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The Last Desert Blogs 2012
7
PostsThe Last Desert (2012) blog posts from Greg Donovan I
30 November 2012 03:30 am (GMT+08:00) Beijing, Chongqing, Hong Kong, Urumqi
Hi All
Against all set backs and close calls during the year, as well as all doubts and disbeleivers, our team finally finihsed the 4 deserts Grand Slam.
To say I am proud of our teams achievement and every person in the team who made this happen is an understatement.
Not only are we the only team to attempt and achieve this feat, within our team other milestones have been set.
Matt is the youngest ever competitor to do the 4 Deserts Grand Slam.
Ron,is second oldest.
Rog & Jess are the first couple
Rog is first person with Type 1 diabetes
Myself and Matt are the first father and son.
WOW.
The last day was going to be called off as the winds gusted to 40 knots, and we faced the prospect of being given our medals on the ship, missing out on a proper running finish.
But the ship moved location and the weather front passed, and we got out for a run starting at 5pm in light snow. It was a short run of under 2 hours, but at least we got to officially cross the finish line to end our epic 2012 journey. I think our team came around 15th or so for this event.
The course was a flat 1.5 km out and back course in soft snow, which took a couple of laps to pack a track in. We did 8 laps or 12km in 1.40 or so, which was slow but we didnt care. We stopped a couple of times as a group of penguins made their way across our course, and we gave them plenty or room as we are required to keep a good distance. It was quite amusing as the race leaders had just lapped us, and then next thing we were all standing in a group with the leaders chatting to them, while we all waited for the penguins to clear the course.
Anyway, we said that we would go to the ends of the earth to raise awareness and funds for Type 1 diabetes, and here we are at the ends of the earth hopefully doing that, but even though this part of our journey is nearly over, its time to think about the next phase.
Its been a huge year, with a lot of effort and support put in by many people to make this happen. Thanks to all involved! Its hard to beleive we have done it, and turned a crazy dream to reality, but we have done just that.
It will be great to see the highlights on film when James puts it together.
I now have a the biggest brownie point defecit of my life, so I will need to work hard now to reduce this, which starts with Raylenes birthday on the day we return to Sydney.
We might get to blog again later as we have a 3 day boat trip back to Ushuaia ... we are now so far south that we are not seeing any darkness at the moment, so hard to know when its time to have a beer or two.
anyway cheers for now, will blog further, after I read the blog replies.
28 November 2012 03:34 am (GMT+08:00) Beijing, Chongqing, Hong Kong, Urumqi
Yesterday was a short day with a 2 hour run around a 1.2km circuit. It was straight uo a huge hill in soft snow, and straight back down again.
This was the first day running on the actual Antarctica mainland. The other days have all been on islands.
As I am a big guy, the two weakest parts of my running are going up big hills, and coming down big hills, so as this was 100% of the course it was not too much fun.
It was quite warm, and after I sweated so much and was soaking, I got quite cold.
In 2 hours we covereed 6 loops or 7.2km, so that gives you an idea of the slow pace. The views from the course were however amaziing, and we could have fitted in another loop or so, but we spent quite a bit of time filining with the team by James, which involved stopping chatting and some specific shots required.
We came back to the ship for a hot shower and dinner, and then returned to the shore and camped out the night, amongst the penguins which was quite an experience. I slept on and off as it was light all night and the penguins never shut up. Also we were told that sometimes the glacier breaks off into the water and causes a huge wave, which has been know to wash campers into the water. On quite a few occaisions I woke with dread to a thunderous noise from the mountain, which was ice and sow shifting, but everything ws OK.
We are niow waiting to arrive at our new destination for our last days run, we should get there by around 10am, which means running by 11am or so, so it looks like it will be another 8 or 9 hour day if the weather holds. Unfrotunately Ron was ill last night, and was put on antibiotics, and told to stay on the ship. We are keeping our fingers crossed he will wake up well enoiugh to run, so we can complete our teams final mission for what has been a huge year..
Other than Ron the rest of tne team are fighting fit..
Will blog again after its all over..
We then have 3 days travel to get back to Ushuaia.
Love to all
Comments: Total (0) comments
27 November 2012 03:59 am (GMT+08:00) Beijing, Chongqing, Hong Kong, Urumqi
Day 2 saw no runniing due to high winds. We moved location but by the time we got to the new location , it was late in the day, and the only place possible to run was overrun with Penguins.
They took us to shore and we got to hang out with hundreds of oenguiins for a couole of hours or so, and it was great to have the time to just be around them and watch their antics (but not so much to smell them).
James did some interview filming and photography, and we got a shot of our team "running" with penguins in the background which was good. When we left the island the zodiac took us on a bit of a tour around the bay, which was great to see some of the amazing scenery up close.
