Day 29

Shinfong to 8km before Bali.

PHOTOS: 3226 3227 3228 3230 3233

We bid adieu to Alex, Steve and Andy and the wondrously delicious tea that is made in their house. The hospitality of the Hsinchu Massif sets us in good stride for the day ahead: Penultimus Dayus (yes, that’s Latin). At the end of the long tunnel, Neil starts strongly thanks to a Subway feast (I’m still shocked that I can eat a footlong in one go. Not one mouthful, one sitting) and listens to a bit of The Streets for some (non)Cockney geezer music. A small preparation for his imminent return to the green-grey lands of Albion. We’re excited and a little in awe of the fact that it’s Day 29. How exactly did that happen?!

I’m happy to see that Dayuan, 29 kilometres away, is very close to Taoyuan International Airport- we must pass the airport today to have any hope left of a timely finish. Later, a sign to Bali. Unfortunately, the Taiwanese one, but a perfect end point for today’s running and start point for tomorrow. The sign says it’s 43 kilometres away. If Neil can run another fifty today, we’re optimistic about reaching Fuguei for the second (and final) time tomorrow night. At 18km, he’s in a lull. This mark means nothing to him when he’s running an UltraMarathon. But soon after he at last solves a tennis player anagram I’d given to amuse himself with some days ago. D. M. Snailwater really was a tough one to crack.

A little belatedly, but as a ball of thunder nevertheless, Hollywood (nick-name Kyle) arrives and runs with Neil. They are best friends in Taiwan and run and chat happily this evening. The run is uneventful bar their ridiculous humour and conversation which I would be so bold as to summarize: girls, football, girls, football, girls, football. The last three kilometres, however, is as though we are making our way through the devastation that follows a nuclear holocaust. The road leads beneath a stretching concrete bridge beneath which a stream of unmanned trucks are deserted. Dogs howl as though they’re salivating for human flesh and planes take off regularly into the sky. It’s like an evacuation is going on around us. But a sighting of life, I hear from Neil and Kyle, occurs beneath the bridge as a toothless woman of the nuclear night approaches them to sell her wares. (I don’t think this is the type of girl they’d been either discussing or hoping for). Further up the road, I wait in an eerie silence of airplane engines and still air. A police car passes, the only other reportable sign of life, and stops to tell me that this place is dangerous. Thanks for that, I think. A monster groans from a place that is far too close to be comfortable. I text Neil. “I’m scared”. He calls to tell me they are speeding and will be there any second. They arrive, my heroes. And Neil has completed his second consecutive UltraMartahon. Neil volunteers to be left at the side of this road, despite the proximity of the unearthly sounds of the birthing monster, while Kyle drops me into Bali and returns for him. I hope against hopes Neil will still be there when Kyle returns…