articles on the guardian site linked to this:
| https://www.theguardian.com/global-
| development/2024/oct/10/p... "Croatian police accused of
| burning asylum seekers' phones and passports". the problem
| seems to be more than just never having seen a black
| person.
| grujicd wrote:
| > so what's special about croatia
|
| To add relevant context Croatia is at the edge of the
| Schengen zone. On the other side of the border are Serbia
| and Bosnia with less strict border controls and visa
| rules, so this is one of the roads for illegal immigrants
| to reach rich western countries. This and Hungarian
| borders are what's between them and their goals. Connect
| that with the fact that Croatia doesn't have non-white
| minorities, there were probably zero cases before this of
| black person wondering down the roads who was not an
| illegal migrant.
| throw73848788 wrote:
| Passport are also needed for deportation. I can not see
| any reason, why police would burn their documents. It
| creates a lot of extra paperwork and headaches.
|
| Destroying passports is a normal practice for illegal
| immigrants. It extends their stay in EU by several years.
| Most countries are considered safe, and it is hard to
| claim you are from Syria with Egyptian passport.
| mr_toad wrote:
| The police aren't burning passports because it's
| procedure, or even legal. It makes it harder for asylum
| seekers to prove where they're from.
| poincaredisk wrote:
| I'm not from Croatia, but for context
|
| >ethnicity you rarely ever see?
|
| Rarely... I was 20 years old when I first saw a black
| person in real life. This was in a center of a big city,
| and it surprised me so much that I remember exactly where
| and when it was.
|
| Nowadays times have changed and it's not that rare in my
| country - at least in big cities. But I imagine a Croatian
| farmer seeing a black person - running! - and calling the
| police to investigate what the hell is going on.
| aprilthird2021 wrote:
| > But I imagine a Croatian farmer seeing a black person -
| running! - and calling the police to investigate what the
| hell is going on.
|
| So is this common? I would not call the police
| immediately among seeing something odd or unusual that
| isn't threatening...
| bombcar wrote:
| You wouldn't, but someone would. Cops get called all the
| time for out-of-the-ordinary things that you'd not even
| think of calling for.
|
| Power failures, parked cars, loose animals, strange kids,
| balloons, weather, etc.
| dudeinjapan wrote:
| For a laugh I used to read the local paper which
| published a log of police calls, they were along the
| lines of "A dead racoon was reported on Oxbow Rd. When
| officers investigated they found it was a hat."
| Symbiote wrote:
| Loose animals can be a danger to traffic, and the police
| should be called.
|
| I've done this when a horse had escaped from a field at
| the edge of a village.
| k1kingy wrote:
| And as unfortunate as it is, some people see black people
| running in their neighborhood as a danger to society and
| will call the police (or in some cases will just hunt
| them down and kill the person themselves
| https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/federal-judge-sentences-
| three...)
| jajko wrote:
| This is schengen area border country, dealing with tons
| of smuggled immigrants, most of which are coming from
| Africa. While having from 0 to next to 0 local population
| of same/similar ethnicities.
|
| First thing to many occur to especially older folks
| watching news is illegal immigrant running ie from busted
| police operation, not some epic runner. They definitely
| dont recognize running sportswear.
| aprilthird2021 wrote:
| I mean, that is literally racism, the assumption about
| the man, based on his race, is that he is an illegal
| immigrant
| briandear wrote:
| In Spain people call the cops for seemingly everything. I
| had a bunch of race motorcycles I was unloading at my
| house and some idiot neighbor called the cops because
| they thought I was running an illegal repair shop. I had
| to spend almost an hour proving that my four kids raced
| semi-professionally. Even had to show them their race
| licenses before they realized that I was telling the
| truth. I have found in many places in Europe people have
| a very hard time minding their own business -- especially
| old ladies. For reference, I'm a white American. So some
| Croatians calling the cops after seeing a black dude
| doing a Forest Gump in the middle of nowhere would
| certainly attract the attention of the local busybodies.
| sjducb wrote:
| It's racism. I'm guessing you're from the US, the least
| racist country in the world.
|
| People see he's a different race so they treat him badly
| because of it. No one is worried about being called racist.
