Dear Boys, 
 
So back to my day.  I've had a bit of a sleep and something to eat so I can try and think back on the long march yesterday. 
 
The day began on salt flats - which you know what I think about salt flats.  It's like running on sharp glass of all different sizes.  It's very hard on your feet.  Then we were able to follow some donkey trails but I didn't see any donkeys! 
 
From there we ran along a long road that would cut off from time to time from the sand blowing across it.  Daddy was feeling pretty good at this point having ran about 25km at that point.  That's like running to Uncle Carson and Auntie Cherise's house. 
 
Across a very long gravel field and then guess what - more salt flats!  Sheesh - daddy said some not nice things at that point of the race.  But he kept going trying to walk as fast as he could, which is not very fast compared to some people here.  They can walk almost as fast as daddy runs!
 
It was very hot in the day by now and dad had to cross a few km's of sand that led up to a very big sand dune.  The biggest one that daddy has ever had to climb.  I saw one of my tent mates Cam going up and was able to catch up with him and walk with him over the top of the pass and back down another sand dune. 
 
From there we had to run/walk down a very long dry river bed which is basically a river without water.  It wound this way and that way and back again.  This was a hard stage for daddy as he was starting to get tired and the sun was very hot.  I have not so cool tan lines from my sunglasses.
 
The next check point was the check point where you could stop, eat or have a sleep if you wanted.  Daddy didn't want to stop in fear that his legs would want to keep going.  So off I went following the dry river which finally led to a road.  Daddy was able to run a little bit down the road and catch up to a few other racers.  Everyone is really tired by this point and we just grunted at each other. 
 
The road turned up towards a big mountain.  I was almost finished at this point having ran about 63 km.  Into the last check point, I got some water and even a kiss on the cheek by one of the girlfriends of daddy's new friends.  I had to climb a very long hill, cross over the mountain and then descend into a canyon full of sand dunes.  I got lost a little and went over a dune that I didn't need to and had to crawl back up.  From there the canyon got really narrow and zig zagged going down,, down.  It was close to getting dark so I wanted to hurry to make it to camp.  Out of the canyon I came that met up with a road that led down the otherside of the mountain.  So I ran down as much as I could.  I had to put my head lamp on and red flashing light on my pack so cars could see me. 
 
Almost there - a right turn into a gravel pit and I could see the finish line!  Daddy ran as fast as his legs could go and crossed the line in 11 1/2 hours - which for daddy is pretty good.  I think I'll place 20th which doesn't really matter.  It's mostly about the journey of getting to the finish line.
 
Daddy has made some great new friends, has seen a magnificent part of the world, has an amazing family that has cheered me on and has hopefully done some good.  That's what it's about.
 
Daddy has a rest day today and then a short run into town tomorrow to get his medal and a cold drink or two ;)
 
Daddy loves you and will be home soon!

Dear Boys,
 
Daddy is done the long march!  Just over 12 hours and finished in 23rd place.  I’m having chicken noodle soup and then going to sleep.  It was a very long day and right now, I can’t even remember the places daddy went!  I’ll tomorrow and tell you all about it.  Mr. Darren came 1st today!  Wow.  Now I know why daddy was so tired when he ran with him at home!  I thought of you throughout the day and your smiles kept me going.  To answer a few of your questions -  I will take pictures of the stars for you.  I’m in tent #9 Los Flaminco’s!  I don’t ever get to run with Darren because he runs like a sports car – daddy is more of a land rover.
I miss you!  Good night and I’ll write you tomorrow!
 
To Everyone else…
 
Special shout out to team silverbill – Sahara tent ’09 Thanks for the cheers!
 
Everyone at McKernan – thanks so much for your prayers and encouragement!
 
Mom &  Dad – shoes are intact.  Feet a little sore.  Love you!  See you soon.
 
My amazing wife – I am so immensely in love you.  Couldn’t imagine doing this without you cheering me on.
 
