On Saturday morning, we rose at 7am to U2’s Beautiful Day.  It was indeed a beautiful morning, as there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the temperatures were moderate with a slight breeze.  After breakfast, the nine survivors of Tent 12 – me, Gary, Hugo, Nick, Ching-Yen, and Team STC, went to the grassy field behind our camp to pose for a team photo with the majestic snow-capped Mount Muztagh Ata looming in the background.  Muztagh Ata, which literally means “Ice Mountain Father” in Uyghur, is one of the world’s 50 highest peaks standing 7,546 meters, situated along the Karakoram Highway towards Kashgar.  My tent mate Wei climbed it several years ago and told us it was a very straight-forward non-technical ascent with no material challenges outside of the weather and the altitude. (Hmm, a good reason to return to Kashgar in the future.)

As 9am approached, 145 remaining racers gathered at the start line, pumped and eager to push it on the last 15km stage in order to move up a couple notches, or at least defend existing positions, in the final rankings.  In my case, however, as the 25th ranked runner had a nearly 30 minute advantage over me, while the 27th ranked runner lagged me by a similar margin, I knew it was unlikely that I would move either up or down unless one of us really came off the rails.  Nevertheless, I decided to start off hard but not surprisingly, within 15 minutes of the start, my legs grew heavy due to the fatigue of having run over 220km since the week began, and I couldn’t sustain my pace.  This is when I decided to just take it easy and cruise and enjoy the final stage of the race.  The route was easy and straightforward along dirt roads and a long downward sloping tree-lined asphalt road.  We passed many local villagers looking on curiously, some cheering, as we ran by.  As we entered the final stretch towards the local school which served as our finish line, over one hundred children were cheering us on.  I must have high-fived at least 30 of them before I crossed the finish with a warm feeling of satisfaction, accomplishment, and exhaustion. I received a chunky Gobi March 2012 medal around my neck and exchanged hugs, handshakes, and fist-bumps with fellow finishers and RTP staff and volunteers.  We indulged in pizza and beer and watched the local kids performing singing and dancing skits while we waited for the remaining racers to finish. 

I completed the final stage in 1hr 37 minutes, cementing my 26th place finish for the entire race with a cumulative time of 35hrs 31 minutes.  I am very satisfied and delighted to have returned to Hong Kong with no material injuries.  I am now backing in the real world, catching up on a huge backlog of emails and messages, and trying to digest recent world events like the Greek elections and their impact to the financial markets.  Before I sign off on my last blog entry, I would like to thank my tent-mates, fellow competitors, RTP staff and volunteers for what was an incredible and unforgettable week.  I would like to also share a few thoughts on what I would do differently next time (yes, I am already thinking about my next RTP adventure).    

Minimize   Pack Weight: This is an obvious one.    Despite carrying just less than 10kg in a 25 liter pack, my shoulders   were very sore the first couple days and I felt burdened by the weight. I will   try my best to stay within an 8kg-handle the next time. Sacrifices need to be   made. 

Take It   Easy on Expedition Foods:  While   there are some very decent meals in the line-up including Chicken Korma, I   still yearned for more variety in my menu.  Next time, I won’t have more than one   of the same meal, and I will mix things up to include Mountain House, Instant   Mashed potatoes, Ramen noodles, and Chinese/Korean freeze dried rice   meals.

Pack   More Tart Candy Snacks:  I was   dying for strong bitter/sour candy like sour patch kids, sour skittles, and   sweet tarts.  Snacks that worked   included slim jims and parma ham. 

 Day 7 Statistics

-                      Distance:  15km

-                      Terrain:  Mostly downhill dirt and asphalt roads

-                      Time:  1hr 37 minutes

-                      Calories Burned: 1,657kcal

-                      Average HR: 156bpm

l am sitting in the cyber tent on Day 6, looking out at one of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever witnessed, with numerous brown and white sheep grazing on a grassy plain with snow capped mountains in the background.  The mood at camp is one of cheer and relief, as we survivors are tending to blisters and exchanging laughs and war stories following the battle royale of the past few days.  There is just a 15km run towards Kashgar tomorrow, and we soon all be RTP Gobi March finishers. 