|
| He was arrested several times a day for being black. No one
| in the whole chain of events viewed this as a problem.
| wholinator2 wrote:
| Do you believe the US is the least racist country in the
| world or have i missed some sarcasm? I'm truly not trying
| to antagonize, just curious
| 0xffff2 wrote:
| Who would you nominate? The US certainly has severe
| problems with racism, but everything I've ever read about
| other countries has led me to believe that this isn't
| actually a totally implausible claim.
| sjducb wrote:
| Name a country that is less racist.
| llm_trw wrote:
| He's doing something weird hence the police calls.
|
| I'm from that part of the world and had the same thing
| happen when I went camping.
|
| The police officer asked if I lived in the west, then left
| me alone with a warning about bears and gypsies.
| lpapez wrote:
| Most of the comments here are missing the mark IMO.
|
| The primary reason why he got so much police harassment is
| because Croatia is a EU Schengen border country, the
| patrols here are much stricter than everywhere else, and
| the associated problems are much worse as well.
|
| I don't think it's entirely due to racism - if you were a
| border policeman, and you are tasked with bringing in
| people illegaly entering the country, what would you do
| seeing a person of color running on back roads near the
| border of an otherwise extremely ethnically homogenous
| country?
|
| For every case of someone who entered legally and got
| harassed, they probably bring in thousands of people which
| they are supposed to bring in (ie. entered ilegally).
| jdietrich wrote:
| If you're travelling through sensitive border regions,
| attracting unwanted attention is unfortunately an
| occupational hazard.
|
| https://www.ndtv.com/offbeat/indy-nelson-man-who-visited-
| eve...
|
| https://www.pap.pl/en/news/pole-wrongly-sentenced-life-
| congo...
| aprilthird2021 wrote:
| How can it not be entirely due to racism, if race is the
| only factor determining whether you stop someone who is
| jogging on the street in jogging clothes and likely
| athletic supershoes?
| wholinator2 wrote:
| Ya know, this is an incredibly interesting question.
| Because my instinct is to say that, if the patrols duty
| is simply to analyze anyone who stands out, and they do
| so in the proper channels without malice or harassment,
| then that would be the least racist possible scenario in
| which this occurs, some may say, not racist. But then
| even if the guard is kind and helpful, is the guideline
| "people who stand out must be questioned" racist itself?
| It sounds like yes. But then what justification do they
| have for that, is it genuinely that the vast majority of
| illegal crossings come from people who stand out? Or do
| most of them blend in, or is it just the stand outs that
| get caught, thus making it appear in data as if they're
| the problem and intensifying the patrols around them?
| Like the airplane problem.
|
| Then the hypothetical, what if it were true that the
| people attempting to harm your society singularly
| visually differed? Would that be racism, some strange
| "justified racism" or simply not racism? If you say, we
| are not prosecuting on race, but on propensity to crime.
| Well that starts to sound like some things I've heard in
| my country, which we believe is racist. Interesting
| questions.
| johannes1234321 wrote:
| Well, the neighboring country to Croatia is Bosnia and
| Herzgovina. The ethnicy is similar and some from there
| also have motivation to enter illegally. Basing on race
| ignores those.
|
| Also turning it around: Is it right for somebody, like
| the runner, who legally entered to repeatedly be treated
| bad just because others who share skin color do bad?
| em-bee wrote:
| even better, the first check could have asked him for his
| route, and phone ahead to let their colleagues and
| especially the call centers know that he is coming. with
| a photo even. the reverse of a wanted poster. and if they
| had to deal with a lot of illegal immigrants in the area,
| the maybe could have asked him to wear something easily
| identifiable that someone else would not wear. maybe a
| number thing that's common for runners in a competition.
|
| part of the problem is not only that he is checked, but
| how he is being treated during those checks.
|
| i mean that's my experience in china. every interaction
| with authorities was extremely polite and friendly. even
| when it was an issue where i broke the law because i
| didn't register my new address in time. of course
| africans experience racism in china as well, so i can't
| say for sure that they would get the same treatment as
| me, but certainly not what this guy experienced in
| croatia.
| mastermedo wrote:
| This surprised me too. I am from Croatia, and while there is a
| fair bit of discrimination against anyone that's different in
| the country, I am very surprised about this magnitude of it.