Its now the morning of day 3, and we think we may have around a 10 hour run in front of us if the sunny weather holds and the course is OK when it is set out. Its possible we might be doing 2km loops, so we could be getting a bit dizzy after 10 hours!
We will need to try and keep up a good pace to at least hold our placing in the field that we established on day 1.
All the team doing well, so we should have an OK day.
Will blog again after the days run.
Bye for now.
Comments: Total (7) comments
Leanne Dyer
Posted On: 29 Nov 2012 09:30 pm
Hey Greg, too much adventure, rest, sightseeing, penguins, whales, camping under the stars! What an amazing experience! It's been great following your blogs, the breaking news, stage updates & the photos, OMG..... Stunning.
The run sounds abit hectic, running up those huge hills in the snow, but WOW you guys have done so well. Good luck with the final stage, you are soo close now to breaking all those records & we are soo excited for you. Take care, Lea :-)
Kristen Stokes
Posted On: 29 Nov 2012 01:20 pm
By the time you get this you will have camped out on the ice - now I want to know why they didn't have you sleeping out in the dunes in the Sahara ... I did it in the Thar desert and could'nt believe how cold it was. Guess that's got nuth'n on what you got insight into with that last lap the other night! Hope the run went as well today as the rest of this extrodinary adventure you got going ... and all in the name of a good cause. Great stuff. You deserve the best offer. Cheers, and luck. Kristen
Ronaye Brennan
Posted On: 29 Nov 2012 08:14 am
Hey Greg, Matt, Ron, Jess and Roger, thinking of how cold you all must be down there, a great job your all doing. Take care and enjoy the "holiday". C U soon. Ronaye
Raylene Donovan
Posted On: 29 Nov 2012 07:26 am
Hi Darl, Wow! I agree with Barry's last comment. Sounds like a holiday. Maybe I should have come after all. On a serious note, Steve and I went too Kids in the House today, advocating for type 1 diabetes. It was great and glad we did our bit in support of JDRF. Spoke to Mike and Helen who send thier best wishes. Lois and Chris from Sofias send thier best wishes too. not long now, love and miss you heaps!
Allyson Owen
Posted On: 29 Nov 2012 05:11 am
Hi Greg and team Born to Run well what an achievement so far. From the blogs and the photos it looks amazing - did you take the "polar plunge" as the photos showed some of the competitors doing. We await your next updates good luck for the next run go team born to run
Mitch Impey
Posted On: 29 Nov 2012 03:44 am
I think you guys deserve a days rest after 77km, id need a day after 7.7. Good luck with next race sounds like youll piss it in (maybe dont, it might freeze)
Laura Impey
Posted On: 28 Nov 2012 10:12 pm
Hi Dad, sounds amazing down there, the scenery must be incredible. Keep on pushing through, not too much longer and your 4 Deserts mission will be complete! Take it all in while you can, and don't forget about what an awesome thing you guys are doing. Love you and looking forward to hearing all about your adventures when you get back. Love Lau xoxo
26 November 2012 03:59 am (GMT+08:00) Beijing, Chongqing, Hong Kong, Urumqi
Thismornings cruise to our new destination was amazing as we motored through a chanel for a few hours, that had hundreds of icebergs of all shapes and sizes floating around.
When we got to our final destination, it was 360deg stunning. Pictures, words, videos or otherwise cant depict it, just standing there taking in the most spectacular view you can imagine in alll directions.Heaps of penguins too. Quite amazing!
Anyway we coulodnt look at it for too long as we had serious running business to attend to.
The weather was sunny and a couple of degrees plus at the start. The course was a 3.2km loop, climbing aboiut 100m aktitude up quite a steep incline to a riidge, runniing a gentle downhill down the ridge and dropping down off thr ridge and about 800m back to the start. The views from all parts of the course were great.
We started at 11.30 am, and run through to 8pm. We ran pretty well all day with no breaks or rest, and althought we planned to try and cover 15 or 16 loops, we only managed 14. This was a pretty good result though as the course became difficult in some places, and it seemed th big hill got a bit steeper every lap. It got a lot colder and I also got a bit of fatigue as the day went on. Luckily I had my hired help (Matt) to give me a push up the big hill in the later stages of the race. I owe him a few beers, once we are allowed to have one (not until the event is over... not much fun watching all of the other non running passengers having a beer, while we stick to water and coke!)
Not sure how our overall results are going, we may have dropped a place or two, but still going pretty well.
Tommorow we are running in 2 locations for about 3 hours each apparantly, which should be challenging (whats not challenging about running down here!)
Anyway its 10.30 pm and I am Wallaby Ted .... As in Roo Ted) , and about to hit the sack. The team is all going really well, no problems, other than Ron has a cold, but of course notrhing seems to stop him. Matt is keeping a close eye on me which is good.
2 more days running to go. I know its not over till the fat lady siings, but I think she is out the back puttting on her makeup.