Yesterday was a grueling day.  It did not have the technical difficulty of Stage 4, but still ranked as double black diamond in my book give the distance involved – 75km.  As we needed to shuttle to the start, we started the race at 10am, and once again, the course started with a long upward sloping ascent which helped create separation in the pack early on.  And once again, I tried to start strong with the leaders only to see them quickly distance themselves with their powerful uphill running skill.  The first half of the course was mountainous and involved rolling up and down hills with technical difficulty similar to what we saw on Stage 3.  We were also confronted by long river beds with the same dangerous moon chunk rocks we faced on earlier days.  I rolled my both my left and right ankles pretty early on, which served as a wake-up call to stay 100% focused on the terrain in front of me.  This wasn’t easy, as the landscape was amazing that only pictures can describe (see photos on the website).  By the time we got to Checkpoint 4, the course became flatter with runnable descents and ascents.  I was feeling pretty energetic so decided to pick up the pace and run as much as I could, the downhills, the flats, and most of the ascents.  On the uphill ascents, I was playing tricks on my brain by following a 10 for 1 rule – 10 minutes of running, followed by the reward of 1 minute of walking and refueling. 

Once I got to Checkpoint 5, the hot water stop, I was in 24th place and there was no one visible in front of me, and only one runner I could see in the distance behind me.  I took out my hot expedition foods dinner meal “Spaghetti Bolognase” and began stirring it up, generally taking my time. After several bites of my meal, I noticed the runner behind me had come in, filled up water, and was on his way off gain without stopping for dinner.  This is where my competitive instincts kicked in, and I ditched my meal, packed up, and began my pursuit.  Over the next several km, I was able to pass my friendly competitor and regain my position and “lose” him.  When I got to 2kms short of Checkpoint 7, I hit the wall and suddenly slowed to a crawl.  When we hit Checkpoint 7, the racer I passed earlier had closed even with me and it was a race to the finish.  Despite an upward sloping dirt trail for the last 9km, I ran the entire stretch.  It’s amazing what body and mind can do with someone breathing down your neck.  I finished the dreaded long day in 10hrs 45 minutes, placing 22nd overall for the stage.

I am looking forward to spending the rest of the day relaxing and finishing the event with a short run tomorrow. Thank you everyone for sending the supporting messages and emails and look forward to seeing you all very soon.

Day 6 Statistics

-          Distance: 75km

-          Terrain: First Half – Hills and Riverbeds; Second Half – Runable acents and descents across grassy plains, dirt trails, and riverbeds

-          Time: 10hrs and 45 minutes

-          Calories burned: 9,131 kcal

-          Average HR: 140bpm

As an avid skiier, I like to think of difficulty in terms of green circles, blue squares, black diamonds, and double blacks.  Day 4 of the Gobi March was off the charts, well beyond double black - off piste extreme.  I am now recovering in the cyber tent, but before I get into the gory details, a few words about last night. The rumors we heard of our tentmate David were true. He hurt his knee and dropped out of the race and was in Kashgar several hours later.  It was very unfortunate as he was doing well through Day 1 and 2.  Yesterday's camp was high at circa 2,600 meters and the campsite had a nice grassy backdrop behind us with herds of sheep. It was very cold and windy. I slept on the edge of the tent and felt a cold draft all night. Between the altitude, cold temperatures, and Gary's snoring (he wasn't alone), I didn't manage to sleep that well.  We woke up at 6am and I did my routine footwork.  Last night I popped two blisters and let them airdry overnight before taping them this morning. 

