Stage 5, aka "The Long March" was a 74-kilometer (47 mi) stage that would really solidify the overall and final results of the competition.

The stage looked something like this:

Part 1 : 14 km on mostly flat, hard-pack dirt (excellent!)

Part 2 : 8.5 km on flat, dirt roads; moderate sand. Nothing too terrible

Part 3 : 8 km on mixed terrain, but mostly flat

Part 4 : 11.5 km mixed terrain; large dune hill to finish

Part 5 : 14 km during mid-day heat. Mostly hard-pack dirt

Part 6 : 9 km with a constant, but very slight uphill along dirt truck road

Part 7 : 9.5 km over a mountain peak; uphill 500 ft, then flat, then downhill 500 ft on dirt roads.

Todays strategy was the same as yesterdays. With the first 14 km on good runnable road, I knew that I had to take advantage of the cool morning temperatures to try and bank some time. Ive never before advocated going out hard to try and bank time in a race, but then again most running advice sort of goes out the window in a race like this. Everyone here really has their own strategy that theyre following.

In that first 14 km segment, Mike and I were actually in the lead pack. I thought it might be funny to try and actually run in front of the Spanish guy who is in 1st place but thought better of it after a minute. Instead, we all just stayed in a pack through the first checkpoint. I started to fade a little bit, this time because of tired legs; but I think everyone started to slow down a bit after the past 4 days of running.

The second segment saw a few people pass Mike and I, as we slipped to around 25th place overall. I figured that with almost 40 miles left to run, I had no problem throttling back a bit and settling into a nice rhythm for the rest of the day, and thats exactly what we did. After an initial hot start, we played it a bit conservative as the sun started to come overhead and as our (my) legs were getting tired. Burning out my legs at this point would be silly, and I wanted a little bit of energy to run the last bit of the stage.

The second and third part of the run were fairly forgettable.... lots of desert, very long, heat starting to pour on. It was very much a "head down and keep moving forward" sort of mentality. I blocked out how much distance we still had left, and instead just focused on one foot in front of the other.

Coming into the latter half of the 4th stage, we saw a very large dune in front of us that we had to ckimb. I realized how hard it was when I saw that the people who had been about 10 minutes in front of us looked like they were now only a few feet away. They were slowed to such a snals pace climbing this that we were able to catch up with them quite easily. Unfortunately, it was a great equalizer and when they reached the top they soldiered on as we were still struggling with the massive pile of dirt.  It was so steep and the sand so fine that you could barely walk up it. You had to zig-zag across the face of it just to keep from sliding, and it probably took a good 10 minutes to get up. Sanderson got to the top first, and he took some pictures as I climbed up, so look for those later when we get back. It was an amazing dune, but a bitch of a climb in the middle of a long day.

When we reached the top of the dune, we ended up in what I can oly decribe as a valley atop a mountain with very alien-like terrain. Uneven, salt-crusted dirt formed large plate-like tiles of dried mud covering the floor of this place. With the clear blue skies above, it was all very surreal and I had to stop to take a few pictures. Tired from the dune climb, we were reduced to a march but managed to pick off two people who had slowed considerably. After a mile of marching through this alien landscape, we had a great downhill where we went into checkpoint 4 to start the next stage.

The next stage was a 14-km journey through hot hot desert at midday. Sandersons watch took a reading of 101 degrees (38C) in the shade, but it felt much hotter with the thin air and radiant heat coming from every direction off the desert floor. This would be the leg that everyone at camp would talk about later; it was the longest, the hottest, and in general incredibly demoralizing.  During these 14 kilometers alone, I drank 4 liters of water (1 gal; approx. 8 lbs!). It was just too hot to run, so Sanderson and I power walked and passed 7 people on this stage. We ran a few times when we could, mostly to put distance between those who we passed (had to try and crush their spirits, if possible), but most of this stage was just about keeping constant forward motion.

