It was very much a race of 2 halves, ‘strong’ and ‘broken’ !

The race start was fantastic. We headed straight out in to the shallow, clear water of the salt lake that we had camped next too. It was a beautiful experience. Very special and magical to canter ( full energy ) through the salty waters. Some were a little worried about the effects of the salt water on their blisters – stinging and soaking the bandages – but for me it was an ideal start to the day and the photos capture it perfectly.

We then headed across about 15km of dreaded salt flats…. The lead pack took this difficult terrain and a steady hike / march pace , which was great as it meant another 15km nailed without using the energy resources or over heating. It was very social running 5 days into the event, with plenty of chat.

Then rolling dunes and flats all leading to a giant climb up a huge sand dune, onto the plateau. I was still going strong at the top as we then descended through incredible Martian type scenery , unlike anything I have seen before. Great photos again.

We then hit “the valley of motivational death’ ! A scorching 15km monotonous plod through hell… I almost instantly bombed here ! and the dynamics of the long march changed for me. I pushed on as long and hard as I could with a mix of walking and shuffling but struggled massively in the heat. I was overtaken by a few runners and tried to keep up but got nauseous and could no longer stomach my energy drink or electrolytes. When my pee turned to a painful, dark brown sludge I knew it was time to REALLY slow down and drink as much as possible…

The rest of the day, about another 5 hours, was tough going mentally as the competitive side of me knew I was losing hard gained places, yet I knew I needed to take it easy on the body and let it rebalance. The scenery in the last 10km was incredible, ’the valley of the moon’ and a impressive tourist spot so I got to appreciate this before the final relief of arriving at the finish. Yey !

8^th on the day, taking 10hr 20mins of battling it out.

Today is a rest day as some of the runners will take 24 hours to cover the same distance and then it’s a short 15km race to the finish line in San Pedro and food , juicy fresh, juicy food !! Can’t wait !! Now down to just below 80kg, so really ready for a huge juicy ( did I mention Juicy already ) feed, as I have been fantasizing about food for some time now.

The terrain was loosely described by the race officials as “crud” and that was pretty accurate ! An ankle challenging concoction of salt flats, undergrowth, roots, rocks and of course energy sapping sand. But, it was fairly flat ( the 1^st 30km anyway ) and this made it fast. We managed to cover far more distance before 10.30am, when all of a sudden the wind vanishes and the temp sores to the menacing 40’s.

The last 10k was by far the toughest, the most physically varied and demanding, plodding onwards through the midday sun and therefore took the longest. Once more it was a real mental challenge to keep the body moving as fast as possible ( which does include walking in the extreme conditions ... ) for as long as possible, ideally not conceding any places, to the hungry “hunters” pursuing, and hopefully slowly closing the distance on the “targets” bounding along in the distance…. It really is a case of pushing yourself to your mental limits.

The scenery on this last section was also the most beautiful, which was some consolation, although admittedly most of the time I was looking at the dirt 2m in front of me and solely focusing on keeping my legs moving onwards, step by step. We past impressive canyons, descended into a couple, had to climb the steep sandy sides to get out, torture on the body, followed impressive rocky ridges and even bounded down a pretty green ( apparently “good for the Welshies”) valley, for a couple of km.

It was a battle to the finish and I came in 5^th, circa 1 min behind 4^th ( Zandy ) and 1 min ahead of 6^th ( Andrea ( Italian chap )). I was pleased with myself and also very relieved to have finished another stage and be able to relax.

I’ve got my first nasty blisters, already spliced and diced…

I weighed in at 82k today verses 86kg at the start. Technically a drop of 4kg in 3 days as I ravenously guzzled 2 litres of water straight after weigh-in to rehydrate. I’m still 20kg heavier than the race leaders… a lot to carry uphill and also I am sure means that I sink into the sand / salt flats more…. ( that’s what I keep telling myself anyway )

I also managed much better with the thin, high altitude air today, and am hoping that am body is adapting a little, and we have descended a touch too.

Tomorrow’s course is supposed to be similar to today, and then it’s the big monster day, which I have to say I’m dreading !

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It’s exciting ! I head off, on route to Atacama, this afternoon, and I just wanted to say another enormous thank you for your sponsorship supporting spinal research.

As you'll see the fundraising has gone fantastically and I've raised about £3000 so far. This will be a huge motivational factor for me as I am going through what I know will be hell in the desert ! Bizarrely, it is far more of a mental challenge than a physical one and this sponsorship, combined with reflecting on how lucky I have been, really will make a big difference.

I've trained pretty intensely and feel as ready as I can be. I'm actually really looking forward to getting started, basically because I've done so much solo running I am completely bored of my own company. I'm craving a little race adrenaline to !

I've got plenty of miles bagged and tagged, which have been compressed into a short period of time. So far the old injuries and niggles are holding out well ( fingers crossed ). My pack weighs in at 7kg, plus 1.5kg of water, so it's a touch less than expected. I've been very fortunate to clock up a few miles of desert running in ( including around one of the seven wonders of the world ), so now it's just tackling the altitude and temperature.

I'm really looking forwards to getting to the location, which looks beautiful and starting to interact with the other competitors. One of the biggest parts of this race is the opportunity to get to know the other people that are equally as mad ! and also their reasons for racing.

Not an excuse, but I am adopting the approach that it's more important to get a reasonable amount of photos ( obviously whilst running ) of this one-off experience than to win ! I am still ambitiously aiming the top 10 though, despite having now seen the surprisingly high calibre of some of the other competitors….