The day started with another uphill run from camp to Heaven's Gate, a truly magnificant work of nature (see the photos on the 4deserts website).  Once we got to the entrance, we had to navigate a series of vertical ladders and horizontal ladders (as bridges), scramble up rocky sections, and run up a creek bed and climb up a steep hill to the large natural arch at nearly 3,000 meters where we tagged the top, took a photo, and descended back the same route to the entrance.  This was very cool as we able to see the elite runners desending as we were ascending.  The #1 and #2 ranked males from Spain and Saudi Arabia, respectively, were flying, as was #3 the ranked competitor, a female racer from Germany. After this, we were made to ascend and descend a number of peaks in the 2,800-2,900 meter range, where we had to contemplate extremely steep, technical, and unstable terrain.  The difficulty level of the route combined with the altitude, really tested all of us both physically and mentally, and demanded 100% concentration, as one slip could result in a fall of 50-100 meters or more down the rocky mountain side. Besides the fantastic views of the mountains and valley, I enjoyed seeing a lone dog on the peak of one of the mountains perched high, barking down at all the competitors as they descended. His barking and howl could be heard throughout the valley.

After what appeared to be a never-ending series of ascents and descents, we were then made to navigate a long down-sloping dry riverbed loaded with treacherous softball sized rocks - some loose, some stable.  This was also mentally very tiring. Unlike road running, or hamster-wheel running in the gym, you can't let your mind wander on this type of terrain. One lapse of concentration, you turn an ankle, and your race is over.  As with yesterday, I had a few ankle roles, but fortunately nothing severe enough to worry about. When we finally got to the bottom of the river bed, we were met by a wide flowing river. There was no way around it, so we had to run through up to knee high depth water and, for the first time in this race, I had to run post foot-dunks.  Once out of the river, we had to walk through sand dune like piles of loose rock, forcing our feet to contort forward and back and side to side, providing the perfect conditions for "blister city".  From there we had a 10km run through beautiful grasslands with a snow capped moutain backdrop.  At kilometer 39, we crossed a make-shift finish line exhausted and relieved.  The finish was 3km short of our campsite as the organizers had thrown in yet another river crossing, but it was flooded and too dangerous to pass through.  I happily joined fellow finishers in the mid-teens to mid-thirties in a shuttle bus to the camp.

I finished the day in 7hrs flat, for an unofficial ranking of #22 for Stage 4.  A wise RTP Jordan veteran recently told me to take it easy on Stage 1 in order to acclimatize for the multi-stage race, and again on Stage 4 to leave some fuel in the tank for the Stage 5, the Long Day ie 75km.  Well, I think I managed that for Day 1, which based on my skiier difficulty scale was between a Green Circle and Blue Square.  Day 2 was Intermediate Blue and Day 3 was Advanced Black Diamond. Today, was truly off piste extreme and I left a lot of myself out on the course today.  It will be important to refuel and get a proper night sleep before our long day tomorrow.  I am having my one and only Mountain House Freeze Dried meal (for non RTP participants, this is the main competitor to Expedition Foods) - a 1,000 calorie macaroni and cheese. One of my tentmates has some sleeping aids, so I might need to use it if I cannot get to sleep again tonight. 

Once again, thank you everyone for your encouraging emails and blog comments. Keep them coming as I will need the mental lift after tomorrow!

Day 4 Statistics

- Distance: 39km (shortened by 3km)

- Terrain: The fridge, dishwasher, microwave oven, and the kitchen sink!

- Max Elevation: 2,900 meters at Heaven's Gate

- Time: 7hrs flat

- Calories burned: 5,850kcal

- Avg HR: 145bpm

The race and the torture, has only just begun.   At this morning’s 7.30am briefing, the course organizers advised racers that today would all be all uphill, but would be of “moderate difficulty”.  They warned us of a “very difficult” Day 4 up to Heaven’s Gate, and of course the hardest “long day” on Day 5, and therefore advised us to save some fuel in the tank for tomorrow.  First off, if today was moderate, my fellow racers and I are shuddering at the thought of what’s to come over the few days.  Today was very, very difficult.

