Well that serves me right for not finalising my story as soon as I got back, wrote an entire blog on the weekend only to watch it disappear into the ether. If someone else out there has a lengthy diatribe on deserts appeared on their blog could you be kind enough to send it back, I rather liked the first version. Firstly to everyone that commented on my blog and all of you that have lent your support following the race I thank you. You mails were a source of inspiration and no small amount of humour during my darkest hours, well it wasn't actually dark it was blasing sunshine but you get the drift. I've had a fair few days to think now about the race and gather some thoughts on the whole shebang. There are many memories I'll take away from this first desert adventure people, places and times. I'll always remember the sight on the first day after passing dead cows in the gully and reaching the top of the very first ridge. Tian Shan and Bogda mountain ranges, snow capped, left and right and the valley stretching out infront of me for mile after mile, rolling like a stormy green sea. Deep troughs running across the valley floor every 2 or 3 miles and curling plateaus between. Seldom can I honestly say a sight has taken my breath away, but this did. Not a good thing at the start of a 250k race but it happens! Reaching that first camp in one of the valleys after slogging up and over each one of those damn picturesque rolling plateaus all day. Oh what joy! It might of looked like a Chinese army camp, in fact I'm pretty sure thats where they got the tents from, but it was home. I'm not going to mention day 2 you can read the original blog, it was the toughest of all the days for me and i was glad to get to camp and fall asleep for the first time in 48hrs, out like a light. I didn't even wake up when a herd of wild horse ran through the camp, narrowly missing one of the volunteers tents on there way through! True story. The plains of Mars on day 3 long dry and dusty, but that hadn't halted progress as we came across construction equipment every few K's and bulldozed roads between. If I ever thought the world would run out of stones I never will again. There is enough aggregate in them thar hills to concrete the entire world over, which should please a lot of Greeks and most of the Cantonese race! Luckily the locals don't seem to realise they are there and have instead kept to traditional mud brick construction, and very happy we were to usurp there sleeping place for the night. One comment for RTP, next time let us eat the local food and mix with the natives. In most cultures and Uigyer too i 'd imagine its pretty damn rude to leg it in to the village sleep in someone's house, refuse the food and leave before sun up! The forth day was truly a day of lessons, by the end of that day we had unfortunately lost many out of the race and one a few days later succumbed to the heat stroke he suffered. My thoughts go out to Nick's girlfriend and Family at this time of your great loss. It was hellishly hot and the climb up to the ridge in the sand and through the gully's really highlights the fragility of human life. The long day i'll remember most not for the heat or the kilometres or the bloody sand dunes right at the end.. Not for the total destruction being wrought on the land that was a lake and was a salt flat, but for the people and the smiling faces of the locals in the ancient villages and the competitors, the jokes the groans as another pair of shoes was removed at a checkpoint to reveal blisters and blood. In the entire long day, unless a they had a drip sticking out of his or her arm everyone seemed happy, focused but happy. And on to the final stage and the run through ShanShan to the gateway of the Gobi. In someways i was disappointed that the stage was cut short, my feet were in very good nick in comparison to many others and I fancied to move up a good few places the final day as people hobbled on. It was not to be and the end came all to quickly under the banner and a large stone Camel shaped gate! until that moment i don't think I had really though about the finish, but in sight of the line and with Donna waving me on, I welled up inside and shed not a few tears as i crossed the line. It took a good few minutes for it all to sink in and yeah verily I was happy and I was proud... People have asked in the past few days, would I do it again? Would I ever!! See you in the Atacama and this time I'm bringing instant noodles.

Breaking up date:
6:30pm here and we still have about 10 people out on course it is fiery hot and several have had to be rescued throughout the afternoon. The IV tent is going to be busy long into the night tonight.
Makes tomorrow evenn more interesting, as to what to do, Run till midday and march through the heat or just March it out. One thing I know is that at about this time tomorrow I want to be at the hot water checkpoint with some shade.
 