I did a “Breaking News”  - not sure if it made it up on the website.  They asked my about 20 Km into today’s stage if I had anything to say.  I said, “There are many moments today that are taking my breath away.”  You may have thought that this was simple statement about the altitude.  However, as you may have read in the article they wrote that our family has a moto…
 
“Life is not about the number of breathes you take but the number of moments that take your breath away.”  We strive to place value on bringing meaning and purpose to our lives and to model that for our children.  I hope that you are inspired not just by me but by all the other competitors to make the most of this gift call life.  With that, these races have given me opportunity to race money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.  CF is a lung disease that literally takes your breath away.  If you would like to donate please contact me and I would love to give you details.  If you live in a country other than Canada – please consider supporting your local CF Foundation.
 
More tomorrow!  Off to bed!
 
Blain

Dear Evan & Jack,
 
First of all I hope the you Evan are feeling better.  Daddy spent some time praying for you today.  Jack buddy, I know it sucks to school when Evan gets to stay at home but you'll survive!  Glad you did some research on the whole "poo mystery"!
 
So boys, this is the day that the runners try to fight through so they can survive the very long stage tomorrow.  Daddy was a ROCK STAR today!  He felt great although it was a very challenging and long day.  Almost 8 hours of running but he rolled into camp number 4 in 21st place.  I'm very happy with how the day went.  So lets begin.
 
It was another cold night in the desert.  Daddy woke up c-o-l-d barely swallowed down his yucky oatmeal and warmed up with a coffee.  The race started up a big hill and then across a sandy dune that went on for far too long.  Down into a valley and up the otherside I went.  We crossed a very large canyon and then began a long gradual climb up an old volcanic rock slop.  Sounds cool but it's not.  This made daddy very tired.  Anytime I have to climb something steep it really makes dad very tired because of how this silly desert is.
 
I finally reached the top to find a sand dune that joined up with a canyon that had a river at the bottom.  We had to slide down the dune and then try to stop just before the end or we could fall off a little cliff.  One competitor ripped his shorts!  (and his bum!)  ouch...
 
Along the river I went and then climbed up out of the valley and through a village.  I think it was a ghost town because daddy didn't any people in it.  I think it was so hot at that point of the day that everyone stays inside - except for silly ultra marathon runners. 
 
From out of the village came an unending rocky plain that day was able to run a bit through.  It was very hot so I took some rests but was able to pass a few people. 
 
This is where the day got challenging.  There are things here called "salt flats" - daddy has decided that he hates salt flats.  They are dry, crusty terrible things to try and run across - especially when they made daddy run 14 km of it.  Just before he started across he remembered that dad's friend Darren gave him some magic pills - not that kind! (Tylenol with caffeine).  They made daddy very jumpy and he ran through the first have of the slat flats like a rabbit.  Then they wore off and he was stuck in the middle of the nowhere and very, very tired.  Daddy has been told that he is very stubborn so he just kept moving.  Just like Dori, "Just keep moving. Just keep moving".
 
I finally reached the end of the flats and had a short run into the camp. 21st place feeling pretty good actually.  Thanks for all your prayers for daddy!  Tomorrow is the long day - 78km and the race is basically over!   Yeah!
 
Have a great day boys - love you!
 
Daddy
 
For everyone else....
 
The stage went well today.  It was long and hot but I actually felt pretty good.  I was starving the last half of the race as I used my food the first half of the stage and could only think of the cup of  soup that I could make once I got in. 
 
My feet are holding up well.  Today's stage would have been a b*tch for anyone with bad feet as the salt flats were a challenge. 
 
Darren N is in 3rd place - seriously, he looks like a bunny bounding through the desert.  I want to but a few rocks in his pack tonight.  At this moment, everyone is in from our tent aside from Matt and Darren B.  Darren's feet look really bad and his knee is hurting him.  So send him some emails - he'll need them. 
 
