Hi all,
 
Just finished reading all your messages of support – thanks very much it was exactly what I needed after a very long day. Well in Gobi I had a great long stage covering the 78km in about 12 hours – well I said this was harder than Gobi and I have just completed the 73km in 25hrs and 51 minutes. Having started yesterday morning and basically shuffled and limped continuously through so as to make each checkpoint cut off -  stopping at Checkpoint 5 (52Km) for something to eat and a 45 minute sleep – had to be gone from there by 2am as I still has 20km to cover and I was doing about 2km an hour – needed to be done by 12noon to get a completion – it was just before 10when I finally crossed the line.
 
It was the hardest physical thing I have done – full stop. Running the long stage in Gobi was hard but knowing from the night before that there was no way I could run it due to the condition of my feet and knees – just knew mentally it was going to take a long time and keep walking for 24 hours and I would finish. But there were many moments, right from when I tried to squeeze my shoes on and brought tears to my eyes, that I doubted I would make it through. Just needed to think about the next checkpoint at that stage.
 
Had cut my orthotics to fit in my shoes on the Wednesday – now they had to be completely removed –I found out at about the 30km mark I have orthotics for a reason!!! So shoes were on and they killed for about 10 minutes until they go a little numb but I think the pharmaceuticals mixed with breakfast had started to take effect.
 
The first stage was across the salt lake and plains - complete hell and rated “extremely difficult” took me 3.5 hours to complete – frustratingly long and this stuff is like coral above the ground and so hard to walk over. By the end of this stage I knew it was going to be really tough.
 
Each stage had its own challenges whether it be sand, rock flats, endless roads, or salt flats and each one was taking me 3-4 hours up to Stage 3. Stage 3 to 4 was really hard and it was coming up on dusk and was faced with a massive sand dune to climb – get across the top and down the other side of the dune to the checkpoint – this took an hour to complete and covered about 600m – as going down just kills my knees and my feet.
 
Then it got dark and nights here are cold – this was checkpoint 4 – which was the 40km mark and I think it was 8pm so had been going for 12 hours and was starting to hate every moment. Thinking to myself – I am done with this desert stuff- next sport must have wheels, why am I eating re-hydrated food, why am I not sleeping in a bed –I am sure questions you all ask as to why I do this – but this time I was really in a bad spot with 32km to go and hating my world – but not much you can do then just keep walking – pulling out really isn’t an option. This stage was hard because it was pitch black and I was on my own and never had walked at night by a headlamp, plus I was getting really tired and the pain in my knees and feet were breaking through all the pain killers and I had new blisters now on the soles of my feet. The next 11km were more zombie than good management – there was a lot of flat and road in this section and I found myself waking up just walking – didn’t know whether I was dreaming or hallucinating but keep my eyes open was so hard and the pain killers make you drowsy.
 
Make it to CP5 and had some food and a nap and then up to get the last 20km done. CP5-CP6 was basically 11km of desert road- soft sand boring and hard to concentrate and heaps of competitors who had slept longer passing me and offering words of encouragement as I shuffled stumbled and scraped along. On this stage I was kept company by a black cocker spaniel who would walk with me for a bit, then run ahead and sit and whine until I caught up – Those who know me know that I am not an animal person but I did have some fondness for him by the end of the stage – unfortunately he found a faster runner and burnt the slow hack!!!
 
Checkpoint 6 was the last CP and I got there by 5.30am and it was a 9.7km stage up-hill and through dunes – it was killer on 1 hours sleep and no pain killers left – it was barely a shuffle. One bonus was that I was in the dunes when the sun rose and it was spectacular – got some great pictures. Got home in just under 4.5 hours for this section and anyone reading this would have walked it easily 2.5hrs. It was great to see all the guys from tent come out and walk in with me for the last few hundred metres – had some good laughs and they also had great days yesterday. Our tent has been a highlight for me with such great people – hi and thanks for the messages from their families as well – appreciate it heaps.
 
Sean came in 27th which is huge for his first race – Darren from Canada actually won the stage by 15 minutes. Blain (20) and Cam (21) had great stages as well and Christine (19) is now 3rd overall in the girls. Sophie continues to hold 30th spot and we debate whose feet are worse – given hers are infected – she wins!!!
 