| I'm curious about the route he took. Some road types are
| illegal to run along, and coincidentally the one going from
| south to north along the coast is illegal to be on for
| pedestrians to my knowledge. I wouldn't be surprised if any
| pedestrian was stopped on that road, it's dangerous to run
| where the speed limit is over 100 km/h.
| Symbiote wrote:
| He grew up in Britain, and would easily understand the
| concept and the symbolic "no pedestrians" signs.
|
| Others comments mention a route map, but I can't find it.
| aprilthird2021 wrote:
| I was surprised but apparently I was dumb, and people see a
| black person and think "criminal migrant" all the time and
| that it's somehow not racist to think that, lol. Very many
| comments in this thread saying exactly that.
| nadermx wrote:
| A man went on a mission to raise awareness. I'd say he
| accomplished that.
| endofreach wrote:
| Unfortunately some sites make it hard to get past the headline
| with their banners (and ads) for me. So i won't know what he
| ought to create awareness for.
| kitd wrote:
| It's in the first paragraph of the linked article, and is
| expanded on further down.
| endofreach wrote:
| Well obviously you didn't get it... anyway, thanks for the
| downvotes.
| pkkkzip wrote:
| How many hours was he running everyday? This is an insane amount
| of running. I wonder if there is any health implications?
| afthonos wrote:
| He ran an average of 15 miles a day. That is absolutely within
| the normal levels of human endurance if you build up to it.
| thehappypm wrote:
| I think that's about the average of what a typical
| Appalachian Trail hiker does, which means that it is very
| well within the bounds of reality for a regularly able and
| very motivated person
| aprilthird2021 wrote:
| Looking at his Strava he seems to be doing more like 20-30+
| miles a day
| ordersofmag wrote:
| 7700/516 = just under 15 miles a day or around 100 miles per
| week. Typical mileage for any elite distance runner or even a
| decent D1 college runner (and low for an elite marathoner). But
| they often do it in one or two continuous sessions, often with
| significant intensity. The task of just covering the mileage in
| a day (without trying to do it in one go or trying do any of it
| fast) is nothing particularly exceptional. Heck as a slow
| 50-something dude I did 100 miles weeks during Covid when I had
| some free time. Health effects: assuming you were
| biomechanically inclined to do okay with lots of running and
| built up to it over a long enough time to avoid the usual
| overuse injuries it would almost certainly just make you
| healthier.
| carabiner wrote:
| PCT thru hikers do about 18 miles per day over mountainous
| terrain with a 25 lb pack. They're moving at a slower walking
| speed though.
| parthdesai wrote:
| Only on HN you'll see a comment like this downplaying the
| achievement. With Endurance sport, it's the lack of rest days
| that make it exponentially harder, you really can't compare
| with what you've.
| RandallBrown wrote:
| 15 miles a day is pretty tame for any long distance runner.
| Even without rest days. You're going to be doing 15 miles
| in ~3 hours. That's plenty of rest time.
|
| I suspect this guy was actually running significantly more
| every day but also took some significant time off.
|
| Russ Cook, who also ran the length of Africa, ran a route
| that was 2000 miles longer, in about 5 less months. He
| covered on average about 28 miles per day.
|
| They're both very impressive accomplishments, but not as
| physically impressive as mentally, at least in my opinion.
| dyauspitr wrote:
| You can walk 3 miles an hour at a leisurely pace. That's a 5
| hour walk everyday or probably like a 3-4 hour run. Really not
| all that bad if you're used to it.
| andrewstuart wrote:
| Extreme exercise such as distance running damages the heart.
|
| https://youtu.be/Y6U728AZnV0
| scott_w wrote:
| This is simply not true. Even research that suggests damage
| also suggests endurance athletes have better outcomes anyway:
| https://www.heart.org/en/news/2019/03/01/is-long-distance-
| ru...
| gregwebs wrote:
| The article you linked doesn't support the statement made
| about it. The evidence is mixed but shows worse overall
| outcomes for those overdoing it. Here's a scientific
| publication that's clearer that recommends 1-2 days off per
| week, and no more than 5 hours running per week.
