Ok now we're good.

 

Right, well the good news is we're both home and hosed through the long stage (75km), pat in just under 13 hours and me in just under 16 hours... although I did stop after 40km to watch titanic. 1st 30km or so were handy enough just on jeep tracks, then they hit us with one of the toughest sections of the week on salt flats and sand dunes, it was like playing hopscotch for 2 hours in blinding white heat on the salt and topping it off with a massive sand dune. now i'm no good at guessing heights but i'd say this dune was at least 40,000m high. after that then another 35km to the end which got done without too much pranking and lots of recorded messages replayed over and over from the boys. a lightening schtorm was kicking off as we were walking the last 20km back to camp which meant we were stopped with 10km to go as where we had to walk through was where the lightening was so we had to wait, a right pain in the arse as everyone started seizing up from the cold - it was pitch black and around midnight for me. but we both did the business as promised! pat decided to erect a big lightening rod from his bag during the storm because he's a mad bastard.

 

So thats pretty much us done with the race, only a prank 10km tomorrow to the finish line which will SURELY be grand. we're heading off there now in a bit to pogo-stick around the salt flats, we cant foresee any possible consequences ahead of the morning.

 

We were just having a chat there this morning about the turning point in the week and both agreed it came during a conversation we had after stage 3, so we thought we'd share it with you all now as we finish. Pat basically told me that I'd been f***ed out over the desert like you'd f*** an auld loaf of bread, and that he didn't want to see "ANY WESTMEATH MAN F***ED OUT OVER THE DESERT AGAIN". I said to him that we'd need to be shteely tough to get through the week and I said I wanted to see him "crash into this desert and test out its f***ing pulse", which he agreed to do. Things got a bit heated when he told me that I "have to be closer, CLOSER TA F***", but I calmed things down when I told him I was "sausaged as bro", which made us both laugh as lets face it, the kiwi accent is ridiculous.

 

Going to relax this evening and play a few games of nibbles and discuss our line-crossing celebrations for tomorrow, we were thinking of stripping off our shirts, beating our chests with a stick and screaming but i think padrag has that move copyrighted.

 

This should be the last blog as come the finish around 3pm Irish time tomorrow, a bottle of beer will not leave our hands for a month, and you shouldn't have fluids near computers as its very dangerous. despite us being 2 very very bold boys, we're not THAT bold. thats richie o' connor territory.

 

See you all at home!

 

2 buachailli dona

Hello all! I'm back in action. Day 4 down, 160-odd km in the bag with the big one tomorrow!

 

Firstly, I better explain my absence yesterday. Unbelievably brutal stuff, 8 and a half hours in 30+ heat on sand, so it was pretty much 2 steps forward 1 step back all day! I was struggling by about the 15km mark for some reason and the rest of it was a complete suffer-fest, the last 5km were a series of massive sand-dunes! The main problem came with about 3km to go... I could hear the drums that greet each runner at the finish line so that normally means you're within 10mins or so of finishing. An hour and a half later I still wasn't finished (thecourse kept winding around past the camp and up massive dunes). As passionate pat said yesterday when I was at my lowest ebb I tripped into the water (sounds not too bad in the desert but it looked and smelt like septic water!) and got whipped by a branch simultaneously at the same time somehow, right on a bit of sunburn! you can all imagine the language used. Anyway I was sitting there well and truly defeated, being able to hear the finish line drums but in too much of a state to do anything. It reminded me at the time of the scene in the mountaineering movie touching the void where your man is crawling down the mountain and can hear water but cant get to it and its driving him mad! so that brought me back to advice from the one and only cathal lyons who said to watch that movie and use it as perspective when in trouble.. so that got me over the line thank you very much cathal you little divil. poorly managed hydration I blame... but a couple of jaffa cakes and I was grand. Shocking day though! Was listed as the toughest stage of the week so that makes it a bit better! Doesn't it? DOESN'T IT????

 

Secondly, to today. Well you've done it now salt flats, you're on my list of enemies.

 

HA! only joking! Look what I really think:

I REALLY REALLY LIKE THE SALT FLATS.

 

After yesterday's debacle I took in twice as much water/salts and was relatively grand, another 8 hours out in the sun but pretty easy all round, just cruised along. Same for pat too I think effort-wise, although I did get suspicious when I saw an event 4x4 driving by me at around 25km with a suspicious pat mistakialandosie bee bobby dazzler prendiville in the back sipping on a bottle of buckfast. He really is a bad priest.

