'Stupid idea' propels trail-blazing Silk Road runner

https://www.yahoo.com/news/stupid-idea-propels-trail-blazing-silk-road-runner-064048560.html

Shanghai (AFP) - 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.
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Nine months, eight countries, 12,000 kilometres (7,500 miles) and two fractured heel bones later, Markus hobbled across a symbolic finish line in Shanghai on Saturday with a feeling of mission accomplished.

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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.