|
| https://journals.lww.com/acsm-
| csmr/fulltext/2015/03000/exerc...
| scott_w wrote:
| Quote from the article:
|
| > Recent research has raised alarms about the potential
| for plaque buildup and scarring in the heart in some
| long-distance runners. Yet other studies have suggested
| that when marathoners get heart disease, they may be able
| to weather it better than non-runners.
|
| All articles discuss scarring and physical signs but no
| clear link between exercise and worse life outcomes. The
| article you cited noted most issues resolve themselves
| within a few weeks after a race. There are literally 0
| people exercising at "race intensity" day after day,
| which is completely different kettle of fish to your
| regular training run. Kato here certainly isn't doing
| that.
|
| Given many professionals and amateurs run over 5 hours
| per week and easily break 5/6 miles at a time. A quick
| search will show strong runners regularly hit 6-8 hours
| per week.
|
| Cyclists will cover greater distances and times and,
| apart from Pantani (who was doped to the gills), you
| don't see them dropping dead of heart attacks despite
| regularly covering 10-20 hours a week. Similar for
| triathletes.
|
| So no, the evidence really isn't there that distance
| running causes heart disease.
| gregwebs wrote:
| That's another incorrect summary. From the journal
| article there are multiple studies that have shown worse
| long-term outcomes from large amounts of exercise:
|
| > Other studies also have confirmed the long-term adverse
| effects on myocardial structure (18,27-30,32), including
| one study suggesting that the CAD event rate during
| 2-year follow-up was significantly higher in the athletes
| than that in controls
|
| > Recent studies have suggested that long distance
| runners may have increased levels of atherosclerosis and
| CAD (18,37). In a study 6 years ago, male marathon
| runners had paradoxically increased coronary artery
| calcification (CAC) as measured by computed tomography
| (CT) CAC scoring (21). A very recent study of men who
| completed at least one marathon yearly for 25 consecutive
| years (n = 50) compared with 23 sedentary controls
| demonstrated increased total plaque volume (P < 0.01),
| calcified plaque volume (P < 0.0001), and noncalcified
| plaque volume (P = 0.04) compared with those with EEE
| (Fig. 3) (37). Despite the fact that runners have better
| overall CAD risk profiles, these results underscore the
| potential for very heavy EEE to increase the severity of
| CAD through mechanisms largely independent of the
| traditional CAD risk factors.
|
| > Very high doses of running, however, were associated
| with trends of worse survival compared with either
| nonrunners or groups of low- and moderate-dose runners.
|
| > However, when dividing runners into quintiles of doses
| (miles*wk-1, running days per week, min*wk-1, and running
| speed), with the exception of speed (faster running
| always had a trend for better survival), quintile 1 (<6
| miles*wk-1, 1 to 2 times per week, <51 min*wk-1) had
| similar mortality reductions as those in quintiles 2 to 4
| and a trend to slightly greater benefit than those in
| quintile 5 (Fig. 4).
|
| There are other studies that have not shown long-term
| adverse events. The evidence isn't conclusive and most
| people need more exercise, not less. But it's prudent to
| caution committed runners about overdoing it with this
| information so they can make their own informed decision.
| scott_w wrote:
| > There are other studies that have not shown long-term
| adverse events. The evidence isn't conclusive
|
| So after all that, you end up agreeing with me.
| throwway120385 wrote:
| It's entirely possible that the CAC response is evolved
| to have some protective factor for endurance running.
| dudeinjapan wrote:
| Only love can break your heart.
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=364qY0Oz-xs
| dahart wrote:
| Important quotes from that video: "You can exercise all day,
| it seems, if you keep it down." And "let me be clear about
| this: there is no single step you can take in your life to
| ensure robust health and remarkable longevity than a habit of
| daily exercise."
|
| FWIW, there are some more recent studies that flatly
| contradict this claim [1] [2], so YMMV with a TED talk. My
| father has been a long-distance runner for 50 years, and he
| thinks that it is possible to do heart damage in _very_
| extreme cases, but these cases including being more committed
| than most Olympic athletes. The problem is when doing
| _competitive_ racing type running without ever taking a break
| for recovery. He does know a couple of people who ran too
| fast and too much and had to quit due to what he calls
| "overtraining syndrome". He specifically said he thinks Deo
| Kato isn't likely running fast enough to cause overtraining
| syndrome. In the video, you might notice the data he shows
| depends on running pace; In the TED video, James didn't
| separate miles per week from pace (at for example ~6:50).