Tomorrow is the long stage.  I have 3 blisters.  One on the heel that started in the Sahara and came up on the long stage in the Gobi.  I'm "excited" (bad word) to get on with tomorrow to get it over with.  It's been the hardest race by far in terms of sheer terrain, altitude and the effects to the body.  Mind is holding up well though.
 
Thanks everyone!  Tomorrow should be about 15 hours out in the desert I figure.  Maybe shorter - probably longer!
 
Cheers - Blain

Dear Jack & Evan, (and everyone else!)
 
Hi Boys!  I hope your day went great and the your doing well.  Daddy began the day freezing!  Can you believe that you can freeze in the desert?!  Because we are so high it gets cold at night and doesn't get warm until the sun comes up.   I saw 2 flamincos!  We camped at a lagoon and they flied away just before daddy went to bed.  It was really cool. 
 
Here's a question that you can research for me.  This is a bit of a Captain Underpants moment (forevery one else).  Daddy sees poo everywhere in this desert. Poo on the trails, poo on the sand, and poo on the bottom of my shoes.  BUT!  I haven't seen any animals anywhere!  This mystery needs to be solved!  Google "Atacama Animals".  I saw a lizard today but the poo was way too big for a lizard!
 
So daddy started the day running across crusty ground called salt flats.  They suck!   Then over crusty mud.  That also sucks.  Once we got across there was a road which was great.  Daddy runs two flags and walks one which is about 60 meters and then walks 30 meters.  I made some great time and felt really good!  Then we crossed a road and there was more crusty mud - you know what daddy thinks of that.  From the mud came sand.  Daddy felt pretty good at this point of todays stage.  They interviewed me so hopefully you see me!  I said i was feeling preety good.
 
About 5 inutes later the weather got so hot that I didn't feel pretty good anymore.  I must admit that the last little bit of todays race was very hard.  They were very tricky because you could see the camp from 4 km away.  Then it looked like we were headed straight for our tent and then they made a turn up a very big sand dune. Up I went and again I could see the camp but I had to go down another big sand dune and then up and then finally one last very big dune.  Daddy made it, feeling OK but very tired.  I'm eating some soup and enjoying writing to you now. 
 
I did get two blisters today so daddy will have a look at them tonight to get ready to tomorrow.  Tomorrow will be another hard day but daddy is going to try his best!
 
I love you.  I look forward to some of these back masages that mommy says you've been giving her!
 
Be good!
 
Love Dad

To everyone else thanks so much for all the emails and blogs comments.  Keep them coming.  I'm doing well and trying to pace myself a bit as the altitude, heat and terrain are amazingly challenging.  I told Kristin that it has surpassed the Sahara and the Gobi my far.  Appreciated any kind thoughts and prayers.  Our tent is doing great although we lost Brian yesterday.  Darren B has some bad feet and Darren N came in 4th today.  I see him for all of 30 seconds each morning.
 
Oh, and they did an interview (written) of me last night, so have a look out for it.
 
Cheers everyone - Blain

Dear Jack and Evan,
 
Oh the places daddy went today.  It was full of some very beautiful places and some very not so beautiful places.  Lets start from the beginning.
 
Daddy had a much better sleep last night which really helped him.  I woke up to a beautiful star filled sky, ate my breakfast (which I'm really starting to not like oatmeal) and got ready for the start of todays stage.
 
Once we started, we ran down a ridge to a small river that flowed through a beautiful canyon.  The canyon was wide at some places and got really narrow at other places.  This river was a wandering one so daddy had to cross it many. many times so my feet got really wet and cold. 
 
From there we ran down a road and then up another steep road that was also went left to right and back again.  Up, up, up daddy went.  Near the top of the big hill there is a very old bridge that was built by the Inca indians.  Just after the bridge I came to a very old and very long tunnel.  Daddy could really see his way until he figured out that he still had his sunglasses on!  After the tunnel there was another very long climb to the top of a mountain ridge.  From way up high daddy could see 5 volacanos!  Daddies legs were very tired by this point and I had to walk up and down the ridge until he came upon a very huge sand dune.  The great thing about this is that he was at the top of the dune and didn't have to climb it.  I ran down the dune which felt like skiing down.  The sand was so deep that it came up to his knees at some points. 
 
