Hello all,

Day 4 finished, a bit under 10 hours and some stages with 45 degrees heat. thank you so much for all your mails, very special every one of them. This blog will unfortunately be a bit short as I have to get re-fueled and then taken care of at the medical tent again. Sorry for that. Today started heavily and I had to get my ankle taped at 10km, recovery from the trampoline accident was not enough and I was limping the whole day. Doctors said it will not get any better so my options are to quit or limp another 18 hours today and fight through it

Sleeping time, got some medicaments from the doctors and feeling much better. Our tent has two of the top3 fastest runners in the race and their support is amazing

hi all, the spaguetti bolognese was not that bad yesterday so i take that comment back. just arrived from day 3 with 9 hours and 15 minutes. we started with a salt lake 5km that resembles coral reef, my orthopedist would have killed me if he saw what the ankle was going through. did the first 5k with a guy from virgin islands, then some solo and later joining a lady from new zealand until 18km. then we learnt why today was the toughest day of the race, for the remaining 21k it was a mix of coral reef, clay that sucks in your foot and pure sand dynes. it took me and a finnish lady,danish and english guy over 3 hours to finish the last 10km with the sand and rocks...yesterday was not funny with the nose bleed, today that issue was gone. however, today was a push beyond limits and a new life experience. we humans are so much stronger than we think, mind overrules the body when needed. yes, 125km done already!!! current damage report is a very sore back, 2 blisters, 1 cut in toe and an ankle that hurts but is good to go forward. but looking at the medical tent, i am in great shape so nothing to worry about. on the very positive side, i think i have lost 5kgs of office fat already, most of it from the face.today was not as emotional as yesterday, it was just time to look to the other side, where i have not been before with mental endurance. oh yes, the people here are amazing, staff and competitors. definitely all people who push it, enjoy life and say hi to the other side. feeling priviledged to be here, really.

ok, time to rest, would kill for a burger king double whopper and a diet coke. but deep-frozen it is. lend 5 sheets of toilet paper to an italian guy, he promised to give it back to me. is that back to basics or what? this is what makes this experience special.

Love you all, Ili, Mercedes, Fabiana, Regina...in one week we are already together giving bear hugs to each other...and then tons of time together...just how it should be.

lassi

Thank you Ili and Thorsten for your messages, you have no idea what they mean here after a 10 hour day in the desert.

Difficult, but not impossible...last night was a warm night and I was so happy to realize at 2am that I was able to get up from the tent and go to the toilet. That meant that my legs were ok for the morning. I was standing outside doing my thing and watching for an amazing moon and about a million stars. In the morning we started for a 45km stretch and the terrain was very challenging. I tried to place myself at the middle pack as I felt great, and started crossing the ice cold small rivers. But after 5km I started to get a heavy nose bleed, something that lasted for 4 hours. The medic team took a fantastic care of me through the whole day, stuffing my nose with things every 10km. It worked until the end which was at 10 hours after the start. The bleeding started again 30 minutes ago so I am stuffed with nose plugs again. But nothing to worry. The rest was tough but so meaningful today. I got the whole package that I came here for. Tears of I do not know what, laughter, dreams, frustration, pain, hope, motivation, inner strength...it is really hard to describe it. But the toughest day of my life as I am traveling with 105kg package and it hits you hard after 20km. But Micke got it harder, he just came to the tent and showed me his blisters. More blister than foot actually, so make sure you read his blog...he is a fighter.

Missing Family in Poland and Finland gives outbursts of tears, happy ones though that give me tremendeous power. Thank you so much for everything. Love you girls, love you Ili. Mom, it is all good here, you know me, there are a lot of crazy people here so I feel wonderful among them.

Getting dark so I need to go get some food cooked...spaguetti Bolognese that tastes like shit

Mercedes, Fabi, Regi, Isilla kaikki hyvin, kirjoittakaa pls Halit

Thorsten, please write some of your brilliant humour...priceless here. Blogs are open view for all so you have to save the Oklahoma stuff.

love