I'm not sure if the post from the long march was uploaded from the cybertent while we were out in the desert, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will eventually go up! For those of you following the blog - I did finish the long march, but the last day (11.8km) was cancelled because of a sandstorm that had us evacuated.

Its 2:30pm on Friday here in gobi, and I finished the long march stage about 13 hours ago (that

Today we had our first hot day! We ran with our backs to snow topped mountains all the way into heat-cracked clay. It was a full marathon today, and overall I think it went well. I ran most of the first two sections (flying down the down hills, yet again), but at cp2 I began to really ache. My leg and back muscles ache, but in particular on the front of where my leg turns into foot really hurts. I showed the doctor at cp3, and he told me it was tendonitis because of overuse ('overuse' in this case is such a ridiculous understatement). There wasn't much he could do; I also managed to dehydrate myself today so I wasn't given any ibuprofen to make the pain go away, because taking ibuprofen while youre dehydrated can make things go wrong with your kidneys. Luckily, running on this sort of injury (I'm not sure if this counts as an injury) won't lead to any permanent damage, so I just walked the last 20km. I don't think I've ever exercised with this amount of pain/soreness going on before, but I've become very ok with having a slower time than expected, because I've realized you don't have to race thisadventure to be able to have an amazing experience. Chatting with other competitors on the course, shuffling along together, and trying to finish the race as comfortably as possible I'm sure will leave me with better memories than if I strained myself each day or got seriously injured because I wasn't careful.

There was one terrifying second when my only hair tie flew off my braid. Only other long haired girls know the horror of running with your hair down! I wasn't about to backtrack to find it - I had a marathon to finish! - so I panicked for a moment. In despair I looked down to my shoes, and in a stroke of genius I used my pocket knife to cut some of the elastic from my gaiters to form a hair tie. I was so proud of myself. There wasn't anyone around to tell, so I promised myself I'd tell the world through my blog, so here it is. There was another moment when my gps watch ran out of battery, and I was so sad about not knowing exactly how much l left. I thought of a chapter in Mindy Kahling's book - she hates exercise, but exercises out of necessity. She lets revenge fantasies (on people that don't actually exist) motivate her for minutes at a time. That thought to me was so funny that I laughed out loud and continued on my way, gps-less.

I spent the day alone, for the most part. I find, as one of the younger competitors, that older competitors LOVE sharing life advice with and flattery on me. One guy came up behind me and said that he hopes his 7-year old grows up to be as brave as me. Probably the best complement yet on this course! I'm not sure if this race counts as bravery, but a test of perseverance it definitely is. I'm not sure if I want to do another one any time soon. Here are some things I will want to have taken care of if I do: 1) I should definitely have a lighter pack (11.5kg is too much for a small person like me), 2) oats and instant noodles are totally ok for breakfast (why I'm eating dry-freeze purple-ly mush each morning is beyond me), 3) I want to have trained with long enough distances for long enough period of time not to get injuries from overuse, 4) I wish I had a gopro with me, 5) I don't actually need 50 wet wipes (everyone else is so smelly that the whole place kinda stinks no matter how clean I am), 6) hot chocolate should be mandatory on the equipment list, etc etc.

I wanted to say a special thank you to my Atacama 2014 friends, and the Georgetown tri team! I've received such wonderful messages, and its so great to have these two athletic groups of friends rooting for me!

Tomorrow is the 50-miler, then only a 9-miler left! i'm hoping to just power through tomorrow and hopefully finish before midnight. We'll see how that goes.

Lots of love,

SJP

Though I thought yesterday was tough with the snow and the mountain, today was so much worse! It rained for hours and it was cold and miserable...I've been following the same trend of running what is run-able in the first half of each day, and walking the vast majority of the second half. Today was so wet and cold though; at check point three (13km from the finish) they were worried about people getting cold. I put on all my layers and my giant rain jacket, so I didn't get as cold as the first day, but my shoes were soaked the whole way. I was contemplating changing my socks, but 1) I knew my new socks would get wet in a matter of minutes, and 2) it was far too cold and wet to retrieve them from my bag. Luckily at cp3 they gave me hot water to drink (I think the volunteers/med team have an eye out for tiny people like me in the cold!), so that warmed me up a little. At camp I hung up all my layers to dry, and ralph lent me his jacket to wear while I ate dinner. Clothes have now dried - and I'll be onto my second running outfit tomorrow, which is something to look forward to. Wet wipes do surprising little to keep you clean here...Temperature wise, my sleeping bag is really really warm though, so nights aren't a problem.

