It is a very interesting mixture of the old and the new in a city like Belgorod. Here you have the modern buildings with glass and mirrors, shopping centers, advertising and everything that you also would find in Paris and Vienna.

At the same time you see old cars from a time long before the “Perestroika” and some other things that reminds you of Soviet times.

We started at the “eternal fire” and ran guarded by two police cars uphill in the direction of Kursk. The enthusiasm of the people has not decreased overnight. They wave us when we pass the bus stations and intersections.

One girl who wanted to go work by bus spontaneously decided to run with us and ran with the torch through 2 bus stations. Oleg encouraged her to run every morning and to join us next year for a few more kilometers.

At the city sign we divided the team: the Russian runners ran the part starting from Belgorod and we drove 70 kilometers ahead and ran from there. This is the trick we use to cover such distances in one day!

At the region border to the Kursk Region a group of traditionally dressed singers presented us bread and salt and sang a very nice song to us.

We ran further and had a brief meeting with a reporter from a local newspaper on the way. She was really amazed at the Run and wished us all the best most wholeheartedly.

We ran on and a few kilometers before Kursk the Russian team caught up with us. We ran together and met some runners, city representatives and TV reporters in front of a tank monument.

There we also met the Russian 24 hour Run Champion. With him was the Champion of the 100 km distance. It was quite an honor for us to meet these two men.

Than we ran all together to the city centre and received a very nice welcome from a few children and city representatives in front of the monument dedicated to the soldiers who passed away in the second World War. They gave us flowers and we laid them down at the monument.

Then we took some pictures with the kids and drove to our sleeping place. We were here at 17:00. After shower and dinner we had some spare time! This is something very unusual...

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Distance: 158km

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