I spent my Day 6 rest day relaxing, lying around and stretching. The atmosphere around camp was much more relaxed and I spent lots of time getting to know other competitors better.

Into bed nice and early and had probably my best sleep of the race of 3-4 hours.

We woke up on the final day and there was laughter around the tent which was a nice change from the serious focus we

Thank goodness I got to rest before this blog.
~75km and (only?!?) 10hrs57mins.
Managed 9th again.
127 competitors are still in the race which is amazing.
I was in just before sundown – the last people had to make cutoff by 10am this morning – what troopers. Including the blind guy – phenomenal effort given the terrain.
Andrew and Michael and Adam all made it. Didn’t sleep a wink until 2am when Andrew got in – he (and we) were thrilled to see him.
Couldn’t face a 5th porridge/oats in a row for brekky so had half my dinner figuring I wouldn’t feel like much at the end of the day.
We skirted the lake they’ve run thru in past years due to algae research. So instead ran thru the muddy and more ‘frozen broccoli’. Got some reasonable running in until running thru the muddy patches. Short CP1 at about 4km and then pushed on a bit harder when I saw some of my usual running mates up ahead – Martin (Irish rugby player) was leading the charge and doing great pacing with Ruthann, Kat, James and Adam was there as well. It was packed sand road for a bit and then crusty salt again until CP2 after another 13km. Stage 3 was mainly jeep track so fairly hard but regular soft and patches – James setting the pace by now as Ruthann was not well and Martin slowed down with her. We were running four flags walking 2 flags. Fairly flat and boring scenery thru here (other than being surrounded by the Andes..!). Up to a pass at CP3 after almost 13km and still feeling quite good and running within myself. Next stage was very tough and spent it with James (we caught Steve from the UK but he was slowing down by now) and caught up to Cat a well. Rolling dunes, gullies and lots and lots of salt – tough running watching ankles on the crumbling salt that looked hard enough to land on. Then we saw a whopping big dune in front and James said there was someone half up it. I said it looked like a bush as it didn’t seem to be moving. Cat said ‘they can’t make us go up that – we’ll have to go around it somehow’. And then the bush slowly moved upwards…. And then we saw Emily (leading girl) with her poles starting the climb and Paul from Canada right behind her. So we gritted our teeth, tried not to look up and started the grind up while trying to keep the heart rate down a bit (and not go backwards!). It surprisingly took us about 10mins from the fringe of the dune and ‘only’ 6mins on the dune proper – it looked like the others had taken 30mins we were dreading it that much.
We cruised across the top (past the photographer) and then down an incredible sand dune that was more like a sand ridge that we hurtled down to CP4 after another 14km – must have been the way the wind blows in the valley to keep the sand piling up from the top – amazing (got a video but will likely be hopeless as I bounced along). Stage 5 was by far the hardest for me. Not technically - I had to dig really really deep from around 52km to the CP5 at 56km (overnight rest stop for some). Thank goodness I had James and Paul with me dragging me along. We caught up to Cat again and James and Cat finished together strong while I walked the last 1-2km in with Paul – bit over 13km. Took a gel at the CP to perk me up – drank a bucket load of water and poured a bit over me. Filled up my spare water bladder for the first time all week and after a few minutes of extra rest in the shade I walked off with Paul, carrying my spare bottle like a safety blanket. Knowing we only had about a half marathon left we trudged up the hill and quickly stopped talking to get our breath back. Paul told me to push on so as I felt better (gel kicking in I guess) I turned the corner of the big square and started running 3 flags and walking 2 and then felt good enough to run 4 flags. Pretty much to the final check point after another 9km. Put my safety blanket water bottle away and took another gel. Last stage 10km on a gravel road with about 4km uphill power walk (~340m of elevation). Ross had come out of nowhere and was powering up behind me with his walking sticks sounding like a praying mantis – kept me pushing ahead. Then we were at the valley of the Moon – famous landmark around here and very otherworldly – sun was starting to get low so it was cooling down (apparently it hit 42 degrees today) and looked a bit eerie. Then took off down the hill as I figured I didn’t need to leave anything in the tank. Ran quite well all the rest of the way home and came in 9th – 3 minutes behind Emily, Cat and James.
I was thrilled to bits to finish what is definitely the best and probably hardest run of my life. Group hugs and congratulations all around.
Then the wait for my other mates to come home – our tent gradually filled up until Andrew completed it at 2am. Hadn’t slept and was much impressed to hear that he’d already slept for 2 hours at CP5 ! He and we were thrilled and yacked for ages.
The stars were the brightest and most spectacular of the whole week as the moon wasn’t up to blank them out – we’re normally in bed early so this ‘late night’ was special. The moon then rose behind the volacano to top it all off. Forgot to mention that we saw a total eclipse of the moon on Day 4 as we were eating breakfast – unbelievable.
Not a lot of sleep but feeling OK this morning.
Just got cumulative results and I’m in 11th overall which is great and beyond what I thought I was capable of amongst these competitors. I’ve never heard of the altitude tents, breathing inhibitors, heat chambers that a lot of them have trained with.
We’re all over the moon to get this far with only a small stage tomorrow – it’s still part of the race so we’ll be taking it semi seriously.
Finally – thanks everyone for the wonderful messages – I can’t name you all as the line up for the tent is long but your thoughts and wishes are inspirational. Can’t wait to see everyone very soon and missing you all especially my special 3 girls.
Love and cheers
Darren