| This means that distance alone - miles per week - doesn't
| necessarily prove anything, miles might not be associated
| with risks until it's enough miles that there's no time left
| to rest.
|
| There is a real danger here of scaring people who should
| exercise more, of giving the wrong impression or a backwards
| summary to the vast majority of people who will never ever
| run the risk of over-exercising so much they could cause
| heart damage. Your summary left out the part where James
| pointed to the absolute consensus that an hour a day of
| "vigorous" exercise is known without a doubt to be _very_
| beneficial. There's also a danger of giving a misleading
| impression about the risks of not exercising compared to the
| risks of extreme exercise. The data in the video at ~5:10
| shows not exercising leading to dying many years earlier,
| while there is no data here that shows extreme exercise
| leading to higher mortality; all it shows is that the
| benefits plateau. There's some data and discussion on
| incidence of heart problems, but not outcomes. Essentially
| the summary should be: exercise all you want, and if you are
| wondering if you're exercising too much, then you're nowhere
| near the threshold - the very few people exercising enough to
| do heart damage are extreme and already know they exercise
| too much, because they're compromising on work, hobbies,
| friends, and family in order to exercise. ;)
|
| [1] https://www.outsideonline.com/health/training-
| performance/ex...
|
| [2] https://www.utsouthwestern.edu/newsroom/articles/year-201
| 9/e...
|
| PS you're not the Andrew Stuart of Sudoku/puzzle fame are
| you?
| pineaux wrote:
| For all the people reacting that this is not a lot. Don't
| forget he has had a lot of border troubles, police troubles,
| money troubles and support troubles. Including rest days, I
| would estimate his running days at somewhere around the 400.
| That would mean about 20 miles per running day. So 6 miles
| short of a marathon, each day.
| dudeinjapan wrote:
| When he got tired, he slept. When he got hungry, he ate. When
| he had to go... he went.
| bevan wrote:
| It is insane in today's world! But big mileage (barefoot, no
| less) is something we evolved for. Check out the great book
| Born to Run by Chris Macdougal which explores that concept.
| gregwebs wrote:
| Micah True, a hero of Born to Run, died after the book was
| published at age 58 of heart failure while doing a 12 mile
| training run.
| bevan wrote:
| Yes, that's explored in the sequel. He lives on in Urique,
| Mexico where his likeness is plastered everywhere and is
| the namesake for the big annual race in that town.
| Thorrez wrote:
| Reminds me of Karl Bushby, who's walking from Chile to England.
| He made it to at least Kazakhstan so far.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Bushby
| beretguy wrote:
| > They were detained by Russian border troop officers while
| they were crossing the Russian border near the Chukotkan
| village of Uelen, for not entering Russia at a correct port of
| entry. They were threatened with being banned from Russia,
| which would stop the journey.
|
| You can always trust russia to be a pain in the neck, to put it
| mildly.
| exe34 wrote:
| I'm sure the US would just let anyone in at any point along
| their border...
| anonzzzies wrote:
| if i have to believe musk, there is no issue at all doing
| that.
| exe34 wrote:
| concerning if true.
| borski wrote:
| Luckily, it isn't.
| lionkor wrote:
| What a terrible take. Go outside and touch some grass, and
| then throw away your documents and try to walk across any
| border on the globe.
| beretguy wrote:
| Just yesterday/past few days russia bombed Ukraine on a
| Christmas Day, downed Azerbaijan Airlines plane and cut
| power cables between Finland and Estonia. My take is good.
| Your turn to touch grass and stop defending fascists.
| lionkor wrote:
| Check out the history of Papua, Mr. CIA ;)
| briandear wrote:
| The Ukraine side has fascists of their own, see the Azov
| Battalion.
|
| Also recall, Ukraine suspended elections until after the
| war. While that's following Ukrainian law, that still
| sounds pretty undemocratic to me. Ukraine possesses Lviv
| which was Polish since the 1400s. Crimea was Russian from
| the 1700s as a result of a war with the Ottomans -- a war
| started by the Turkish because they were made that Russia
| was interfering with Polish internal affairs. Russia has
| a much stronger claim on Crimea than Ukraine,
| historically speaking.