From there the race got very hard.  I had to walk through a valley called "The Valley Of Death" sounds hard doesn't it?  It was almost 40 degrees, which was very hot!  It was very hard and it started to get very hot.  Because it was so very hot and because daddy had to climb all those hills my legs were very sore so he had to walk. 
 
On and on daddy walk all by himself for a very long time but he looked behind him and saw in the distance his freind Darren from Australia along with two other friends from his tent.  Yeah!  Daddy had company.  While he waited he sat on a rock and took his shoes off and emptied his shoes of the sand and check for blisters.  Nope no blisters. 
 
Toegether Darren, Sean, Matt and daddy walked and walked for another 2 hours until we finally got into the camp.  We all crossed the finish line together much to our relief. 
 
It was a very hard day but daddy finished.  My feet are a little sore and his legs are little bit sore as well.  My tentmates are all resting now and trying to take little naps. 
 
I hope your days at school were good and that you had fun.  Daddy loves you and misses you very, very much.  Give mommy a big hug right now for me. 
 
I love you long time!
 
Daddy
 
To all those who sent me emails so far - thanks so much.  Keep them coming.

I thought I would do something different with my blogs from this point one.  One of those ideas that come to you while you wander through the desert. I'm going to write them to my boys.  SO here we go.
 
Dear Evan & Jack,
 
Wow daddy had a good day and then a hard day. I'll start at the beginning.  It was a very cold sleep at out camp lastnight and daddy is finding it hard to sleep because Chile is a very high country.  I had to put on all my clothes to stay warm.  The morning came quick and so I had breakfast while the stars were still out.  The stars here are amazing.  It seems like you can see the whole galaxy.  During breakfast they had a Chilean band play traditional music which was very cool.  After breakfast daddy got ready, packed his bag and got ready for the start of the race which started at 8am.
 
3,2,1 Go!  Daddy was off and running down a nice green riverbed that led to a big long road that traveled to the top of the canyon.  Many people walked this part including daddy because he knew it would be a long race.  The first stage was just over 10 km.  Daddy felt pretty good at this point and ran with some people that were Swiss.   From there I came to a check point that was at the bottom of a very big hill.  Up daddy went, walking again but feeling good still.  The top of the hill was very small and I had to run down a very steep hill.  Almost to steep to run down and I could feel my feet rubbing a bit in my shoes so I stopped quickly to look at my feet.  Everything was good - no blisters.  From there we had to run down a very narrow dry river bed that was pretty cool looking.  The problem was that you could see the next check point to get water just before I ran into the canyon but it seemed like forever to get there because it was a lot like a snake - this way and that way  and then back again but I made it along with some friends from my tent!
 
Together we ran across a very long and wide open field full of rocks and sand.  I started to run with a man named Cam who is also in my tent.  We would run to one flag and then walk to the next flag which they use to show us which way to go.  We were very tired when we got to the end of the field but we still had to go through a very big gorge which was beautiful - at first.  This gorge had high wall so no wind came into it and then just to make it even harder it was up hill.  So up, up, up, up daddy walked with Cam but Cam's legs are longer than daddies and he walked faster than me.   Then there was an very evil lady sitting on the road.  She told daddy, "Good job!"  Which was nice but then she said, "Only 1 km."  This was not true, this was not even close to being true.  SO daddy walked and walked and walked and walked and walked.  1 km, 2 km, 3 km - daddy was very mad at this lady.
 
But daddy made it to the check point  at the top of the hill and was very happy because this meant there was only a short way to go.  Down the hill daddy ran until something happened.  Daddy's muscles in his legs decided that they didn't want to run anymore and started to cramp up REALLY bad.  A few people passed me as I tried to walked as fast as I could but I had to walk a little slower but I made it and I was pleased with how the day went.   I came in 19th out of 110 people.  Not too bad for an old daddy!
 