Anyway the day is now done –probably 24hrs I would never like to repeat. I am tired, sore and frustrated with respect to the race and how hard it had been -but have really enjoyed the comradeship the generates within these events and still managing some laughs – it is now 2 hours past finish time and I need to go sleep if I can – problem being we are in the middle of the desert and it is 35 plus in canvas tents _ what am I doing here???.
 
Again thanks to all for supporting the fundraising for RCH CFRT and Very Special Kids and the funds raised have now exceeded 25k. Again tanks for all your messages – they certainly make a good read and lift at the end of the day.
 
Hi girls – how you doing – daddy had a hard day today but the race is nearly over with only a 16km section tomorrow and then hopefully I will get another medal like the Gobi one. One each now. I will be home Tuesday and looking forward to seeing you guys –miss you heaps but thinking about you. I didn’t get my blister answer – or maybe your email hasn’t come through yet.
 
I will try and update my blog after the race finishes tomorrow but it does get quite hectic – will get a message through to let you all know if I complete the final stage – after today it should be ok!!!!
 
Cheers
db

Hi Girls (Doni & Milly), and everyone else
 
Thought todays blog I can tell you about daddy's day as in my last couple of blogs you were at the end - so everyone can follow along with what I tell you both this time. Today was a very long day and daddy took 1 minute over 11 hours to complete today. So that is like when you get up on Saturday morning at 8am - have brekkie, go to dance, then come home and relax or go to a party or watch a movie then hve some dinner and then have a shower at 7pm - that is how long daddy was walking for today in the desert. It was really hot and if you google the weather tomorrow it will probably be the same tomorrow - mid 30's. I didnt win today came in around the 70's I think but it doesn't matter where you come as long as you keep trying.
 
I thought about the way you swam your 1km time trial Doni and it was 40 laps and this was 40km - your arms were tired and your chest hurt from your asthma but you didnt give up so I thought about that today. Milly you know your sparkly dance shoes that were too tight and hurt your toes well my shoes are like that now but even worse.
 
Now for some Mighty Mentals Maths for your homework - daddy still bearly has 10 toes but every toe has at least 2 blisters and I have 2 blisters on each heel - how many blisters do I have? Put the answer in your next email. Daddys knees are also the size of watermelons now and I have a thing called bursitis of the knee in both knees and it hurts to walk down hill - at one point I had to walk backwards down a hill to stop the pain.
 
The first stage was really hard over sand dunes and it took me nearly 2.5 hours to cover the the 9.6km - my feet are really sore and swollen and I had to cut my orthotics up to fit my toes in the shoes. I couldnt keep up with my friends Matt and Sean and then did most the the next 30km on my own - was wishing i could have borrowed your ipod Doni but I was singing some songs in my head anyway for a little bit.
 
The third stage was really really hard _ it was the salt flats and imagine the worse place you can think of and this place is worse. Milly there are no animals out there that I saw but I think there would be lizards at night. This stage was 14km and it took me 3hrs to cover it - which is not going very fast at all but i just had to put one foot in front of the other and hope to get to the end.
 
My feet are covered in blisters, my knees are finished and know it is just "mind over matter" for tomorrow. Ask mummy what that means.
 
Also girls you know how sometimes you give money to charities instead of birthday presents well daddy is raising money for 2 charities and he is really grateful for all the support from friends and colleagues who have helped get the money raised to date to over 22k - thanks to everyone.
 
Well girls hope this gives you a good update on my day and you have a had a good day at school - I think I would have liked to be back at school today!!!
 
To everyone else thanks heaps for the messages of support they really do lift my spirits and make me laugh at the end of a long day. Well tomorrow is the long day and is 78km and going on today it will take me about 24 hours - it will just be a grind and hopefully everything hold up with the assistance of some pharmaceuticals!!! no specials this time - all legit but not in the same league.
 
Anyway until tomorrow - I will no give up.
 
db

Hi all,
 
Just fininshed day 3 and I know I say this each time but this stage was the worse ever. If I had of done this stage in the Gobi I would never have come back!!!! Today took 8hrs 16mins and it was the hardest physical thing I have ever done - it was excrutiating every step of the way and even though my shoes are 2 sizes too big my feet feel like footballs in ballet shoes - my toes are smashed into the front evey step and I know have blisters on blisters and worse than Gobi by a mile. Managed to come in low 50's and was better than Gobi day 3 where I was second last.
 
Every stage was just a grind and it was real desert - just baked rock, baked mud flats and sand dune after sand dune. Every step had to be watched or you would do an ankle in stage 1 it was difficult stage but managed to hang in with Matt and Sean - knew if I dropped of the back it would blow out to a 12 hour day. Both my knees are now hurting on every step now as well.
 
