I'm sitting in a lounge at Santiago airport waiting for the long flight home with a beer in hand having a chat with Bez who is waiting for her flight back to Oz (and still having to pop blisters).  So many emotions and so many thoughts on how the race went, the good and not so good, but overall there is a huge sense of achievement.  Whether you come 1st or 151st, the stuff you go through to get to the end of an RTP Desert race is hugely draining, both physically and emotionally. The reward however is enormous - pride in a accomplishment that few try.  Perhaps more people should.

So I came in 51st overall.  Not a disaster but 49th would have been better!  The final 10km was brutal as expected as I could not put any pressure on the balls of my feet. A huge thanks goes out to Simon Robertson, tent mate and overall desert racing guru, who stayed with me throughout the stage.  It was fantastic to cross the line together. On Simon's prompting I even managed to "jog" the last 5 steps to save face.

You do these races because you enjoy them and a large part of the enjoyment comes from the comraderie around the camp and within the tent at the end of each day. The Los Flamencos tent did not disappoint and the lads made the Atacama experience an absolute joy for most of the time.  To Simon, Ed, Blair, Graham, Tom, Angus, Mark a huge thank you for a great time.  I look forward to the next race with you guys.

I am still amazed at the support I received from all my friends and family who followed my progress.  I cannot stress how important it was to receive your e-mails and blog comments at the end of each day. We probably do these races purely for self indulgent purposes but it really matters to know people are paying attention.  The Hong Kong Cancer Fund will be very grateful for your very generous support as well.

So I am off home to recuperate for a week or so and then ramp things up for Gobi in June.  A few lessons have been learnt about footwear choices which I will take on board and now I am starting to relish the challenge. Amy will be volunteering so she will be able to tell me to my face to man up.

Phil

I am sitting in the cybertent on a beautiful desert morning in Chile waiting for the final 10k leg to start.  I finished the long march at about 9:45 last night and was pretty pleased with the time as it theoretically meant lots of rest before today's final push.  Unfortunatley it wasn't meant to be.  I crashed into my sleeping bag as soon as I got to camp but could not sleep as I felt ill most of the night and my muscles were cramping.
 
not much to report about the long march apart form the fact that it was long.  The first 14k was across more salt flats which pretty much destroyed what was left of the balls of my feet.  After that it was a matter of survival.  Thank heavens for hiking poles.  I couldn't keep up with Graham and Mike so did it solo from stage 3 onwards.  The organisers decided to do a staggered start so the leaders went off 2 hours after us mere mortals.  Ryan ran passed me at what looked like a solid 10k an hour pace looking fresh as a daisy.  We exchanged pleasantries but I doubt he remembers.
 
It got dark for the final 10km stage which was road and canyon.  The decent through the canyon was eerie as I was on my own and the rocks around me seemed to creek.  All I could think about was earthquakes and what would happen if boulders started raining down.  The mind plays strange tricks when exhaustion sets in.
 
Sad to hear Lawrie had dropped out ealry in the long march.  It was however an amazing effort from him which is truly inspiring.
 
Next anf final blog will be from the finish (hopefully).  My intention is just to stagger though the 10k.  would love to keep a top 50 finish but that might not be possible given the state of my feet.  Off to the medical tent for afinal patch up.
 
Phil

As expected another tough day at the office and then we got news of another earthquake when we arrived at camp. We do not have any other news about damage, etc but I can only hope things are not too bad for the people of Chile.
 
As for the race, I am very glad today is over.  I raced the whole way with Graham (HK guy in the tent) and Kiwi Mike.  They basically got me through the day. It started with a long climb over sand dunes and rapid decent into a canyon and knee deep water. Great the have shoes full of wet sand which set the tone for the day. After a mind numbing trek across aflat desert we had 14km on the salt flats - hard crusty hot horrible rubbish. The final stage was a flat 6km into the which never seemed to end.  The end result is the bottom of my feet are pretty beat up and this blog is going to be short as i need to go to the medical tent to get them seen to before the long march.
 
Spirits are still relatively high but I just want to get tomorrow over with now.
 
Good luck with your exam Katherine. I imagine in will be easy for you after all the studying.
 