Finished this morning at 8:30am, 20 hours running and 4 collapsed on my back!
I wrote this blog about a hundred times over the course of the days stage, ranging from what a fantastic day to I pulled out, so here goes what I can recollect from the various versions.
Open stage was the final push down from the mountains down a riverbed, multiple river crossings made sure we all had very soggy feet for the first few hours, we finally got out of the river system, into a Uiger village, where I promptly scratched my right eye on a branch, sun was yet to come fully up, I love those kinds of omens!
CP1 was in the village and many of the locals had turned out to watch and these where just the start of many hundreds of Uigers who lined several of the pathways and roads we traversed today. They seem to be constantly smiling, if a little bemused about what we're doing, "Hello" and "Bye Bye" seem to be well understood and we called out and slapped hands with kids all through the town that leads to the Basin. Amazing colours of clothing and patterns all contrasting with the Mud brick houses and compounds. I found the most interesting part though, how they all have brought there beds out of the houses and on to the streets. It seems much of Unger life is conducted from the 4 poster! The town ended, and we turned left to view another town! Only this one looks to have dated from Alexander's day, and entire abandoned city of mud walls houses, and buildings. It makes you wonder as you run past whether anyone outside of here actually knows this exists.
On to the Turpan Depression at last, many months of wondering what this was going to look like and not a little amount of anticipation.
I think it is misnamed, it should be called the Turpan Depressing!
Even without the sun at full bore, the hair dryer like wind together with total desolation, dry brown earth, constant dust storms and collapsed houses for mile after mile really gets to you. CP4 was in a village that only a sort while ago was on the shores of a lake, now it's crumbling back into the dried mud around it, with not a drop of water for miles. It makes Lake Baikal look like a Greenpeace poster!
As I ran further through the salt flats it gets worse, mud and holes with sulphuric acid in the bottom, huts with people digger more holes hoping to find Oil I presume instead of the acidic liquid in the bottom of the hole they dug last week and left.
Not sure if it was the depressing view or the heat and wind, or a combination of the both but, this part of the course hit everyone Hard, I went done within minutes of CP5, dehydrated and slightly disoriented, I just about managed to think to pull off my long leggings', which were to protect me from the sun, and get shorts on to cool me a degree or two. Enough at least to stubble into CP5 and hit the floor for an hour, it took that long to get thought back and start to regroup my thoughts about whether I could continue even having already completed 55k's the heat was so oppressive, cooling down was impossible.
I haven't looked at the times yet but I think I lost nearly 2 hours at CP5, it is still hazy, while I was down, many others including some of the Elite guys were suffering in similar fashion, if you made it past CP5, then by the time people were half way to CP6 they were vomiting form dehydration. By the time I had gotten myself going again and arrived for another rest at CP6, the checkpoint resembled and episode of MASH, IV's hanging all over the place, feet being lanced, taped and strapped.
The rest at CP6, some food, which I had not had nearly enough of the night before and some recovery drink was enough to get me moving again. 35k's still to go.
March in to CP7 was in total darkness and it gives you an excuse to concentrate on the course and you footing and I slowly go a rhythm back, and managed to push the rate up to above 7k's an hour for the first time since the start. Most of the markers for the course had attracted the attention of more children and been removed' so the finally push out of the basin and onto the flats to located CP7 and the all important Hot Water for food was more an exercise in Orienteering than racing.
Vegetable Tikka saved my life, at least that is what it said on the package, having not eaten enough the day before and playing catch up all day a waterery Vege Tikka tasted fantastic, and it was the final amount of calories I needed to get back on it, so after a sort rest I headed out from CP7 at 4am with 25k's left approx.
By now I was feeling the best I had all day and powered through the next 18k's, saw the sun rise above the ancient vineyards, what Antioch must of looked liked I thought.
But out of the light comes the finally surprise, what I though was another range of mountains is the deep desert dunes. Hundreds of feet high and unlike previous dunes that were stony, these were powdery deep sand. The course director took us straight up into them, after 95k's he was not my favorite guy in the world. An hour struggling with shoes that instantly fill with sand, and steep deep dunes I made it to the finishline at 8:45am, with the temp already hitting 45 degrees.
At one point the day before I was down in 110 and something place and down and out, crossed the line in 65. Job done, today.....
 