I listened to Michael mcintyre again today (the same clip three times in a row), and ended up giggling to myself as I ran flats and downhills. I explained to the people I passed that I was listening to a comedy show, but after a while I got tired of explaining and just ran on by. There are people talking to themselves on the course, so I definitely don't seem the most mad! The music was turned on so loud, but my fingers were so frozen that I couldn't reduce the volume, so I couldn't really hear anyone who tried to make conversation with me. Nothing hurts too much yet - some people are taking pain killlers, but since I haven't done that before I've opted to avoid medication for as long as possible.

Today was sort of miserable, so there isn't really much more to report. I still have the goal of just finishing this race as comfortably as possible, and I think I'm on my way to achieving it. We have another marathon tomorrow, then the 80km day, then a short 15km to finish. i hope the photos that are being uploaded reflect the conditions we were in!!!

Thanks again for all the messages. I wouldn't have blogged today if it weren't for the temptation of checking the tablet for all the messages and comments. I'll try to keep all the positivity from you all in my mind tomorrow and during the long march. If the weather continues like this I

Today was definitely more tough than yesterday. we were put in Mongolian yurts last night (I'm presuming its because it was too cold/too snowy for tents), and with ~37 people in my yurt, it was noisy the entire night. People were getting up to use the bathroom, rustling around, snoring...needless to say, I doubt many people had a very good sleep.

After the snow yesterday, I think most people hoped for no snow today, but the moment the race briefing started at 7:30, it started snowing. Not only that, but the first 10km of our marathon today was an ascent up a snow capped mountain (a mountain of 2800m in height!). I have never been so grateful for my poles - the ground was muddy from rain the previous day, then a layer of ice from where competitors ahead of me had mushed down snow, then about a foot of fresh snow. I almost slipped many many times. Going up that mountain was the first time I worried about making the cutoff time, because I had to stop every 20 meters or so to catch my breath; we were up so high I got winded so easily! It was a single file line up the mountain, which lead to a sense of comradery. The silver lining is that I learnt from my mistake yesterday, and so I had on all of my layers when we set off, which left me nice and toasty for the ascent. Yesterday, after cleaning myself up in the evening, I noticed a spidery web of red and purple on the fronts of both my thighs where blood vessels had popped because of the cold (running tights are so ridiculously thin!). the med team says it

I'm writing this blog about two hours after I finished day 1. Today went really well for me - I took the advice of taking it easy on the first day quite seriously, and I'm so grateful that I did! My legs are a little tired, but nothing is sore. I was a little concerned about how heavy my pack was, but I felt hungry twice on the course, so my chocolate and peanut butter bars that weighed so much were such wonderful treats. Other than that, I took my salt tablets and stinger gels, so nutrition is going according to plan. Overall, my body feels good, so I plan on continuing taking it easy. Just finishing is a big enough goal for me!

The beginning of the course was down big boulders - which I thought was going to be the surprise of the day, since it was so technical and necessitated being on your hands and knees in places for stability. The big surprise came after the first two sections:snow. It was raining on and off for the first two sections, which I ran and walked. However, it became really cold once it started snowing, and the ground became slippy or muddy - my running tights are so thin that my thighs started to burn from the cold; my fingers were so cold too that I couldn't open my bag to get my gels to eat, let alone change the music playing on my ipod.

Luckily it snowed only for the duration of about 10km. After that, I turned to Michael mcintyre to keep me entertained for the last 12km. I had a meal after coming back to camp, and I've warmed up significantly.

I'm hoping for a warm and restful night before stage two tomorrow!

SO grateful for the messages and comments from everyone!

SJP

We've arrived at camp one after about 2.5 hours in the bus! We had a very warm welcome by the villagers, who performed for us before we had dinner.

I'M