 

Thirdly, tomorrow is the long day so sure while its got me this far I may aswell saunter along at my usual pace and just listen to padrags and osito's recorded advice to pick me up when needed! think its about 75km with the option of a few hours rest at the 50km mark, we'll just plug away! the last big hurdle anyway so it would take something ridiculous like being distracted by padrags arse and falling into a big hole not to finish. Hopefully!

 

Great comments one and all, fantastic schtuff.

 

Will do the business tomorrow, shaft hard or shaft home

so padrag prendiville is taking over blog duties for this evening after a punishing day on the track for all involved, 6-8 hours in horrific conditions

 

highlights = none

 

lowlights = everything

one particular lowlight was Con getting lost, trying to cross a river, his foot sinking way in whilst simultaneously getting whipped by a branch on his king of the mountain leg, throwing his water bottle in extreme anger only to watch it floating downstream with his number on it having to retrieve it or get a penalty

"Physically the hardest day of my life" Conor gavin 2012

Instead of being hooked up to an IV drip, Con's request was to be hooked up to an intravenous jaffa cake dispenser and now has a smile on his face like a chesire cat

 

 

We're over the hump now with only two big days to go

We will shaft on in the name of Combat81 and all mankind

 

sorry about the padrag reference cathriona

A quick question for The Don - why do you find padrag gavin's imitation of my accent so amusing?

well there's day 2 done.and by christ was it hard. bejaysus it was awful hard now. awful hard now altogether. jaysus hah? hah???

 

just a day of nightmarish terrain, really soft sand and some salt flats that you just sank into with every step and a few river crossings aswell to keep the feet nice and wet and make blisters a given! dying now altogether but hopefully some food and sleep will sort me for tomorrow!

 

it really was a day where you wished you were kissing and playing with the G-train without love, and that was agreed by both myself and pat. took me about 7 hours to finish the day, think pat came in at around 5 and a bit hours.

 

looks like this ankle could be a blessing in disguise as its keeping me moving slowly so saving a bit of energy for the next few days! i'll probably take it handy enough in the next few stages and moonwalk over the finish line an hour and a half behind the lad who pushes too hard and ends up on a drip and disqualified - happened someone yesterday! unfortunately we can't all be supreme athletes like pat "uhhhh i'm a big fit australian UHHHHHHHH acca dacca mate uhhhh" prendiville.

 

so a very tough day down, 3 tough ones to go! whenever i'm feeling bad i just think of other peoples' problems, like the way darren screeney sometimes gets anterior thigh pain when squatting due to an excessive anterior pelvic tilt, and then i realise i dont have it too bad.

 

cathriona i'm sorry this blog appears very padrag-biased, but in fairness he did fly over to meet us down by the oasis last night.

 

rich the fat arm syndrome made no appearance today however i did miss a few schpots with my suncream so i now look like i'm wearing the king of the mountains jersey from the tour de france.

 

orla will you send me over a take-away from al forno's cheers.

 

cathal we both love you very much.

 

 

i suppose the question on everyone's lips now is what does the don make of all this???

hello all and welcome to the first post-stage blog, still standing! thanks pad for your advice on externalising our pain so me and pat have decided to name our pain; i'm calling mine padrag in honour of the suggestion and pat is calling his darren screeney. That way when the pain comes on I can chat to pan pan about little trips into leicester square and pat can chat to the derriere extraordinaire about certain jewish customs.

 

anyway to stage 1, done and dusted! was a prank marathon at about 35km but its the highest altitude of the course so that made up for it! pat rag and jimmy went off running while I decided to walk as I thought I would look cooler if people thought I wasn't making an effort. Had a plan of walking the 1st 20km or so to ease into it and then jog home, got tempted to run a bit earlier than the 20km mark but I stuck to the plan as I thought brian canty and richie o' connor would be very disappointed in me if they thought I broke a tactical plan. Anyway it didn't matter as around 15km I was crossing terrain similar to the khumbu bogfall that was crossed with cathal lyons when I went right over on my ankle. So that meant walking the entire stage as padrag (my pain) showed up... at least I was able to say to him "hiiiiigh flynn you gomey go 'way before i bate the head off ya, you're not supposed to be here for another day or 2", so that made the rest of the stage manageable, strap it up and away we go tomorrow!

