YAHOOOO! Day 5 nailed. Born to Run Team 5, Desert nil. All that remains now is an 11km "sprint" tomorrow to San Pedro where beer and Pizza awaits. The Born to Run team had the toughest but most awesome day ever, coming home in a fantastic 22nd place in 10.34!! Our strategy paid off as we came back from 50th place at the 13km checkpoint 1, and kept motoring stronlgy from there.

Personally I was proud to have given 100%, and just collapsed in a mess at the end.My total water for the day was just over 14litres, without a loo break.

I got sick of sports drink so ran the last 17k on snakes, panadol and plain water.

Our simple strategy from the start was 700m run 100m fast walk , which kept our pace OK, but always gave us a walk to look forward to. We hauled in plenty of runners with this strategy..When we were tiring the strategy evolved into eventaually a 300m run, 200m fast walk so 2 of these for ech KM. The whole team was amazing. Matt was so strong in his first ultra, and Ron and myself worked really well together making constant forward progress.

The scenery was amazing, and you will see this on film. They put us up a giant sand dune at 36km, which Matt managed to run halfway up to the cheers of the team. I was lucky to crawl to the top, nearly on hands and knees.

Roger and Jess ran so strong the whole way, and continued to urge the team on. We all worked so well together. Amazing runners!

The highlight of  run, and in fact a highlight of my whole running career came in the last 15km. We spotted the leading German Team about 1km ahead, and decided we would try  and catch them and beat them. Ron and I went back to a 500/100 strategy and run fast. With about 11k to go we had nearly caught them.

We then rested and went past them before the final checkpoint. We put about 100m on them and then made a quick water stop, ready for the final 9.5km to home. We continued to run until we came to a massive hill.We walked but kept them in sight, After the hill and with about 6km to go they came from behind and surged past us. We all dug deep, and the race was on at close to the 70km mark. Matt urged me to run as hard as I could, I was exhausted but pushed on, we saw them start to walk but we kept running and put 100m on them, before a quick rest, then a fast downhill run, which left them in our dust. Their challenge was broken., and we continued on hard home for the last couple of KM, to be the first team home by 10 minutes. What an experience to have in a team with your son at your side.

We now lie in 32nd place overall, Ron is miles ahead in the over 60s, I am 2nd in over 50s, Jess is 3rd female (im sure she would be 1st if by herself).and Matt is 2nd under 30 (1st is 27 years old). And of course Rog is the only diabetic doing an amazing thing. Not a bad team effort!

Anyway, now at rest day, and body feels OK considering what I have put it through.

One carppy meal left , but will have to fossick for insects if I want a snack today.

Cant wait until finish. We are going to bring our cricket kit to China to releive the boredom of rest day, so we can teach all the various nationalitites how to play cricket.

Love again to all family and friends, love reading your blog replies. I think its safe to say at this point ... MISSION ACOMPLISHED.

Will blog after the end.

Hey all , back again and pleased to report Man 4 Desert Nil! Have been reading everyones blog replies, thanks all they keep me moving forward. Another hot sunny day in Atacama, amazing sunsets and sunrises ... you will  see it all on film. (I think James is having the time if his life).

After feeling pretty shattered after yesterday, I was surprisd to wake up and be able to get out of my sleeping bag without too many groans, and the day ahead looked bearable.

Highlight of today was the first 100 metres up the dune from the start. I had my 15 seconds of fame as I led the field on Day 4.(just like the fool who normally leads the city to surf for 200m in his superman suit). James has it on film. I was stufffed at the top of the dune, and the day got tougher for me from there. A very difficult 1st section, over some huge dunes before a 6km uphill rocky section.

Section 2 saw stomach problems strike, but unfortunatley there was no tree or rock within 5km in any direction across this huge desolate plain we were cossing. Im sure I would have made quite a sight sqautting down behind my backpack in the middle of nowhere. Luckily James was not around! After a second loo stop, stomach settled, but I ws feeling pretty poor. Had a quick break at checkpoint 2 and walked a while and started to feel better. Then staight into the salt flats , followed by huge mudflats where your shoes sunk with each step. A very long 14km section, but I dug deep,pushed hard, and we passed a few runners. The last section was only 3.3km and we employed a 400m run 100m walk strategy which worked well. We aimed up a tiring jJapanese runner, and came past him with a huge 150m sprint across the line. James has the footage!

The camp here has a swimming hole with cool water, and it was heaven to have a dip after the race. All that is missing is a cold beer.