|
| Lviv was stolen from Poland by a Soviet-Nazi agreement
| during World War II. If the Russians should leave eastern
| Ukraine, then certainly the Ukrainians should give Lviv
| back to Poland right?
|
| My point is that the Ukraine conflict isn't as black and
| white as people make it out to be. This entire conflict
| is based on overlapping and often contradictory versions
| of history. Claiming it's a battle against fascism is
| glossing over the realities.
| seabird wrote:
| The grumbling about the Azov Battalion and martial law in
| Ukraine is deflection. Pretty much every nation has some
| amount of paramilitary nationalism, and it should
| surprise nobody that a country at total war is going to
| suspend civil liberties. The war in Ukraine has basically
| nothing to do with fascism and everything to do with
| Russian revanchism that NATO would never allow to go
| unopposed, and it's pretty clear what's in the best
| interest of Western Europe and the US in this situation.
| Letting a perennial bad actor walk all over you because
| there's a veneer of largely irrelevant historical
| legitimacy over what is pretty clearly a test to see what
| you'll let slide is just stupid.
| tasuki wrote:
| Apparently he swam over the Caspian Sea and made it to
| Azerbaijan.
|
| > The swim covering 179 miles (288 km) was achieved in 31 days
| as part of his global expedition on foot.
|
| With the help of Azerbaijan's coast guard and some swimmers.
| Wow!
| ThinkingGuy wrote:
| See also: Paul Salopek, who's walking from Ethiopia to
| Patagonia, tracing the path of human migration out of Africa.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Salopek
|
| https://outofedenwalk.nationalgeographic.org/
| alex_duf wrote:
| See also, Nabil Islam who left France in 2023, crossed
| Europe, Asia, Oceania, and currently crossing America north
| to South in a single bicycle trip.
|
| Mastodon: https://masto.bike/@nabili Strava:
| https://www.strava.com/athletes/113690657
| pinkmuffinere wrote:
| Forgive my stupidity -- how is it possible to walk from the new
| world to the old? How does one walk over the oceans?
| aendruk wrote:
| The linked article contains a map and written explanation.
| rezmason wrote:
| He succeeded! He arrived on Sunday.
|
| https://therunningchannel.com/deo-kato-completes-run-from-ca...
|
| Does anyone know how he ran from continental Europe to England?
| yoavm wrote:
| Seems like he took a ferry from Calais to Dover
|
| https://www.runnersworld.com/uk/news/a63224509/deo-kato-lond...
| https://www.instagram.com/p/DDynCvFAph_/?img_index=1
| input_sh wrote:
| Looking through his Strava, I don't think he did?
|
| He reached Calais on the 19th and started from Dover on the
| 20th, so I'm assuming a ferry.
| kordlessagain wrote:
| Looks like you could walk, in theory (but not legally):
|
| > During one Sunday in October 1993, Wally Michalski and Mike
| Turner, working as contractors on the British side, used a pair
| of the Saracen bicycles to cycle the 100-kilometre (62 mi)
| round-trip from Folkestone to Coquelles and back again. The
| pair took around five hours to complete the journey, while
| wearing full overalls and needing to carry respirators.[1]
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycling_in_the_Channel_Tunnel
| llm_trw wrote:
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pippa_Bacca
|
| Running in the other direction seems to be somewhat more
| dangerous.
| debugnik wrote:
| > Bacca's naked, strangled, and decomposing body was found in
| bushes
|
| > DNA testing suggested that Bacca was raped by multiple
| people, and not just Karatas.
|
| How sad. Looks to me like the dangerous part is doing so as a
| woman, not the direction.
| llm_trw wrote:
| They made it fine when going through Europe.
| debugnik wrote:
| You surely understand one travels through the same
| countries when doing the same route in either direction.
| That's not what we meant here.
| llm_trw wrote:
| You surely realize that you stop traveling when dead? In
| which case direction matters.
| tdiff wrote:
| Being a woman may expose you to extra risks, but it doesnt
| mean men are safe there.