We reached the end of the stage and hit checkpoint 5, which greeted us with hot water and people to mist us off. I had some dried chicken stock that I added hot water to to have some hot broth. It was ecstacy. Seriously, it was amazing. For those of you who did the Lookout Mountain 50-miler, youll remember how good that chicken noodle broth tasted at mile 38. Even in the desert heat, hot broth was such an experience.

As we passed checkpoint 5 and started on the last two stages, it began to cool off. Mike and I stared a walk/run routine despite the constant uphill. We put a lot of distance on the people behind us and managed to pass several people in the final kilometers of the day. Two of these people had been in the top 10 but had faded extreely badly. One of our biggest goals earlier in the day was to conserve enough energy during the oppressively hot midday to be able to pick it up when it cooled off, and this worked out fairly well. With the run-walk routine we came into camp still during daylight hours and finished in around 10 hours and 25 minutes, good for 18th for the day.

Once we got into camp we settled in for a little dinner and were entertained by a light show to the east. Over the Andes there was a massive lightning storm; far enough that we were safe, but close enough for us to sit in front of the campfire and enjoy when it got dark. It brought everyone out from the tents as we sat watching the sky light up for miles and miles.

I am writing this on Friday morning, a day after having finished the long day. Tomorrow is the final stage, a 11-km run to San Pedro de Atacama. My legs feel great. Im one of the few who isnt hobbling around the tent camp, and I think tomorrow should be another good day. The only difficult thing might be the heat; with the shortened distance they are starting the race at 10am instead of 8am. Still, it may be cool enough for me to give it a good bash and come in feeling like I beat the heat.

Thanks for everyone for sending your comments and emails every day. Theyre still a constant source of motivation for us; it makes me question less and less why I signed up for this thing in the first place, now knowing that were supported by fantastic friends and family. As much as we dont want this to end, Mike and I cant wait to get back to NYC and have a proper meal with a glass of wine with you all.

Signing off,

SW

I forgot to mention that despite no conveniences in this race, we were greeted by two large ponds by the camps site at the end of stage 4. Its slightly salty water (and magnesiumy, potassiumy, and lots of other shit I dont want to know about) but that didnt stop every competitor from jumping into it to finally rinse off (both clothes and body). It was a slice of heaven in the middle of a hellish desert. Now all I need is a shave and a glass of wine.

And in case youre wondering: yes, I had been running in the same shirt for the past 4 days over almost 95 miles of desert heat. It aint pretty.

Signing off,

SW

Just had a chance to sit down with Sanderson at the computer so that we could both read all the blog comments and emails, and theyre keeping our spirits high so thanks so much!  Also, thanks for the Coogans results (CF!). And well done to Rich V., Thomas H. and Josh K for coming inthe top 3 FRNYers at Coogans!

Today greeted us with a slight breeze and low temperatures in the morning. The sun rises over the Andes to the east, so we have a few crucial hours of sunlight without direct sun as the volcanoes keep the sun at bay. So I implemented Operation Balls-Out. When the race stage started, Sanderson and I made our way to the front of the race and I made the decision to take advantage of the cooler morning temperatures and just go for it.

The course today is probably considered the 2nd hardest (Some consider it the hardest. Not I). The first 10 - 15 km is relatively moderate, but the rest of the course is over salt flats and mud. When I say  "salt flats" please bear in mind that it is anything but flat. Its like running on salty, rocky, coral, and everyone is slowed to an incredibly awkward walk, trying not to fall down or cut their shins on the very sharp and hard salt formations. And when I say "mud" just know that it in fact looks like solid dirt -- until you step on top of it thinking that you can run, only to have your foot sink down four inches. Thats really all you have to know about this stage -- I wish I could say there was some pretty canyon or a river we ran alongside to make up for the misery of running on mud and craggy salt, but really this was a pretty ugly stage.

Through the first 15 km or so, we were just behind the top 10 runners and they werent pulling away. In fact in the first 10km we were in front of the most of them. I was feeling fine, but I could start to feel the sun coming overhead. I tried to bank as much time as possible while I could, especially considering the first 15 km were the easiest to run on -- we hadnt yet hit the salt flats or the mud, which I knew would slow everyone down.With the good weather, the right opening terrain, and a little bit of risk it ended up being the right strategy. Although I started to wilt when the sun hit noon and the salt flats reflected all that solar energy back up toward me, we kept a good pace and there was much much less walking than yesterday.