For the rest of the day daddy will check his emails (hopefully later if they can get them for me), drink lots of water, eat and rest.  I have a very fun tent and we laugh alot.  Everyone in the tent did very well.  Daddies friend Darren from Edmonton came it 8th!  You can tell mommy that daddy wore his sun screen, drank lots of water and thought of all of you very often.  I like to imagine what you might be doing while I run. 
 
I love you so much boys.  You make daddy smile when I think of you.  I'm so very proud of each of you.  I hope that you are listening to mommy the first time and trying to not be too silly.  Tell mommy that daddy loves her so much too and I think that shes the prettiest mommy I know.
 
Love you all - Daddy

Hi Everyone,
 
I can’t see my emails yet, so I hope that I can later tonight.  The bus trip to the camp was about 2 hours long along the highway and then through a pretty scenic gorge.  Half the road was either along a small creek/river or in it.  Our bus got stuck on one of the crossings so we all had to pile out to take some weight off.  However, the driver still managed to tear the entire back bumper completely off the bus.  After that he was a bit pissed, so he charged through everything much to our delight. 
 
I was reminded on the bus ride that I’m glad that I’m not as fast of a runner as Darren. We sat together and all the way he kept singing the same 54-40 song.  I told him that I would have to leave him the desert if I did run as fast as him and that he wasn’t allowed to get injured either!  He knows way to many montey python and star wars scenes verbatim – he also like to shoot pretend laser beams whenever we would run down hills when we were training together.  I’m just getting back at him for outing me as a pillow molester. 
 
The camp is nestled into a corner of the gorge with the tents set up in a semi-circle.  Our tent is a riot with a few competitors from my Gobi 09 race.  There are 2 other Canadian aside from Darrren and a new Ausie.
 
There are three of us in our tent with connections to Cystic Fibrosis.  Me, Darrren who used to be a youth worker at a children’s hospital working with a lot of CF children and then Sophie is a physio therapist who does hand physio on children living with CF. 
 
The camp is at 3300 meters and is actually a little chilly right now.  It may actually be good for sleeping but I’m anticipating a very cold morning until the sun comes up.  The race begins at 8am so by the time this gets posted I will hopefully be well on my way.
 
I put sunscreen on today Kristin and yes I am what you said I was.  I’m looking forward to getting on with it and seeing what my body does tomorrow. 
 
Big hugs to Evan and Jack – daddy loves you vey much.
 
Kristin…..yeah you know ;)
 
Cheers until to tomorrow

Most of the competitors have now trickled into San Pedro throughout the day. Ive been able to see mates from the Gobi 2009 race which include Darren, Sophie, and Cam all of which are in my tent. With everyone here begins the talk of how heavy is your pack, how many miles did you run a week prior to this, or how fast do you think you'll go? Tomorrow is our kit check to make sure we have everything you're supposed to have and enough food to get you to the finish line short of death. The town of San Pedro is beautiful - full of backpackers, locals and now racers. It's sort of the Banff of Chile without the Japanese tour buses. You rarely hear Chilean music here, they love Bob Marely and Jack Johnson which makes me smile. It's wrapped around by snow capped mountains with a absolutely breath taking volcano. Darren and I have now gone through our packs about 3 times now, finding ways to break them down even more each time. Packaging and wrappers liter our floor each day much to the displeasure of house keeping. He's a good room mate. Has the gifting of sleep which he denies. Apparently we both are up all night but just at different times. We both felt a lot better today with the altitude - no head ache when I woke up and my face didn't look like it had been punched throughout the night like it did the first day. I heard the lovely voice of my wife today as I walked around the town without sunscreen on my neck, 'you dumb a**'. Said neck is no very red - which I tend to have a bit of a bad track record with. I'll do better on the race babe, I promise! Thanks for all your support! I continue to run to bring awareness of the fatal disease called Cystic Fibrosis which my youngest son unfortunately has. My mantra while I run is that, 'I choose to do something that I am not good at, that is painful and difficult because I know my sons life will become more painful and difficult as he gets older - so suck it up Davis and take another step.' Love to Kristin, Evan and Jack - don't read that part to Jack Kris. Cheers to all - Blain