Now resting up ready for the big one tomorrow. Our team goal is to try and get back to camp in the light, so 12 hours or so. It will be a long hard  day, but at least we are rewarded with a days rest afterwards. We will have to pace ourslves well to be able to do this.

Team is going well, all healthy. I have been running with Ron a lot .. he is amazing, puts Cliffy Young to shame, and he is now at least 4 hours ahead of any other 60 year old in the race., and holding things together well.

One long day to go, so not sure when my next blog will be , as I will probably just be collapsing in the tent at the end of tomorrow.

Love again to all family and friends. Ray, miss you like crazy. Laura and Steve too. See you all on the other side.

Phew, what a day, the hardest yet on a difficult course that required a fair amount of walking. Very glad to see the finish line which was at the top of a huge dune which was a bit of a struggle to get up.Our time reflects the course difficulty at 6.45. My shoulders are killing me from the backpack, need to get on top of this before the long day! Drinking lots of water, 10 litres yesterday without going to the loo, ... very difficult to keep hydrated and am always thirsty.Also taking salt caps every 45 minutes to hour to stop cramps... seems to be working at the moment.

Some course highlights were some huge dunes, a 5km uphill section on rocks that were more like razors, which would cut you to shreds if you tripped.

Team is going well, its usually Ron and me keeping each other company bringing up the rear.Matts going well, and encouraging me along. We stopped to fix some of his blisters at  checkpoint 1 today So nearly halfway there our total time is 16 hours. I think the long day will be what dictates how we go. Need to see how we pull up after tomorrow with 40km across the infamous salt flats, which are apparently lumpy and hard as coral. . Sounds like a fun day out?! We can then decide on our long day strategy, but in  reality it will just be somehting like .. keep moving forward .

Shoes will be pretty bad after tomorrow, just hope they can hang in there for the rest of the race.

James "hotknees" is getting some amazing footage and the film he will produce at the end should be awesome. Cant wait to see it to relive the week.

So day 3 score is now Man 3 Desert nil. Im sure desert will put up a big effort to beat us on the long day.

Love to all at home, and missing everyone. Not really looking forward to 2 days in Santiago dealing with lost passport, as I will just want to get home.

Bye until tomorrows blog.

Hi All

I am happy to report a sucessful day 2 for Team Born to Run. A longer day than yesterday, and we worked well keeping a consistent pace to improve on our day 1 placing coming in around 5 hours for 31st on the day. I urged the team to a 200m sprint finish as there were a couple of Canadians right behind trying to pick up 5 places by outrunning our team across the line. We did beat them though. Pretty well shattered with loss of salt I collapsed in the tent for a rest and recovery..

My heartrate was lower at around 140 today due to lower altitude of around 2600m, and I think I had a better drinking eating and electrolyte strategy, taking in around 6 litres for the race.... But still getting post race cramps. The course today was spectactular in parts, with a highlight being running down the biggest sand dune I have ever seen,... lots of fun!. Im sure you will see the photos. Now for rest, rehydration and recovery, before a 43 km day tomorrow.

So in the battle of man vs desert Im happy to report the current score is Man 2 ,Desert Nil,...... until tomorrow!

Love to all back at home. Will blog again tomorrow.

After all of the buildup and a restless night it was great to get going thismorning. As I was possibly going to be the slowest in our team I decided I would try and set the race pace by my heartrate. I decided to go for 135 to be able to sustain this over a long time. Unfortunately I soon realised that with a 13kg pack and 3200m altitude it would only produce a brisk walk. So I picked it up to 145 which produced a slow run before settling for 150 to get a reasonable pace happening. I then stuck on this.

The team worked well together, and today was a big learning experience for us all.     The terrain was varied and quite rocky in places, with undulating hills. By the time we got to a long uphill canyon section at 3hrs a 155 heart rate was only producing a walk! The team pushed on through the stunning scenery.

I was wearying a bit but when we got to the last checkpoint with only 3.5km to go mainly downhill the spirits lifted and we soon saw camp. A bit of a struggle on the home stretch through dehydration I think and we crossed the line in about 4.15 I think. We probably could have gone faster, but they dont hand out the medals after day1.It was equaly as hard as most marathons, with 3 more days of this before the long day.

I figured our team has 178 marathons ahead over the next 15 months, so we are now 4 down 174 to go.

Now in camp with very high winds threatening to blow our tents away. Matt gave me a good massage after a couple of post race cramps. Plan to have an early night and do it all again in the morning. A bit like Atacama groundhog day!

Love to family and friends at home, will  blog again tomorrow (If I make it!)..