Stage 1
Posted 8pm
The heat and exhaustion got the better of 9 competitors who
scratched before reaching the finish line tonight. The remainder
have all crossed the line. Competitors are now relaxing, fast
asleep or sitting around the campfire listening to a local desert
expert. Many re-evaluating their race strategies for tomorrow.
Race start for tomorrow has just been pushed to 7am in order
to beat the heat by an hour.
Posted 6:30pm
The end of a brutal day. A lot of the competitors found the
first stage to be a lot tougher than expected. The heat was
unrelentless reaching a high of around 108 in the shade but
in the sun on the hip of a walker, temps reached 122. Add to
that sunlight reflecting off the white chalky surface and even
some of the experienced competitors looked in rough shape when
they arrived at the finish. As of 5:30pm tonight, several competitors
had pulled out. Still about 20 competitors still need to cross
the finish.
Posted 1pm
The first racers have crossed the finish line. Ray Zahab,
Canada came across the line looking strong with a time of
3:11:20 followed closely by Kevin Lin, Taiwan with a time
of 3:22:12. Kevin says “the course was very different
than anything I have previously experienced. It was hotter
than expected. Very hot. First time I have used all my water.”
Ray Zahab exudes, “Amazing. Absolutely beautiful. It
was easy to focus on running because so there was much to
look at. The kilometers passed easy. My legs are tired because
it was very sandy. The sand was not deep but couldn’t
get purchase.”. The course was relatively flat with
a lunar feel. The terrain was light, fine-grained sand with
brilliant white chalk formations dotting the landscape as
far as the eye could see.
Posted 8am Sunday, Sept 25
Sahara Race 2005 will kick-off this morning at 9am. Stage
1 is a total of 32km and will consist of 2 checkpoints before
the finish line. The start line is right at Camp Farafra and
most of the day consists of a straight line course through
gently undulating terrain of sand, small, rocks, gravel and
hard chalk.
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