 

had a tough 10km section where we had to go through a canyon which was like walking through an oven, I was in it around midday. Heat coming from everywhere - left and right walls, the sky and the floor! the last time i was that boxed in was on the lodge dancefloor. Struggled through anyway, distraced by why my hand felt so fat... i thought maybe rory chesser could answer that?

 

so done anyway in about 5 hours all up, pat stayed true to his shaftlete status and caned it in about 3 and a half hours!

 

day 2 tomorrow, full marathon, shaft.

Well here we all are now in a grand little village in northern chile about to head off for a lovely little jog across the desert... Lovely. No hassle getting here yesterday so just spent the afternoon rendezvous-ing with the other 70 prendivilles running the race! Got our bags all packed and myself and pat rag and his brother jimmy went off for a little run, nearly got attacked by the local firm of dogs and the head, lungs and legs were all feeling it from the altitude and heat but otherwise sure it was only lovely. Just had the competitor briefing there this morning and getting our gear checked in a few minutes then it's onto the bus to head out 160km and up 3300m into the desert to camp out before starting tomorrow! Myself and dijonaissians bags are heavy enough after my decision to bring my collection of priceless faberge eggs and pat is bringing a couple of thousand postcards from buenos aires... Extra weight but worth it we feel. To be honest I'm having a hard time getting focused on the race as I know mam is currently doing up the kitchen at home so I'm anxious on how that's going. How do the new tiles look mam? Have you settled on a colour for the walls yet? Anyway must go, myself and pat rag have a Skype date with padraic minniter before we head.

Morning all! Take 2 at writing this 1st post of a few that will hopefully keep you entertained for the next week or so! Just at Santiago airport in Chile at the moment waiting for our flight upto the desert so thought now would be a good time to get the ball rolling on this.

So its been a good year or so since the prep for the race started and the reality of it all is just sinking in in the last few hours... we've had some big obstacles to overcome in the last year to get to this point - such as the perfect schtorm, the galway races, and trips back to perth and the Alley Pally, but fortunately we´ve been able to ensure that training never got in the way of our drinking. I've also been able to dodge going on a training run with pat over the year which is a massive plus.

We've had an eventful enough time getting to this point so far after leaving London - myselft and pat rag got different flights out of Heathrow to Buenos Aires and had to deal with a few obstacles along the way - I was contending with 1-2 hour delays in planes sitting on the runway in Amsterdam and Sao Paulo meaning in-airport sprints to catch connections (horrible stuff as I hate running and am outrageously unfit), being accidentally brought to a barrio neighborhood by my taxi in Buenos Aires, as well as having my check-in luggage lost and then missing half my race food (the stuff I couldn't bring as carry-on) when the bag finally did show up... customs pranksters. Pat also had to deal with delayed flights, and nearly canned the race to join a 15-strong Spanish salsa band on the way to Buenos Aires, but his moment of infamy came when the great man went walkabout through tiredness after reaching Buenos Aires and decided not to collect his check-in bag as it was probably being sent straight through to the Atacama for him... I´ve said it before and I'll say it again, he's a very bold boy. An early trip out to the airport yesterday got the bag returned and us more or less sorted for the final leg into Chile. We've been pretty decimated by customs along the way in terms of our race food, but I suppose thats what happens when you pack 50 kilos of cocaine and 9 live chickens as your race fuel. We also had a hairy moment when entering South America when we got hauled aside by customs police over pat's post-race speedos, they being deemed too outrageous for the continent. But its the mark of the man that he stuck to his convictions and the police finally backed down.

So finally to the race... we've had some good news and bad news so far. The good news is that its not as hot up there at the moment as it can be, aound 30 degrees which isn't so bad all things considered! The bad news is the the driest place on the earth has recorded unheard of amounts of rain over the last few weeks, but because the ground is so dry its like concrete so a lot of the water has just sat on top of it not being absorbed - a bit of a problem on the salt flats where it has dissolved them in parts leaving it a lot more uneven and some parts razor sharp - gonna be extra fun crossing 20-odd km of that come day 3 or 4!

I think thats everthing for the moment, flight leaves in an hour so better get a move on, will suss out the scenario up there and see if I can get another posting in before stage 1 hopefully!

Cheers all