Cant wait to get this thing done.
By the way we are now so far south, that its not getting dark at the moment. The darkest point is around midnight, and then by around 3am it is pretty much full daylight'.
Thanks for all your blog comments, they really help us. Will blog again hopefully after tomorrows runs.
Love to all.
Comments: Total (4) comments
Raylene Donovan
Posted On: 29 Nov 2012 07:09 am
Hi Darl, Rumour has it, the fat lady is waiting in the wings, make up ready, waiting for her cue. i.e. when she sees the Ausie flag at the finish line, with Team Born to Run, she will come not only singing, but dancing too. Not long now, she's getting very excited. Enjoy the last little bit. What a year! So, so proud of you. Love and miss you heaps!
Barry Latham
Posted On: 29 Nov 2012 01:28 am
Hi Greg - This run sounds like a holiday!!Icebergs, Penguins, Zodiac riding...Great to hear the team is going so well and placed in the top 20. Good luck for the final 2 days looking forward to hearing all the adventures - in a 37 degree spa! Take Care Baz and Liane
Anne Lucas
Posted On: 28 Nov 2012 12:48 pm
Hi Greg. You will be talking about your 2012 adventures for a long time to come. I have been thinking of you guys in your freezing cold conditions while we swelter at the moment (39 tomorrow!!). Keep up the good work - the finish line is almost in sight. Say g'day to the team for me. All the best, Anne
Chris Follett
Posted On: 28 Nov 2012 08:22 am
Hi Greg, great to hear from you. I reckon the memories from this adventure will be in your heart forever. Keep on keeping on you're nearly there. X
25 November 2012 01:31 am (GMT+08:00) Beijing, Chongqing, Hong Kong, Urumqi
Our first day at Antarctica we were greeted with favourable weather. Temps around -1 and mild breeze, with occaisional sunshine. Our first day was at King George Island which has several international stations there, including China and Russia. The course was 14km, with a central check point in the middle, so always somewhere to check in in the middle of each lap.
There was a real buzz as the small field gathered at the start, and before we knew it we were off and running at around 8.15 am.
The course was quite undulating with some decent hills to climb and descend, and we decided not to chase a lot of the front running bunnies, confident that our constant steady pace would eventually haul many of them in over 12 hours. As the day wore on and sun came out, the running course started to get slushy, a bit like mashed potato, and running became harder. There were some horror sections where you didnt know if your foot would sink up to your knee with every step. Being the heaviest in the team, this seemed to happen to me more than the others.
We had a welcome stop for lunch after 2 and half laps, where we spent 17 miuntes having some hot food, drinking and recovering.
We did some calculations, and figured out we would aim for 5 and half laps for the day, but we would need to push hard to do this. (we thought maybe 6 laps would be possible at the start of the day, but as the day went on, the course deteriortated and fatigue set in we downgraded our target to 5.5).
We finished our 5th full lap at 8pm, after 11.45 out there, and asked/begged to be allowed to go out for another half lap. We were the last to be let through. Half way through the final half lap I was wondering whey we did this, as the temp plummeted, and I was staggering along wobbling from side to side like a drunk. We were the last on the course when we finished at 9.40pm, and the cold was intense(the finish line was already packed up and the Zodiacs were ready and waiting to get us back to the boat) We were however rewarded by getting our KM up to 77 for the day, and are now placed 12th which is a great result to start our week down here. I reckon covering 77km across a difficult course was a great achievement for the team. Everyone is doing well, and Ron keeping stats as usual. A little bit of a push along from behind by Matt helped me up a couple of the final hills. The next place behind us is now 7km in arrears and has lots of work to do to catch us.
My lips not doing too well, forgot the lip screen yesterday, bad mistake. Wont be doing that again. Our faces looked frightful when we finished, Matt got photos on his I phone.
James covered probably 20km to do his filming, and there will be great footage there.
Looks like day 2 might be cancelled, as the winds are now gusting to 50 knots (over 85kmh), the shore at deception island has ice sheet surrounding, and not accesibale by Zodiac.
The captain briefed us and said they would now look at alternative venues to get to later thismorning. Someone in the crowd piped up and suggested "Hawaii!" which casued great laughter (and general agreement).
Thats it for now. I will blog again after our next run, whenever that might be.
Cheers
Comments: Total (4) comments
Trish Holman
Posted On: 02 Dec 2012 09:34 am
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
Oh my gosh how proud must you all be! We are certainly very proud of you all - and we've never met!!
Hope the journey back to Ushuaia hasn't been too awful! Can't wait to see the footage of it all, the pictures we've seen on 4deserts have been amazing!!
Congratulations again Greg and Team Born to Run - YOU ROCK!!!