Tomorrow we have 22 final k's in the deep sand, and it's hitting 55 degrees here at camp in the dunes, looking forward to the Finish Line, seeing Donna, eating real food and having a long shower.
Final updates to the Race I'll do in the next few days, thanks everyone for comments so far and keep them coming, I've been a few days behind when I get them but they have all helped.
JPW

 
Flaming Hell!
Flaming Hot!
Flaming Mountains
We have arrived at the Buddhist Ghost town or something like that, perhaps the monks just decided it wasn't good karma to hang around with 100 plus stinking runners. Either way haven't seen hid nor hair of one and we are staying in a beautiful old monastery.
Today was really tough, the heat kept coming and the course was the first one officially described as Difficult.
Ever spent 2 and a half hours going up one sand dune? I have now and it isn't fun, especially when you get to the top and there is a cliff running beside you that is a 1000M higher than you are. The scale of thing here continues to amaze me, everything is tall and bigger and also unfortunately further away than it looks. Today will take it's toll on competitors, several are already down in the Furness like gully's the other side of the mountain and with half the day to go unfortunately more may follow. the organizers have put in an extra water stop after CP2 now to cope with the heat, I hope us that had already gone through get the extra water here at the camp. Terrain today was interesting, soft and stony sand, I really need to get a grip on running on this stuff, some you can coast over and some you go straight through and end up going backwards.
Going to spend the rest of the day slowing getting in some calories for tomorrow is the BIG DAY 100K's and it;s forecast to be 40plus across the basin and more when we get into the dunes. Luckily I don't think I'll get there until dark so it may be a little cooler, I hope.
Thanks once again to all my family, friends and colleagues at SunGard  for the comments and advice on the bogs keep them coming they are great to read out here.
I'll be off the blog waves for next 24hrs blog to you soon.
JPW

Early start this morning for the "Never Ending Canyon", an enormous riverbed strewn with rocks and pebbles. I think the the Tung Chung AA race prepared me well as the Canyon did end and I got out in good time and without a sprained or broken ankle like a good few today.
CP1 a quick change of socks as there were 6 river crossings in the Canyon and up the hill to the plains, the Plains of MARS, red earth, hills and mountains and dust storms. K after K of flat rocky path, although we got lucky indeed with the weather as the predicted heat wave didn't materialize until much later in the day. Most of the course was also down hill as we are coming out of the mountains @2400M heading for the depression 200M below sea level.
CP2 arrived and most people were having a good day , Chris, Simon and myself the Hong Kong contingent marched it into the water stop. Then the course directors true sense of humour came to play as it was straight back up into the mountains for more of the frustrating rolling hills, except they were sand and rock dunes not hills which is a whole new way of moving across the ground. Anyway looked at it as a bit of practice for the sand let later on as Sai Kung Country park hasn't exactly prepared me for the deep Desert, finally we got out of that and made our way into camp for the day, Peach Village. The locals have made available quarters for us and the place is amasing, mud and daub courtyard huts, with ornate doors. It is a pity we aren't allowed to mix with them a little more as beside the cultural side of things the bread the were making for lunch nearly caused a riot!
We have just been told that we start at 2:45 am tomorrow, so once I get over the shock of that I'm going to eat early and get a little, very little  sleep.
JPW

Day 2 and what a difference a day makes!
We are camped up in Daheyan Canyon, 4000m peaks all around and a huge river bed carving it's way through the lot. We are still up at 2200m so we have a long way to come down to get to the Depression at -200m.
Last night was a nightmare vomited and shit my way through the whole night, got about 3 hrs sleep after 4am. Waking up this morning was not a happy place. The guys at the Medical tent sorted me out with some anti vomit stuff and a bunch of other pills to start the day.
Bigger problem was dehydration, my skin was completely dry and tented up it you pinched it, always told Derek about it but it's kind of funny to see it happen on you.
Anyway, today was always going to be about finishing, which I wasn't sure would happen. It was Bloody hot which wasn't helping and combine that with not being able to do anything but sip the water, it took all of the first stage to get enough water to me to think straight, kept thinking the stones were refs whistle! Even picked up one! Plenty of hills and canyons on the way, just staggered through canyons starting to turn pink as we near the Flaming Mountain ranges to CP1.
Got some more drugs from medic team for the vomiting and that must have been the dosage I needed, because I started to feel better within a few minutes. Tried running as opposed to the staggering March I was employing, but that just made me fell worse again. So I sipped and Marched my way through CP2 to the finish.
Sitting at camp now having eaten a third of a meal, the first since dinner last night, if it stays down I'll be much happier. In the meantime Nuuns rock!
Tomorrow's leg is called the "Never Ending Canyon" the hardest rating of the stages we have done so far, so I'm pretty happy it wasn't today or I would still be out there.
Thanks to everyone who has sent in a comment and well wishes really put a smile on my face this afternoon to read them, keep um coming.
JPW