Sanderson and I finished in 17th place, and at the finish line it was the best that I have felt all race. I was feeling good enough to be social with the volunteers and laugh with them a bit. Tomorrow is the long day (45 miles), and if I am as fresh as I think I will be, then we should move up a few places relative to others. A lot of people are falling apart right now, and I think Im finally getting my legs and stragegy down for the race.

Tomorrow will have a similar strategy, but given the distance it will be tempered a bit. But I do have to make up as much distance as possible in the cool morning hours before it gets hot -- because it *will* get hot.

After tomorrow, we have a very short last day of roughly 10 miles. 10 miles to finish sounds incredibly lovely right nonw, I'll be honest. But at the same time, I dont want this to end just yet. Its wicked fun.

Signing off,

SW

PS: Mom and Dad, love you! I promise not to die!

Hey folks- 

Keeping this very short, because the tent closes in 15 minutes and people taking f*cking forever to write on these laptops. I swear, they think theyre writing an important piece of fiction that people actually care about, and they end up hogging the computers for an hour. Unbelievable.

Anyway: Im still having GI issues, but a lot of people were today. Except for the long 5th day, today is considered to be the hardest of the race. The entire time was walking on terrain with no traction – sand dunes, up steep hills, through mud, across rivers, scrambling up boulders. I tried takin my Endurox on the race to get some sugar in me during the run, but as soon as it got around 90 degrees I was toast. I think this means it is the heat that is doing me in. I think that means y strategy from now on is to go out hard in the morning when it is still cool, and then just know that I will fade toward the end when the sun comes out.

Today the sun was especially bad. At the last checkpoint ,we were required to take 2.5 liters of water on us each, which is almost double the normal requirement.  The sun and terrain were really taking a beating on people today. Everyone was exhausted coming into camp.

Despite really being affected by the heat, Mike and I managed to come in 31st for the day – in a bit over 6 hours for 40 kilometers. The highlight of the day was running through a canyon alongside a river and tall reeds. The lowpoint may have been the finish line – which was up a vertical climb that almost required you to scramble on your hands and knees just to get up.

OK, time for me to go so that the people behind me in line can use this computer. Please do keep the emails and blog posts coming, because I do read all of them.

Also, a request : can someone email me the Cooogan’s 5K results? Even just the top 20 would be fantastic!

Signing off,

SW

Firstly, thanks for all your blog comments. I cannot reply to them, as the internet connection here doesnt exist. The way these blog posts work is like this:

1. After each stage I send an email to [email protected], using the tiny portable laptops in the camp, and in the evening hours the staff here connects (via satellite?) to the interwebs and uses these emails to update peoples blogs

2. After each stage, I head to the Cyber Tent at each camp after finishing each stage By the time that I arrive the staff have downloaded comments and have them on an Excel spreadsheet that I can go through. That said, the comments Im reading arent real time... they may be a day old, so my apologies if I cant address them in a timely manner.

3. The next day, wash rinse and repeat

OK, onto the stage.

Stage 2 was rated as more difficult than yesterday. The distance was roughly the same (35km) but the terrain was quite difficult. Footing the entire stage was pretty tricky, as there were dunes to be run down (thankfully not up), a lot of nasty hills, lots of big rocky terrain, a few river crossings, and crusty salt flats that look stable until you step on them to find out they have the consistency of mud. We finished in slightly over 5 hours, and placed 41st out the 160+ for the day.

The scenery on this stage was some of the most beautiful we have seen in the past week that weve been here. From atop a ridge around the 9 km mark, we were able to look down into a valley where water runs from the Andes into the plains, and a lush green vegetative oasis was down below us in the high desert. We were also greeted by a gigantic 500-foot sand dune that we got to run down. From afar looking down on it, it just looked like it went on forever. It almost didnt look real, but when we started running down we really took off and had a blast running down at full throttle. For once, a part of the route was actually fun! After the dunes we got to run inside of a red rock canyon, which was both beautiful and a relief from the hot sun that was coming up high overhead and beating down on us. The last 10kms werent much to write about... flat, ugly, desert.Then there was the finish... always a welcome site!