For the third day in a row, we started running on a long upward slope. I think the race organizers do this deliberately in order to create separation between the elite runners, normal runners/run-walkers, and walkers early on in the race.  Once again, within seconds after 8am, the yellow jersey and rest of the elite runners were sprinting uphill and left the rest of us in the dust.  I fell into a nice steady upward run/shuffle pace.  When I next looked at my watch, it was already 8.30am and we were still ascending.  The scenery was very interesting with lush green grass and trees, something you don’t expect to see at the Gobi.  Following checkpoint 1, we entered what I like to call “pebble mountain”, where the terrain was very difficult to navigate and comprised of rolling rocks of all sizes from a large softball to a grain of rice.  This created a very unstable surface, with high risk of turning an ankle.  I must have rolled both ankles several times, but nothing serious enough to be concerned about.   After running/walking up a long dry riverbed,  we entered an area of rolling hills with steep inclines and declines with highly unstable terrain.  These were never ending, and very technical.  For the second day, I had ample practice refining my Kilian sliding/jumping technique on the descents.

The worst section of the day was after checkpoint 3, where we greeted by never ending 8km incline trail. I buddied up with Shim from Japan, and he (with poles) and I (without) resolved to power march the uphill stretch.  This was the most mentally challenging section of the race thus far.  There was nothing in particular interesting to look at to distract the mind, just an endless never-ending uphill climb.  When we finally saw Camp 3 and the finish line at the top of the mountain, Shim and I rejoiced and finished hand in hand.  Although I didn’t run as much after checkpoint 1, I had my best performance today finishing in 5hrs 52 minutes, placing 28th overall.  I think all the training in the Hong Kong hills is paying off.  When I finished, I went to the med tent and got my second blood test and weigh-in for the Stanford/RTP study.  Since Day 1, I have dropped 1kg. Probably more to go.

Gary has recently come in and he had a strong performance.  I think he cracked the top 100 today.  Unfortunately, it appears as if the fastest racer in our tent, David from Taiwan, may have hurt himself.  He has been a consistent top 20 finisher, but is not back at the tent yet and the word is he might have hurt his knee. Hope he can recover overnight to race another day.  I am having another Expedition Foods Chicken Korma for dinner this evening and looking forward to it.  This is my favorite Expedition meal that I have tried.  Tonight is going to be cold.  It’s only mid-afternoon and everybody is bundled in their long pants, long shirts, windbreakers, and warm hats.  I will be putting my super-lite WM sleeping bag to the test this evening. 

Thank you to everyone for all your emails and messages of support. Carol, I am tenting with 4 ironmen triathalon finishers and I am quizzing them all about the sport.  This will indeed be the next challenge (I need to get a bike as well), but first on to Stage 4 tomorrow. 

Stage3 Statistics

-          Distance: 35km

-          Terrain:  Rocks and pebbles of all types; all incline to Camp 3 elevation 2,600 meters

-          Time: 5hrs 52 mins

-          Calories burned: 5,600kcal

-          Avg HR: 152 bpm

We had another eventful night yesterday where we shared sleeping quarters with 80 other competitors in the local village.  The symphony of snoring came from all directions - truly surround sound!  We got up at 6am and had a light breakfast of instant oatmeal with blueberries and a cliff bar. The weather was beautiful with not a cloud in the sky, and warmer temperatures than yesterday. Stage 2 of the race started at 8am sharp with us running up a gradual hill. I started at the front today and tried to see how long I could stay with the leaders... let's just say, in less than a blink of an eye the top 10 blazed past me and I was eating their dust. The top racer from Spain finished yesterday in just 2hrs 30mins, and word is, he blazed Stage 2 in a little over 3 hrs today.  Within 30 mins of the start, we were treated to amazing views of the mountain range and entered a canyon region full or red rock and clay. The scenery through the canyon was unforgettable.  The terrain was equally unforgettable. Lots of up and down, including some very technical descents. In one section, I relied on my ski edging techniques and tried to do my best Kilian Jornet impression of sliding down sideways down the steeps. It was quite hairy as I ended up sliding most of the terrain with my uphill hand on the dirt during the slide. Fortunately, my left hand didn't snag against any sharp rock and I suffered just some small scrapes.