Hard to even explain each stage suffice to say I was just hot and hard. Managed to stay with Matt and Sean until about 5km from the end of the stage - there was a 100m sand dune to descend and as opposed to yesterday where it was fun and spectacular this decend basically crippled me and I had to limp home the final kms. The last stage was 11km and it took me just under 3hrs to complete. The boys did great and finished under 8 hours I think. The others in our tent are still going very strong and I think Darren from Canada came in 3rd or 4th today and Sophie is in second place for the girls and is having a great race with Cameron from NZ. Blain still going strong and probably still in the top 20. Birch last home and pulling down the tent average.
 
The scenery again was unbelieveable but had to constantly remind myself to look up and see what it was like and appreciate the place I am in and take some photos. The risk of tripping or stubbing your toes was constant.
 
I am feeling pretty bad at the moment - dehydrated from the 40 degree heat, feet are in worse condition then ever before and there is still over 130km to go. Will have to spend couple hours on foot repair tonight and try and massage my knees which are like watermelons. Then sleep which I forgot to mention it is freezing here at nights as cold as 5-6 degrees and always shivering.
 
Having said all that I will back up again tomorrow which is supposed to be just as hard across the infamous salt flats which are pretty hard by all accounts.
 
Thanks to everyone for their emails and blogs great to read them when I get in.
 
Hi again to Doni and Milly - thanks for your emails they make me smile at the end of a long hard day. Hope you are having a good week at school and I will see you in a week now. Miss you heaps and will see you soon.
 
Cheers
 
Darren

Hi all,
 
Jeeeez, I thought yesterday was hard, today was a killer – took us 7hr 45mins to cover the 42km – it is now 6pm here and there are still  over 30 people out on course and 10 people have pulled out today.
 
Has taken me a while to recover since the finishing today – really affected by the heat and the terrain. Spent the entire day with Matt and Sean today and picked up Blain at about the 22km mark. We walked all day because the terrain was so hard – well I walked and shuffled all day to keep up with them. Having said that we came in 37,38,39 today and picked up 4 or 5 spots on yesterday.
 
Every muscle in my legs are aching and my patella tendon in my left knee is screaming every step. The first stage was rated difficult and it had 8-10 water crossings from snow melt – freezing water and feet went numb – it was up hill and through canyons and took us 2hrs to cover the 10km – we were in about 60th place. Feet wet = blisters!!! Yesterday I had 3 today both feet have been shredded and are probably worse now for day 2 then in Gobi. Going to be a tough 170km and tonight I will have to do some toe drilling and strapping – glad I brought so much tape. Will probably lose 3-4 toenails at this point.
 
Stage 2 has now become the toughest I have done in these races but the scenery was spectacular to match the difficulty. The climbing in this stage was really hard but it was rewarded by the descent of a 200m sand dune. This was one of the best things I have ever seen or done in my life – the pictures I have of this are unbelievable. Imagine after an endless climb and then traversing a ridge which is dangerously high and the flags we follow stop….we look for the flag and it is over the end of the ridge onto the dune descent. I could not stop smiling as I descended and made my day. But then we got to the bottom and it was still dune and another few kms to the checkpoint – as some of you would know I hate sand walking!!!
 
That was checkpoint 2 and we had chewed some other competitors up on this stage and were in the high 40’s. The next 22km were just a grind – hard slog one foot in front of another knowing each step was making the existing blisters worse and new ones appear – wet socks and sand are not a great combo.
 
Keep pace with Matt and Sean was taking plenty of effort and by checkpoint 3 we were in the low 40’s but I was feeling really bad and struggling – time to medicate. Had to get a couple of painkillers and anti inflammatories into me to dull the pain in my feet. The final 10km were just a grind and it took us close to 2hrs to complete the stage.
 
Got into camp feeling ok but had a bad few hours once I laid down with chills and sweats and nausea. Slept my way through it and now ok.
 
At the time of writing this RTP had some technical difficulties and couldn’t get the blog comments from the satellite but looking forward to reading them very much.
 
Hi Doni and Milly thanks for the email – miss you heaps and love you – yes I will do my best but I don’t think I will come first – according to the results just posted I am in 43rd place overall. Any way girls thinking of you heaps and love you lots.
 