So thats most of the informational / good news. Unfortunately there is some slightly bad news:I hit another wall again at the 20 km point, and had to run/walk the last 10+ km at a very slow pace. Sanderson was a trooper yet again, and slowed down to my pace while also encouraging me to keep plodding along. My stomach just hasnt been cooperation after around the 20-km point each day. Im thinking that this is the results of both dehydration and lack of glycogen on the run. I tried to cure the dehydration issue by drinking 1.5 literes of water every 10k today, but that may not have addressed all the potential causes. Unfortunately only after finishing the stage did I learn that low glycogen levels may be the culprit.

Lucikly in my tent are a bunch of Aussies (two brothers, two sons of theirs, and a friend).  This is good for many reasons, the most important  being:

1.) They brought three bottles of wine along for the event, which we drank the first night (Saturday night) before the race. Excellent.

2.) One of them is a medical doctor, and suggested I start consuming more liquid calories during the run. Low glycogen levels usually results in nausea, and by merely drinking more water today I didnt quite address all the possible issues of why my performance is a little sub par.

So tomorrow I will be having an Endurox at around kilometer 10 and an energy bar at km 20 to help get me through the stage. Im really hoping this works, because Im tired of keeping Sanderson back. Worse than knowing that "we" can do better is knowing that "he" could do so much better. Im also tired of having to write disappointing blog posts! That said, though, being around the top 20% of the field isnt too bad. But I know we can be doing better.

Thanks again for all the blog comments and emails. Keep them coming, even if I dont yet know you (Im looking at you, Kara). Its great to get updates (RS, MB) and good vibes from everyone out there. I cant say how much they mean to Sanderson and me. Very much appreciated.

SW

Well Day 1 is over and not without a few hiccups.

Sanderson is a soldier and hasnt had any problems, but I didnt exactly starty off my first stage the way I wanted. My stomach just wasnt coperating with me, and I was forced to walk the last 10Ks of the course after a relatively successful first 20+ kilometers. When my stomach had issues, any time I tried to jog I would get sick and had to walk. I cant pinpoint exactly what it was -- it could have been the elevation, the 21-lb pack with water, the heat and unnobstructed sun -- but it was a big issue for me. I offered to Sanderson to go on, but he said we are in this race together.

On top of stomach issues, I ended up with three blisters on my left foot. Two were manageable but did require me to stop to tape up, but the third one may prove to be a big issue in the next days. It is the size of a half dollar, and it is right in the middle of my foot. Basically, it hurts to even walk. I consulted the doctors here what could be done -- but for this, it can be treated so that it doesnt get any worse, but it will always ben painful; so please excuse any photos of me if there are tears of pain in my eyes.

That said, we finished the 33 km in 4:00 even; starting the stage at 8am and finishing at exactly 12:00. It was perfect timing, because it was the exact time that Mikey B and Mike O were starting their Napa Valley Marathon.

Overall we finished around 33rd (plus or minus one or two places) out of approximately 160 competitors. There is still a very long way to go, and I do believe that if my stomach issues and ths damn blister doesnt kill me then we can easily move up in the rankings. Sanderson would probably normally be in the top 10 right now,  but unfortunately for his time he had to slow down for me. There are somme very competitive people here this year, and this is the biggest turnout -- almost double last years. That said, I still think we can move up considering my handicap today. But there are more things that can go wrong, so keep your fingers crossed that they dont.

Mike and I just read all the messages you all have sent to us. Theyre greatly appreciated. I wish I had time to thank all of you personally but computer time is limited. Keep them coming, and send good vibes our way!

Signing out,

SW

PS: Im typing this in a tiny tiny machine and apostrophes are just a pain in the ass. I have avoided even trying to use them.