Today the course book repeatedly lied... there was way more climbing than advertisedon the first stage: lots more slot canyons, sand dune climbs and descents and relentless uphill slog. But, Ben and I were feeling strong, powering through to CP1 with some of e same crowd we finishedwith yesterday, keeping the banter and laughs strong.

Unfortunately Adam was in a bad way... so we rested with him for 40mins at cp1. he want great but was able to power on, eventually settlin into

Halfway! Today felt really good (well it

Wow...today was tough. When I got in, I really was in a dark place thinking about how I can complete the next 4 days. Seems everyone out there had a rough day though, even the top seeds.

Day started out well - lots of banter between the three of us, with Ben almost forgetting his water, running the first 100m with his backpack open and all 3 of us setting off 5 mins after everyone else. But that meant plenty of overtaking, feeling strong through the river crossings (20+); we even managed to get some running in. second stage I started to fall behind adam and ben, but they were troopers waiting for me to catch up every now and again. This stage was tough - I wasn't drinking enough and the heat was rising through our 190m+ ascent. Views were specular however.

It was the second half of the day that was the killer however...supposedly an easy downhill and flat, but the temp hit 38 deg according to my watch, and the running we were supposed to be doing lasted less than 2km... instead the shuffle dropped from 4miles and hour to 3, and then... at this point ben and adam pushed on for the final 3miles ahead of me, no sense in suffering in the heat with me! But I made a new friend, Barbara from Italy, who is one hell of a power walker, until she finally dropped me for the last climb up a sand dune before camp - the sight of his almost broke me, and I had to take a 5min breather.

Thankfully my spirits are back up post my choc milk protein shake and now the temp has fallen - again sunsets here are amazing. But lessons learned for tomorrow: eat all my breakfast and force myself to drink!

Thanks for the messages so far, and hopefully tomorrow will be a happier post!

So...day 1 down...not as easy as would have been ideal, but also surprisingly manageable. We decided to walk the whole first day - take it relaxed given the altitude and heat -and finished in the non-record but not terrible 7h25min. But banter levels remained high for most of it until the final 10k...now worried we have run out of things to discuss. Maybe we need to go a level deeper and think about how to solve world peace...

First half of the day felt strong, but then in the heat of the day we hit a 5km climb up to the last checkpoint before camp, through a dry canyon where every blind corner was pure mental torture. the final 4km would be nice and easy, all downhill, but to be honest it felt more like 10km...thankfully no blisters for me and legs feeling surprisingly strong, just very sore shoulders from the pack.

In terms of food strategy, the 800cal breakfast was overkill, only managed 2/3 of it -and think I will chuck the clifbloks - did not want those at all, but 3 pepperamis, 3nakd bars and 2 mini cashew nut bags went down a treat.

Camp atmosphere is nice and chilled - some sunbathing, but most people trying to stay in the shade...

Anyway, on to tomorrow with the infamous river canyon running followed by up and down sand dunes - a recipe for blisters...but the second 13 mile is all descent so thinking about starting to run then, even if it is just to get out of the heat sooner.

I also realise I have not mentioned the scenery; it is immense, so desolate, but not appreciated it as much as I would have liked for obvious reasons J

Anyway, off to chill and get some food down me! Also thanks for any messages of support so far - we haven't managed to download them from the satellite yet, but hopefully tomorrow!

Probably feeling far more relaxed than I should be, but the nerves are there under the surface. We spent hours packing