Anyway another day tomorrow and it will be a long, long day tomorrow being 40km and not looking forward to the blisters banging in the shoes.
 
Hopefully the blogs come in later tonight as I look forward to reading them so much. Thanks in anticipation and I hope you enjoyed the first installment.
 
Cheers
 
db

Hi all,
 
Blog number 1 for the week having just finished Stage 1 about 2 hours ago.
 
Thanks very much to everyone who has sent through well wishes and continue to donate – we have well passed the 20k target so thanks to everyone who has jumped on so far.
 
All went well getting to San Pedro about 27 hours door to door – thanks mainly to the Rammas and Sam. San Pedro is a great little town – all tourism - but for the first 48 hours you have a splitting headache from the altitude – it is at about 2500 metres, did have a couple of Coronas on arrival with some guys I did Gobi with – but I am claiming altitude as the headache origin!!!
 
Race check in was Saturday and somehow my pack weighed 11kgs and I felt it today – will be tossing something out tonight – maybe the 3 pairs of jocks I packed which I have copped it from everyone in the tent – who have packed NONE! Not sure I can bring myself to dump them all but my shoulders where screaming at the 30km mark – 2 are gone – hahahaha. You might be thinking that won’t help much but there is a saying here “nothing weights nothing” – I will have a serious look at everything else as well.
 
Well day 1 was just over 35km and it was pretty hot toward the end up in the high 30s I would say. I started well and hit the first checkpoint in 1hr 20m for just over 10k and it was pretty up and down and very much like Gobi – rock rock, rock and more rock and the hills were savage in place makes Anderson St at the TAN look downhill – killer on the quads going down and the toes smashing into the front of the shoes – but all good there for the moment.
 
Hit the second checkpoint at 21km in 3hrs and I thought I was taking it easy until I got through the checkpoint about a km and basically just stopped to a walk – oh dear I hate walking and it was still about 15km home and it was basically all uphill over rocks and then a road that went up and up and up. Passed a lovely old lady on the side of the road and thought she was being hepful said it was 1km to the checkpoint – it ended up being about 3km mmmm not that happy with the lady as you can imagine!!
 
Hit the wall just before the checkpoint and was all over the shop when Matt and Sean came up behind and got me to the checkpoint. Altitude was really hurting me and my lungs felt like tennis balls and everything was hurting – pain in your lungs burns on every breath. But got to checkpoint had a little sit down – dizzy nausea and a few stars floating around – mmm might have been going a little harder in the first 20km then I thought – that stage was the hardest I have done to date even harder than Gobi day 3.
 
Did the last 3.5km with the boys who helped me along – they are both well over 6ft and my 2 foot legs walk about 10 paces and then have to do a little jog to keep up with them power walking but I wasn’t going to drop off it would have been twice as long to do the last bit.
 
Got across the line in 5hrs 45mins and then proceeded to just have a little lie down – got to tent and everyone was fantastic and helped out heaps and now feel alright again and up for tomorrow. Everyone in the tent is unbelievably supportive and it is a lot of fun – there a few of us from Gobi – Blain who came in 17th, his mate Darren who is a physician and currently 8th, Cam from NZ is in 10th, Sophie who is number two girl by a few seconds and 14th overall – she is a freak, Matt, Sean, and myself in 44, 45, 46 I think and Caroline who I think is 50th – so the tent is reasonably fast.
 
Now to the feet and shoes – shoes are great no issues and plenty of room and I have the beginnings of 2 blisters which will probably blow up tomorrow – but so much better than Gobi – fingers crossed they stay away for a couple more days.
 
The scenery is spectacular and the desert is combination of rock trails, hard baked dirt plains, sand dunes and river beds thousands of years old which is framed by the snow-capped Andes – it is hot and dry but truly spectacular.
 
Anyway have to know go and try and continue to re-hydrate - I am a little on the dehydrated side and need to get some more fluids in and some pain killers. Legs are tired and sore and calf and Achilles will need some attention tonight.
 
Hi Doni and Milly was thinking about you a lot today as I was thinking that I just have to keep going – same as I tell you both just have to have a go and do your best and it will be ok. The rest of the time I was doing some cursing as some could imagine and questioning WHY and sometimes it was just good to try and think about nothing and just put one foot in front of the other – thank god I did some walking this time…..
 
Anyway another day tomorrow and it is 42km and the same stuff.
 
Talk to all tomorrow
 
Cheers
 
db

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