On the day before, Jesper Kenn Olsen, 32, of Denmark, Kazuko Kaihata, 50, of Japan, and 45-year-old Russian Alexander Korotkov arrived in the Russian capital, having passed St. Petersburg, Veliki Novgorod, Vyshni Volochek, Torzhok, Tver, and Zavidovo. By the time the athletes came to Russia they had passed Britain in whose capital the Super Marathon started on the first day of this year, and Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland.
As the Russian entrant of the run said at the press conference on Tuesday, on March 17th the athletes will have a day of rest in Moscow - the second in several months of their run, and will continue running on March 18.
According to Mr. Korotkov, they cover 60 km a day on average.
In expert opinion, the supermarathon project can enter the Guinness Book of World Records in many nominations. But, as the athletes themselves admit, the Guinness Book of World Records is not their prime aim. "I get a chance to feel that I am outside time and space," Mr. Korotkov said. "I can think of life and change life." For his part, the Swedish athlete noted that in the course of the run he studies national specifics of people, and comes to know different cultures. Before taking part in the Super Marathon Mr. Olsen, a trained political scientist and sociologist, was a teacher at a university. He conducts a daily diary of his travel and, as he said, these notes can give birth to a book after the end of the run.
As the Japanese woman confessed, before taking part in the run she studied information about Russia. "I would especially like to run across Siberia," Mr. Kazuko said.
The athletes will leave Moscow for Reutovo in the Moscow Region, and will then head for Vladivostok. After Russia the Super Marathon route will go across Japan, Australia, Canada, the USA, Mexico, Argentina, South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Turkey, Greece and France.
The Super Marathon is slated to finish near the Greenwich meridian on December 31, 2008.