Phil

Reality set in today.  I avoided going completely off the rails but only just.  Finished 42nd but hurt badly with dehydration and tender feet from carrying too much sand in my shoes.  Raidlight gaiters suck!
 
The frist two stages of the day were pretty flat and involved a load  of roads which is not to my advantage.  Came into checkpoint 2 in 65th place as all the "runners" had gone ahead early.  I pushed the effort to a high level for stage 3 which was over some really rough and unrunable terrain. By checkpoint 3 I was in 42nd place and feeling ok but feet were a bit sore. It turns out stage 4 is the toughest stage of the race and I suffered.  Long sand dune section followed by endless uphill sand/slate.  The final 4k was steep dunes including a sand dune climb to the camp. I did not manage my water and electrolytes well and paid the price.  Anyway I have a long afternoon/evening in camp to recover.
 
The camp is set atop a sand dune and looks somewhat romantice. Shame the the tent is full of 7 very filthy and foul smelling lads.  A few too many flies around for my liking.
 
Unfortunatley Mark J our tentmate had to retire this morning.  He suffered yesterday and could not recover overnight. I've been amazed to watch Jo Z who is winning the women's race.  She is racing on borrowed gear and with shoes she bought the day before the race started as her bag never arrived from the UK.  Also keeping and eye on Lawrie, the 78 year old fella from Wales.  Apparently he was asked what race he is doing next and he said he is just going to concentrate on marathons form now on.
 
On to the infamous salt flats tomorrow.
 
Phil
 
(p.s. - Tom Allen - Simon Robertson has been reading my e-mails and is not impressed with the slagging. Hewishes me topoint out that he flew ahead of me today.)

Wow.  A few too many F words along the way but Day 2 is Done!  Not a bad finish - 39th today.
 
Woke up feeling very nervous as we knew the first 10k was going to be though a lot of water and then we would have another 30k in wet shoes. In the end it turned out to be a pretty amazing day.  We were told the first 2 stages (20km) were probably the most beautiful 2 stages of any desert race that RTP hold.  We were not disappointed.  We started by descending into a canyon and running along the river for 10km.  Absolutely stunning views and huge fun.  The water was a bit cold but very refreshing on the feet.  We then had a big climb onto a ridge.  Think Middle Gap Road times 2 in 38 degree heat.  Thanks to the DragonBack Lunchtime Running Club I was well prepared and gained a few places.  At the top of the hill we walked through a cool old miners tunnel (dangerously large boulder in the middle which I just managed to avoid) and then a final ascent to the ridge with amazing views.  The descent off the ridge was via a 150m (or so) sand dune which was fantastic until we got to the bottom and realised how much sand had collected in the shoes.
 
That was the end of the fun for the day.  The next 20km were hell.  It started with a descent into the Valley of Death (glad to report I am still here) and then a relentless slog across soft (and sometimes packed) sand. I quickly lost my euphoria from the first two stages and then got on with it.  The last 10km march into camp really hurt as the legs were pretty much shot by then but everyone was in the same boat.  We passed by the "Last Tree In the Desert (it really is by the way) and fianlly made it to camp in 7:40.
 
Fingers crossed that I haven't overdone it the firt two days.  Back to the tent now for a rest and meal.  Will update again after stage 3.  Keep the e-mails coming.
 
Happy birthday for tomorrow Ma!!!
 
Phil
 

Day 1 done.  Had a pretty good day, no blisters, no chaffing and came in 47th.  Very happy with that and just hope I didn't over do it. Luckily I have a long rest now so should be aqble to get the lactic acid out of the legs.  It was a pretty impressive effort from the tent as a whole so everyone is in good spirits.
 
Last night turned out to be interesting.  I thought I was able to sleep anywhere but apparently not at altitude.  I managed to pop a sleeping pill and get 5 hours of sleep but was wide awake after that.  The temperature was not as low as we were warned it could be so I was pretty snug in the sleeping bag once I put my jacket on.  Had an early breakfast and was ready for the off at 8:15.  There was not too much drama on the race.  Had a peak at some cave paintings before checkpoint 1 as well as a pack of llamas (could have been Alpacas but I'm not sure what they look like). I managed to keep an even pace all day but really felt the altitude and searing heat.
 
