We lighted our torch in the morning from the eternal flame in Orel to begin a classical running day - no meetings, just running and more running.

A runner from Tula took a taxi 100 km out to welcome us and run with us. Two police cars are accompanying us, which means that we can easily do the “leapfrogging” required to complete such long distances.

During such a day as today every team member will do about 4-5 sessions of 5-7 km. The experience while running can be very different from session to session. In the cities, many local runners join us, the pace is slow to middle fast and it is a good warm up.

Outside the cities, however, normally only one or two runners are on the road. You can choose your own speed and do some serious training if you want to. Yesterday Martin wanted to do 7 km fast and Natasha, Alexej and I joined him.

For 5 km everything went well and we ran at a less than 4 min / km pace. But Alexei had just eaten and felt a little sick and I also had problems with the heat so we had to slow down. After 29 min we (finally) reached the bus. Natasha looked as fresh as always, Martin was also fine, but Alexei and I had to fight for air. However the speed training for the day was done.

Today we really enjoyed the police escort. In a town about 10 km before Tula the traffic was very slow and the WHR van was inching its way forward.

Than the police, which usually stay behind us, overtook us with sirens and lights and paved a way for us through the middle of the street. The cars moved out of our way, we drove in the city at about 80 km/h through red traffic lights - it felt to us like a James Bond movie!

Before Tula there is a beautiful lake with a 250 m long bridge over it. This bridge is a place of pilgrimage for newly married couples. It is said that if the groom manages to carry the bride In his arms over the bridge then it will guarantee a long and happy life together. We were there for about 40 minutes - during that time about 7 wedding processions came and all the grooms managed to bring their new wife to the other side. Good luck to them! However we found some new uses for the bridge...

In Tula we met friends we ran with in last year's WHR plus some bicyclists and ran together the last 10 km through the city.

At the ceremony we placed some flowers to a monument and everybody got a prjanik - a special cake from Tula.

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Distance: 191km

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