The world today is enough to make some people want to get up
and just run to the ends of the Earth, so that's what Kai Markus
decided to do.
Troubled by what he sees as growing
bigotry and division in the world, the German management consultant gave
up a successful business to run the ancient Silk Road from Hamburg to
Shanghai in a Quixotic quest to show that we are all one.
Nine
months, eight countries, 12,000 kilometres and two fractured heel bones
later, Markus hobbled across a symbolic finish line in Shanghai on
Saturday with a feeling of mission accomplished.“OK, the world is turning crazy, you have to do
something,” the 45-year-old said. “If I want to talk about prejudice,
I'm nobody, who will listen to me? So I thought about what I could do to
wake up some people.”
Others have driven or biked
overland from China to Europe. But Markus, whose wife is Chinese, could
find no one who had run the route from sea to sea.
“Why
not connect Europe and China along the Silk Road, which is in all
people's minds at the moment?” he said, referring to Chinese leader Xi
Jinping's promotion of a revived east-west trade and cultural corridor.
But
Markus — who won't specify his politics to avoid riling sponsors — is
not a runner, and he got far more than he bargained for on an odyssey
chronicled via Instagram, Facebook and his website runmysilkroad.com.
Road blocks
Markus set out in March followed by friend Victor Neubauer,
who drove a black 1984 Volkswagen Beetle towing a camper-van stuffed
with protein powder, thousands of nutritional supplement pills and other
supplies.He ran in a freezing Russian spring and 52-Celsius heat
in China's Taklamakan Desert, through painful shin splints and stomach
ailments, and four dozen pairs of running shoes.
Markus
once ran through the night in a Chinese sandstorm when there was no
accommodation available, and he nearly turned back several times when
unforeseen costs or suspicious border officials blocked the way.
“They check more because we came in with a fancy car and a stupid idea,” he said.The first time he heard his now 18-month-old son say “Daddy” was on a bittersweet video call.
Halfway through China, their faithful Beetle's exhausted engine finally died. The car's corpse will be shipped back home.
Then,
in late September, a freak stumble while running in China's central
Hubei province broke both of Markus' heel bones. The incident made
Chinese state news broadcasts, sent some sponsors fleeing and seemed
like the end.
“But that's not my style, and Victor,
that's also not his style,” said Markus, who spends most of his time in a
recovery wheelchair.
Soldiering on
With Neubauer gamely stepping in to run, they continued with
a mix of running and other transportation, but only after the mulish
Markus insisted on having his foot surgery in China, resisting family
pressure to return home because he felt it would betray the spirit of
his “culture bridge” run.
The generosity of strangers
kept Markus going, like the poor Belarus couple that slept on their sofa
so the Germans could have their beds. “No German would do that,” Markus
said.
There were the imposing Russian police who
pounded on their door one night, only so they could lead them to a safer
parking spot for their camper van.
There were countless offers of accommodation, meals, supplies, and many eager conversations with locals about the world.
Pictures from March show Markus with far more pepper in his now salt-and-pepper hair, but he has no regrets.
“Most
importantly, (the run) brings us closer together. In a world like we
have now, I think we need many, many more projects to bring people
together instead of (separating) them,” he said.