With the warmer temperatures today, electrolyte management was very important. I loaded both water bottles with NUUN electrolyte pills and alternated between salt caps and GU gels every 30 minutes.  It was good I packed a slection of flavors for the gels and electrolytes as one tends to get sick of the same flavors. However, if I was to choose one of each, I would pick Blueberry for the Gels and Grape for the NUUN tabs. Between Stages 1 and 2, I felt an annoying hot spot emerging on my 4th toe of my left foot.  This marked the first sign of potential blister trouble for the race. I didn't see any convenient places to stop to take off my shoes and socks, so I powered through to checkpoint 3. Once there, I had to remove my left shoe, my Dryfit outer sock, and Injinji toe sock to inspect the damage.  It was nothing too serious, but I need to stick on a blister strip on the problematic toe. After doing this, and re-applying Hydropel and getting my shoe back on and repacking my bag, I had dropped at least 10 minutes with about a dozen racers coming in and out of the checkpoint ahead of me.  This was a neccessary stop as all the advice in the world dictates you address hot spots as soon as possible.  I managed to make some time back by picking up a steady shuffle/run for most of the balance of checkpoint. Once we got past checkpoint 4, we got onto a long 9km black ashphalt the ran between the rocky mountains. It was very hot, and the road included a steep uphill and then a very long downhill. This section reminded me very much of the long windy road up and down the peak of Da Mao Shan on HK Trailwalker Stage 8, of course with much superior view.

I crossed the finish line in 5hrs and 50 minutes, placing 44th, similar to yesterday's Stage 1 ranking. Camp 2 is in the middle of a wheatfield with nice green trees and a mountain landscape in the backgroun.  Gary just came in and he looks like he is in good shape. I will now go to the Med tent to check out a couple of hot spots turned near blisters. I am feeling reasonably well with the exception of very sore shoulders. I expect to consume another 0.5-0.7kilograms of food tonight so hopefully the shoulders will feel better tomorrow. I am having Expedition Foods Chicken Tikka tonight, following a very good Chicken Korma last night.

Thanks for all the supportive blog comments and emails. We still have a long ways to go, and your messages at the end of the day make a world of difference. Signing out until tomorrow.

Stage 2 statistics

- Distance: 39km

- Terrain: Red clay and rock, canyons, river crossings, lots of hills, and a long stretch of winding ashphalt

- Temperatures: 38-40C, breezy

- Time: 5hrs 50mins

- Calories burned: 5,741kcal

- Avg heart rate: 154bpm

After a restless night in Camp 1 with lots of tossing and turning on a hard rocky surface and a number of distractions such as snoring tent mates and daylight that doesn't fall until around 10.30pm, we were up early today at 5am.  The night and early morning was quite chilly, but my 1lb WM sleeping bag kept me nice and warm. Sitting around the camp fire over breakfast was also nice. I indulged in a double main course breakfast with instant noodles and freeze-dried scrambled eggs and potatos, forcing me to make my first pit stop in the desert wilderness. For the next 6 mornings, the breakfast menu will be more simple with instant oatmeal.