Hi All,

Spent the day shoppng around and ecplorng the town of San Pedro.  It is a beautiful little town full of backpackers, 'hippies', and now ultra marathoners.  the town has a massive volcano overlooking it.  We went for a smal 6 Km run tonight and about 5 minutes in felt like my lungs had been drained of all oxygen.  Legs were heavy but ye a smile on my face.

We spent toda shopping around and chatting with locals and other runners.  Had lunch with team HSX.  We switch hotels tomorrow and have bag check Saturday and bus into camp 1.  Looking forward to gettng the legs moving and meeting up with runners I met in the Gobi.

Cheers to everyone back home.  Thanks so much for your support.

Jack and Evan, thanks for your notes and I've pced up a couple of cool gifts for you.  Big hugs and kisses to you and mommy.

Blain

Im on my way! Although without last second gliches My wife fell and strained her neck yesterday on an icy street - hope it feels better soon! My son went to bed with a sore ear, Lego needed last second repairs from daddy and a lot of hugs and kisses before the drop off at the airport. As any racer will say that has a family, it takes a very supportive partner to gaurd the fort while we're away running through the desert. I am so fortunate to have my best friend in my wife cheering me on. Made it through the first set of screening with all my race gear. I don't risk checking my kit as there are always at least a couple competitors who lose their race gear in transit to the race. You get a lot of strange looks and I feel I have to explain to everyone why I'm carrying a backpack that looks as though it's going to war and why I'm wearing bright orange and yellow runners. I'm rolling the dice that Chile customs doesn't snoop through my kit and take my beef jerky! Praying that they don't have any well trained jerky sniffing dogs. Although it would only take a stray dog to find that out. Lay over in Toronto and then a red eye to Santiago. Im meeting up with my friend Darren who has had the hard luck to have been training in Hawaii for the last two weeks in plus 30 all the while I've finished up in minus 30. Will try to drink as much water as I can between now and the race start! Starting to get excited! Next time I write I'll be in Chile!!

Last year I had trained for months, purchased flights, had my gear packed and ready to go and then the huge earth quake occurred. The race was still a go and I tried to get from Edmonton, Canada to San Pedro, Chile. However, anyone that has ever landed at the "international airport" here in Edmonton quickly finds out that if you need to get anywhere fast - Edmonton is not the place to start. I was faced with a choice - buy a brand new set of tickets to LA, Dallas or Miami and hope to get on a flight - purchase a new set of tickets through Peru with some crazy bus rides and hope to get there and back in time or sit it out. I obviously chose to sit it out. I was very bummed. I was racing with friends that I have kept in touch from the Sahara Race 2007 and Gobi 2009. I had also raised money for Cystic Fibrosis for this my 3rd 4Desert race. But life goes on, the people in Chile had much more to worry about at the time and I'm happy to try again. In the meantime, one of my Gobi buddies was in the same boat not being able to get to Chile last year and is returning this year as well and I've finally convinced a friend from here in Edmonton to join me in the Atacama. Sahara was amazing but horrible on my feet (both feet were blasted with huge blisters) and had to really push through limits that I never imagined possible. The Gobi was fantastic. I felt strong and finished the race with only one small blister that I didn't even notice until after the long stage. What will the Atacama have in store for me? Can't wait to find out! Gear has been sorted out, flying in on the 2nd to try and get used to the altitude and check out the sights and sounds of San Pedro before race day. Looking forward to meeting everyone and experiencing another adventure. Cheers! Blain