Your AWESOME, RAD (sorry got a bit carried away there with James' language!!!! LOL
Take care all and safe journey back to OZ.
xxx
Raylene Donovan
Posted On: 27 Nov 2012 07:06 am
Hi Darl, WOW. Made fantastic progress for stage one, 77km down. Great effort. Photo's look fabulous, I'm loving the red mittens. Shame about stage 2, but hopefully you took advantage of the rest day. Good luck for the next stage and I look forward to your next post. Love you heaps.
Ian Greentree
Posted On: 27 Nov 2012 06:36 am
Greg,
The secenery looks fantastic. Great to see you have the energy for a few star jumps.
What an Expereince you are having.
Its finally warm in Sydney.
Keep up the great work.
Regards
Ian and Michele
Steve Donovan
Posted On: 27 Nov 2012 04:55 am
Great work for the first stage Dad. Hope you rest up good on the day off, and keep pushing for the rest of the race. Look forward to hearing from you again. Good luck, Love you
24 November 2012 01:32 am (GMT+08:00) Beijing, Chongqing, Hong Kong, Urumqi
Hi all
Just a quick blog from the ship. Its 3 pm Saturday arvo, and not much more than 12 hours until we reach our first destination ,King George island.
We will start running soon after. Rumour has it, that it will be a 15 hour running day.
Anyway all going well. Ship is very nice and comfortable, meals are good, showers hot.
Although there is a lot of rocking and rolling going across Drakes Passage, I have had no seasick issues. Roger is the only one to suffer a bit.
We have had quite a few lectures on Antarctica, the wildlife and various activities available. We had to vacuum all of our equipment, to prevent taking any nasties onto Antarctica. Now getting excited about getting there.
James is doing a good job, and he has downloaded and edited everything so far.
Otherwise passing the time reading eating, talking to fellow competitors and generally resting up.
Will blog again sometime after the first running day.
Love to all
Comments: Total (4) comments
Chris Follett
Posted On: 26 Nov 2012 11:13 am
Hi guys, the pictures on the website are awesome. Embrace the last challenge and know that we are all with you.
Laura Impey
Posted On: 26 Nov 2012 03:49 am
Hi Dad, wishing you well for the first stage, sounds like it might be a long tough day. Hopefully the cool weather will help and you wont have the same dehydration issues like in Sahara. Looking forward to reading your next blog and hearing how the team went!
Raylene Donovan
Posted On: 25 Nov 2012 12:27 pm
Hi darl. So good to finally hear from you. Good luck for stage 1. Love you heaps.
Alina B
Posted On: 25 Nov 2012 12:23 pm
Greg - Wishing you all the best on your great adventure! We will be following the race progress from Hong Kong. I just posted a start line photo on Facebook and am wishing that I was there with you all. Good luck, and happy running! Cheers, Alina
22 November 2012 02:10 am (GMT+08:00) Beijing, Chongqing, Hong Kong, Urumqi
After a few days in Ushuaia the team are keen to get going, and get on the boat to Antarctica.
Matt was sick when we arrived, but has now recovered, and our lost bags have turned up, so we are all looking good.
A bit of touring around Ushuaia including a walk and run on the nearby Glacier, and a drive around the National Park have helped us pass our time here.
A 1000km 60 hour journey across the Drake Passage now awaits this afternoon, and we are armed with every seasick remedy know to mankind including such weird ones as Vicks Vapour rub on belly buttons.
It's been a long and challenging year for our team, and it will be great to hit the ice and get running, to hopefully finish this years Grand Slam, and be the first team to ever do so.
Keep up to date with our teams blogs over the coming week.
We start the final leg with a 100km stage on King George Island on Sunday 25th ..... Sounds like a great way to get warmed up for the week.
Look out penguins .... here we come!!
Comments: Total (2) comments
Ronaye Brennan
Posted On: 25 Nov 2012 08:52 am
Hey Greg, good to hear Matt's ok. Good luck for stage 1 I am sure you will all do really well. Thinking of you, Matt and Team Born to Run.
Leanne Dyer
Posted On: 23 Nov 2012 11:18 am
Hi Greg, well you guys are almost there, what a year this has been? Bring on the last desert.....well for this year anyway!!!!!!
Wishing you
Comments: Total (8) comments
Steve Donovan
Posted On: 03 Dec 2012 02:22 am
Raylene Donovan
Posted On: 03 Dec 2012 01:43 am
Laura Impey
Posted On: 02 Dec 2012 11:54 pm
Kristen Stokes
Posted On: 02 Dec 2012 12:04 pm
Ian and Michele Greentree
Posted On: 01 Dec 2012 09:15 pm
Leanne Dyer
Posted On: 01 Dec 2012 10:12 am
Ronaye Brennan
Posted On: 01 Dec 2012 06:07 am
Ronaye Brennan
Posted On: 01 Dec 2012 06:07 am