| debugnik wrote:
| Of course, I just meant that it seems to have been the main
| factor in her story, rather than the fact that she entered
| Turkey from Europe. I can't really draw any general
| conclusions out of a sample of two; well, one, because this
| runner apparently didn't cross Turkey, so not really a
| similar route.
| aprilthird2021 wrote:
| These are not the same paths so direction is meaningless. This
| runner did not travel through Turkey
| thruway516 wrote:
| >>"Kato wanted his journey to draw attention to the earliest
| migration of humans from Africa and challenge the racist notion
| that people should "go back to where they come from". Viewed as a
| whole, he said the run had underlined the positive aspects of
| migration and its potential to "create a more culturally
| connected and enriched global society".
|
| This is an epic feat and gives me hope for humanity. My hats off
| to Mr Kato!
| workfromspace wrote:
| I don't like his take on Czechia: while being stopped by police 4
| times is not pleasant, I'm guessing it's nothing compared to the
| (lack of) safety in many countries in Africa, South/Central
| America and Asia. [0]
|
| [0]:
| https://www.numbeo.com/crime/rankings_by_country.jsp?title=2...
|
| In the meantime, could someone with experience (i.e a local)
| please tell me about the current safety of and racism against a
| white person in Cape Town, where he started his peace run? Is it
| safer than Johannesburg? I'd love to visit South Africa, but I'm
| too scared of visiting there nowadays.
| prmoustache wrote:
| Czechia has never been mentioned.
|
| As a matter of fact, Africa is crossed partially or completely
| on a fairly frequent basis by white backpackers and
| bikepackers. You can find numerous guides and reports on the
| internet. Also, around 16% of the population of Cape Town is
| white.
|
| Having said that even in the most dangerous places in Africa
| the problem is not necessarily racism but inequalities and
| unemployment. Cross a place where unemployment is high and
| education level is low due to inequalities, crime will be
| rampant regardless of average skin color. If you happen to have
| interesting goods or be seen as a vulnerable, you may have
| problems. Hence the reason you might have issues in some places
| in Cape Town but not in a peaceful village somewhere else in
| Africa. And said peaceful village that could happen to have
| been very dangerous in another time when same country was in
| civil war.
|
| I am not saying racism against white people don't exist, but
| there is no reason to oppose racism against white people to a
| black guy running to raise awareness about racism. That guy is
| probably against any form of racism, especially as his life
| partner happens to be white.
| aprilthird2021 wrote:
| Look at the mental gymnastics you need to do to hold this
| worldview.
|
| 1. Not 4 times. 4 times per day every day you are in the
| country
|
| 2. Don't complain about racism in 1st world if you are from the
| 3rd world because the 3rd world isn't safe. Conveniently
| missing that racism here is between ethnicity of the 1st world
| towards 3rd world ethnicities, so basically this absolves all
| racism in that direction in the 1st world.
|
| 3. I'm scared of visiting South Africa because of racism, but a
| black man scared of racism in Europe where the police are
| constantly called on him, that's no big deal and he shouldn't
| complain, which I'm doing right now.
| workfromspace wrote:
| 1. Yeah, 4 times a day is a lot and I'm sorry for him.
| Although I would like to learn more about the details. (I.e
| other comments mentioning about illegal crossings etc)
|
| 2. I'm sorry I didn't fully get this (English is not my first
| language) but I'm also from a 3rd world country).
|
| 3. I'm guessing you are in the USA bubble (which always had
| and still have a racism problem on a different level) and
| don't know much about Europe. In Europe, racism would almost
| never result in any physical violence or not being allowed
| any rights.
| infrawhispers wrote:
| Racism would almost never result in any physical violence
| or removal of rights in Europe? Hahahahah this gave me a
| great laugh.
| workfromspace wrote:
| (Edit: My bad, I meant Croatia.)
| aprilthird2021 wrote:
| I would highly recommend looking at his Strava, he basically logs
| every day and the everyday kindness of strangers along his
| journey as well as the bad parts. We are humans, we are good and
| bad all mixed in one, and his run really reflects a depth of
| human experience, in my mind.
|
| https://strava.app.link/5KsFE3BoEPb
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