The third stage of the day was by far the hardest as we had a one hour steady climb through a canyon - very hot as the sun was bouncing of the walls around us.  Once we got to the top of the hill it was a quick 3.5km downhill to the campsite.  Managed to down a recovery drink and thought I should blog early so I can go and crash for the rest of the day.
 
Thanks to all for the amazing e-mails.  They are a huge help.  Glad to see Chelsea are though to the semis.
 
5 More days to go but need to take it one day at a time.
 
Phil

Greetings from campsite one.  It is a beautiful evening in the desert here at 3,200m.  Checked into the race this morning which inclcuded a full pack search to make sure we had all the madatory equipment.  I was over the moon when the pack weight came out at 8.7kg - nearly three kilos less than my starting weight for Namibia.  Experience counts alot I guess.
 
We had a relatively short bus trip out to the campsite with no dramas followed by the race to get the best spot in the Los Flamencos tent.  I lost and am next to the front, likely to be the most drafty.  Snoring will be my revenge.
 
Looking forward to just getting on with the race now.  Hopefully a good nights sleep tonight despite the altitude and I'll be ready to go.
 
Keep the e-mails and contributions coming.  Both are hugely appreciated.  Anyone able to tell me how Chelsea did?
 
Go the Draggies.
 
Phil

I made it to San Pedro De Atacama last night after three very long but remarkably hassle-free flights.  Those of us flying out of Hong Kong to Aukland on Wednesday night were concerned that we would not get on the connecting flight to Santiago as we had heard there was a backlog of travellers trying to make the flight due to previous cancellations.  However after a tense hour or so waiting in the Qantas lounge we breathed a sigh of relief once the boarding passes were issued and then travelled on to Santiago with most of the racers who had been stuck in Aukland from the previous couple of days.  The organisation at Santiago airport was amazing given the stress the country has been going though. We cleared immigration and customs through a temporary tented village and then hiked across to the temporary domestic terminal in yet another tent.  What looked like it was going to be chaos turned out to be an efficient and pain free process to get boarding passes for our new flights to Calama.  The staff at the airport were incredible and extremely patient given the turmoil around them.  We had a bit of a wait for our flight in, you guessed it, another tent before the 90 minute hop to the north.  We had a little bit of drama in the form of an earthquake while waiting for our minibus to leave for San Pedro.  Apparently there was a 6.8 quake further north which shook up the bus a bit for a few seconds.

The net result is I arrived just about one hour late from my original schedule and I can only wonder how lucky I am.

The hotel is nice and comfortable which is just as well now we have two full days of rest here before checking into the race on Sunday morning and gettiing bussed to the first campsite on Sunday afternoon.  Went into town this morning to look around, have lunch and do the tourist things.  As expected the sun is hot here and the altitude magnifies it.  I am feeling dry all the time and therefore trying to drink as much water as possible, wishing it was wine.

Saturday will be spent going though gear for one last time and transfering all the pre-packaged food into ziploc bags (in the interest of saving a couple of hundred grams and a bit of space in the pack).  I clearly do not have enough to keep myself occupied.

Next blog will be after stage 1. Thanks again to all who have donated to the Hong Kong Cancer Fund so far.  It really helps knowing so many of you are supporting my effort.

I've had enough of the build-up and now just want to get on the plane and get to the race.  I realise I'll never be as prepared as I always intend to be when I first set out to train for a race, but this time around I am pretty happy.  At least I'm sure I'll show up at the starting line in Chile which was never the case with Namibia.  I have the gear I need and I am happy with my food choices this time around.  Still a bit concerned about getting through customs in New Zealand if we can't check our bags straight through from Hong Kong to Santiago, but I'll deal with that problem if it arises.

I look forward to catching up with some friends from Hong Kong and fellow competitors forom Namibia when I get to Calama and will blog some more interesting colour during the race.  In the meantime thanks to all those who have lent support to the Hong Kong Cancer Fund.  I hope I can convince a few more people how worthy the charity is as they need all the help they can get to provide their vital services to cancer sufferers in Hong Kong.