Stage 1 of the race started at 8am with a run through canyons with a wonderful view of a lake with a beautiful mountain range back drop. The weather was absolutely perfect with azure blue skies and a strong breeze that had a nice cooling effect. However, there were certain sections of the course where we ran directly against the headwind, which proved to be a bit challenging.  Due to recent rainfalls, we were informed this morning at the briefing that due to recent rainfall, the first Stage detoured slightly to avoid a certain deep river crossing with elevated water levels. The first stage was therefore 32km, instead of 42km - a welcome suprise to get everyone properly acclimated for the week ahead.  (We have been told the lossed 10km will likely show up later in the week). For the several river crossings we did have, I was able to navigate the various rock islands to avoid a full-on foot dunk. I finished the stage at 12.25pm in decent shape, placing 45th out of the 160 racers. It was generally a very successful first day, with only 1 racer dropping out due to a knee issue.

The first stage finished in Tashpushka (sp?), a remote village in the far west of Xinjiang.  As we approched the finish line, there were many local Uyghyrs who looked on with curiosity as 160 participants from 42 countries fitted in gear from head to toe with 20lb+ backpacks ran, walked, shuffled, walked, and stumbled across the finish line.  Two very cute Uyghyr children - one boy and girl aged 5-6 years old, began running alongside me for my last 500 meters stretch to the end. I finished hand in hand with the Uyghyr boy to small cheering crowd of villagers. Once finished, I went to the medical tent to get weighed and have my finger pricked for a blood sample. I have volunteered to participate in a study being sponored by Racing the Planet and Stanford University on the impact of ultra-marathons on racers' blood sodium levels. I will be able to get my individual readings after the race as well as the end-report when it is completed.  Apparently, volunteer participants in the just completed RTP Jordan 2012 race are also being included in the study. 

We are spending the night in Tashpushka, and will head off early tomorrow morning for a more normal 40km+ length Stage 2. I have refueled properly with recoverite, beef jerky and miso soup, and have changed into my compression gear. I am now sitting in the cybertent waiting for dinner in several hours. Tonight, I am having Expedition Foods Chicken Korma for my main course. I haven't tried it yet, but it gets very good on-line reviews on the Expedition Foods website. The cybertent cue is quite long, so feeling the pressure to get off and make room for another participant. Unfortunatly, due to signal problems, emails and blog posts in the ast 24hrs have not been uploaded so I apologize I haven't had a chance to read them and respond. Please keep sending the posts and emails. Signing off until tomorrow.

Stage 1 statistics

- Distance: 32km

- Duration: 4hrs 25 mins

- Calories burned: 4,700kcal

- Avg HR: 158bpm

After a busy week at work and not much sleep, we arrived in Kashgar via Shanghai and Urumuqi last night at around 8pm. We grabbed a spicy chicken burger at a local fast food restaurant, afterwhich Gary and I spent the next 3 hours repackaging all our food and cramming as much gear as possible in our packs. Both of us came in around 10kg w/out water, but the seams on my pack are considerably more strained in my 25 liter Berghaus pack versus Gary's 32 lliter OMM pack. Post check in this morining, 160 competitors and about 40 staff and volunteers left Kashgar for a 3 hour bus ride in windy dirt roads to Camp 1. The scenery is beautiful and the locals are very nice.  The atmosphere is buzzing, with participants ranging from 22 to 70 years old from 42 different countries with a good mix of RTP veterans and first-timers. 

I am feeling pretty good, just a bit tired. Hope to get an early night sleep tonight. Our tent is well represented by the Asian region with a team of 4 triathaletes from Shanghai, two from Taiwan, Gry and I in Hong Kong, and to runners from Europe. This year's course averages around 40km/day for the first four days with a 75km long day, followed by a 15km finish back to Kashgar. The race organizers tell us not to expect much sand, but lots of rock and rugged terrain with several river crossings starting tomorrow.  Need to watch for blisters after the feet get soaked.  With respect to run vs. walk, I decided to ditch the poles. I will try to take it easy the first day and will progressively increase the run/walk mix as the weight in my pack declines with food consumption. Well its time for me to sign off now as the welcome ceremony is beginning and there is a long cue at the cyber tent.

Thanks for the emails and words of support. Keep them coming!