Again thanks so much for the emails and blog comments

Firstly thanks so much for all the messages from family (got your

Firstly thanks so much to all the bloggers

From a frosty night unsurprisingly it was a frosty start. Only 2 hours sleep again

We've had our race briefing and gear check which all went quite smoothly. Food was checked carefully as was all mandatory equipment. We got our race bibs and timing chip, signed waivers and got quizzed about our nutrition plan (particularly electrolytes) and medical history. Official weigh in of our packs was all over the place - mine apparently 10.75kg without water (more like 9.5kg max I reckon) and Andrew's was 7 something which is impossible given we've got virtually the same gear and food.... We were given the stages: 1. 36.2km "Navigation by rock" 2. 44.8km "The Slot Canyons" - apparently 8km in a river canyon including 500m walking in the river. 3. 40.6km "The Atacamenos Trail" 4. 44.2km "The Infamous Salt Flats" 5. 77.8km "The Long March" .... OUCH!! 6. 6.4km "Final Footsteps to San Pedro" Met a few more people - there are lots of very fit looking folk here. Now for a quick rest, lunch and then a 1 & 3/4 hour bus to the first camp. Here we go !! Cheers Darren

We arrived after 28 hours of travel from Brisbane to Auckland to Santiago to Calama (with a quick stop in Antofagasta due to a sandstorm in Calama) then a bus to San Pedro de Atacama. Checked in to quite a nice hotel around midnight called Altiplanico in a very cosy triple room. Not heaps of sleep but we're here. Had a quick walk around town this morning which is very traditional with some great architecture. It's very dusty as you'd expect in the desert! Not a lot to see or do - gave the trekking and mountain biking that's on offer everywhere a skip given what lies ahead this week.... Carbo loading today and had a 30min jog around town to stretch the legs a bit. Run felt fine - hopefully the slight heaviness in the throat was just dust and not alititue as we're already at about 2400m. Then transferred all my freeze dried meals into smaller zip lock bags to save space and weight in my race pack. Disgarded the deoderant so now the only non mandatory (aka "luxury") items left are toothpaste and toothbrush (with the handle cut off) and a small camera. Heading out to dinner and then will try for a nice long sleep as it will be the last one in a bed for week. We have our race briefing at a nearby hotel at 9am tomorrow moring and then our gear check at 10am. Then we get bussed up to the first camp at the start line at about 2.30pm. Cheers Darren

The event has finally arrived!

It's been pretty much a year of training, physio, gear purchases, physio, warm up races, massage, alternate gear purchases, trial freeze dried food, overnighter, etc etc.

Thanks to the family and friends who have endured this journey!

We fly out tomorrow with very full race packs and not much else.

Quite excited now and looking forward to getting started.

Next blog will likely be during the event.

Cheers
Darren

Thought I'd better get my blog up and 'running' - excuse the pun.
It's less than 3 weeks until we start this adventure.
I'm now in taper mode after months and months of training.
The race pack is pretty much ready to go - just a couple of last minute food decisions to make.
Looking forward to hitting the desert and meeting fellow competitors.
Cheers
Darren