hour 4 started.

we have it good in the US.

south africa is in the middle of an enormous storm.

ukraine had to negotiate with another police group to keep running,

even after all the extremes they had gone to in order to be permitted to run…

whatever happens

the hours keep coming up

and,

one way or another,

the runners keep answering the bell.

looking at the scoresheet,

already a number of teams are missing runners.

finland,

who was the last team to lose a runner

thus leading early in 2020

was among the first to lose a runner this year.

malaysia has lost 4.

we will be looking to find out what is happening there.

team mexico seems to have been down a runner from the start.

brazil had a runner with an emergency appendectomy shortly before the race.

so they are down a man…

in the end,

none of these issues are beyond recovery.

this is to be a long race.

but those who remain must eventually pick up the slack.

at the front austria and hungary are still kicking out sub 41 a lap.

japan and vietnam are next, running sub 44.