Kick off this morning from the Village, much dancing and music for us all before we left from the guys who provided the camp site, really nice people.
Prior to the start I think everyone was suffering from a lack of sleep, it was bloody cold last night, certainly down to 7 or 8 degrees, or about the bottom of my sleeping bags capability. Not sure but i might have bought the demo model!!! i could feel a breeze passing through.
So hot drinks of whatever kind I could make up out of a plastic bottle to get going. I would give my left testicle (one of the ones I had for earrings this morning) for an expressso, maybe we should get George Cloney interested in racing the planets. I bet he wouldn't turn up with a sodding cup of coffee.
Anyway back to the race:
Stage one very hot dry and dusty but basically flat. The ground is the tricky stuff it is covered in rocks so enjoying the view can be a dangerous hobby.
Stage 2 more of the same getting to midday so a lot hotter and we knocked that over in about an hour, very surprised to round a corner to see the checkpoint.
Then stage 3 started longest of the day with a climb straight up the mountains and for the next hour apon hour we went up a hill and down a hill. At one point from a ridge you could look out and see rolling hills like a huge day on the North Shore of hawaii (Think Point Break) that just went on and on, good for the soul.
Head down and keep going to someone says stop...
There was no better sight than getting to the top of the last Gully/Hill, which lasted for 50mins, and seeing the camp set up in the distance. Tents and Flags waving among green grass and river beds, with ruins of ancient walls all around.surrounded.
Straight in to camp for an afternoon snooze, I don't want to miss the chance to sleep when teh tent is warm, 'cause it is going to be even colder tonight, the wind comes off the snow caps.
Hoepfully more tomorrow, keep sending the replies and comments it very cool to read them out here.
JPW
 

9:30 in the evening the sun is just starting to move toward the horizon, but it will not get dark for another hour or so. We are in the Tian Shan mountains valley.
We left Urumqi at 3:30, and stopped off half way at the local town, where they treated us to several local dances in full costumes, followed by the unavoidable speeches from many very important people. Our first real taste of Turpan, not hot, but sunny and extremely windy. If you look around at the trees they all bend in one direction and have no leaves on the otherside. I think it is windy normally here.
Second half of the trip was spectacular, the bottom of teh valley here is all rivers, grass and wheat blowing in the wind. With a backdrop of the Tian Shan Mountians all capped with snow, really amasing.,
The vehicles we took got stuck at every diversion and small bridge we came up against which was getting everyone down after 3 hours. No matter we arrived at camp and finally got to tuck into some yummy freeze ride food, the sheperds pie taste good, but we'll see how good after a few days!
Course notes arrived as well, first few days a little shorter than expected, avg 30 clicks, Day 5 is out to 99 , and the last day is 22 in the deep sand to ShaShan.
Heading to get some shut eye for an early morning start.
JPW

Checked out, now we have 2 hrs to hang around, so we thought we would go and have a quick look around the City.
Well worth it, markets everywhere with every nut, (not us), and dried fruit you can imagine. I couldn;t resist a bag of Apricots and some almonds, so I think the back pack is a bit over 9KG now.
Missing gaiters for the race, came up with the ingenious plan to use the sleeves from a couple of cheap rain shells we haggled for on a corner stall. The poor old women thought we were completely mad when we used here sissors to cut off 4 arms, which will slip over the ankles and keep the dust out, and handed her back the rest of the coats. At least she'll have a story to tell about those foriegners tonight.
Next time online it should be to talk about the actual March,I think everyone is well ready to go..
Bye for now.

JPW 

Passed checkin, Chris and I went up early so we breezed through the various checkpoints.
My pack is at 9KG, which is teh lightest I've managed to get it, so pretty happy about that.
Minor panic when I got back from teh check-in to discover I'd lost my salt tablets!!!
Had images of me sucking on rocks out in the Desert flashing across my mind! Support crew found them shortlt before I started to foam at the mouth, Thanks Guys.

We are due to head out around 3 for camp 1 and some lovely dehydrated food.
If I don't get to blog again before the start, Love to all my family Hayden, Derek, Hannah and especially Donna who's put up with me leading up to the event. Love you all.

Arrived last night into Urumqi and it was COLD and WET, so much for the Desert.
Rumours are it was 7Degrees out on parts of the course, Adventure here we come.
Hotel we are staying at is pretty plush and I appreciated the last night on a mattress.
Bacon Eggs and any thing else I could eat for Brekky. 

Just about to walk out of the door for Shenzhen > Urumqi. My supplies look more like a months worth, not 7 days! Still got some lessons to learn on pack once I get to Hotel.