Day 4 - just a short update cause we want to rest for the long stage tomorrow. Today can pretty much be summarized as one long straight away from the mountains and into proper desert territory - yes, no snow or rain today but sunshine instead. We moved pretty well today, although my Achilles tendon was starting to be properly painful today. Nonetheless I pushed through this as did Daphne with her shin splint. We made it to the finish in just over 4:40 so this has been our fastest day so far, which was mainly due to the terrain being basically completely runnable. Daphne fought of some attacks by the second placed girl early during this day and in the end managed to extend her lead roughly by yet another 20min. So she can be pretty relaxed when going into the long stage tomorrow, having over an hour lead on the second place and about 2 hours on the third. Nonetheless tomorrow is going to be interesting - it is the 80km in proper desert terrain so we will have to see how we deal with that...

Day 3 - and I am starting to question whether this really is a desert! Rain, rain, rain...oh and wind! I don't actually recall much of the first stage other than that we started at the back of the field cause we made it to the start line too late. As a result of that Daphne charged off cause she wasn't sure whether there wasn't anybody female still ahead of us - not fun...We basically kept pushing like that till checkpoint 1. After that we hit a stretch of about 1.5km that was just boulder after boulder - very difficult to run but quite fun I thought, cause it was a nice change. Daphne hated it cause she was constantly worried about her ankle. We also got overtaken there by the same girl from yesterday, so as soon as we hit a road, Daphne sprinted off...That part felt quite good as well cause it was a nice change to properly cover ground. After checkpoint 2 we slowed down a bit simply cause the terrain forced us to. Somehow whenever we have to hike we lose ground on the people around us while as soon as the terrain allows running we are doing a lot better - mental not to self: train hiking...around that time was also when it started to rain properly. To be honest we didn't actually mind all that much - one of the benefits of training in London. Not actually all that much to say about the remainder of the course. It was mostly undulating gravel road and since both of us felt pretty good we just kept running. Only the last 4 km were basically unrunnable again, but by that stage we didn't care so much anymore. We made it to the finish line in 5:53 and about 20min ahead of the next female competitor! Also neither of us got anymore injured so a great day of running. The only downside was coming into camp with the whole backpack soaked...Luckily we made it into our sleeping bags quickly and managed to heat up again. By now we have had some food and dried our clothes - so tomorrow can come!

Day 2 - another day in the desert. It started like yesterday ended, with snow...

Right on time for the race start it was back and stayed with us all the way up to checkpoint 1 which in this case was a steep 600m climb followed by a bit of downhill afterwards. Daphne really did not enjoy this part and it was the first time we got overtaken by another female competitor. As soon as the terrain levelled out though Daphne started sprinting off and it did not take long until we caught the other girl again. The stretch between checkpoint 1 and 2 was definitely both our favourite part. For about 12km downhill - we were rocking that part!! From checkpoint 2, i.e. 22km, until the finish line, i.e. 40km, it was basically all the same - and I hated it...we were told it was going to be flat however what it ended up being was a never-ending series of ups and downs. Was really hard for me (i.e. impossible) to find the zone there, cause we all the time had to shift between hiking and running. Both of us also ran out of water during that stage, which really shouldn't happen. Luckily we were only about 1.5km from a checkpoint by that time. Anyway we battled through it and finished in 5:25, with the second girl arriving about 20min after us. So Daphne not only defended her lead but extended it to over an hour!

But just to say this now - we are not in this to win anything but to have fun. So if Daphne ends up winning this then of course that will be great, but if not and we make it to the finish line in one piece then we will be very happy nonetheless. Talking about in one piece - so far neither of us is suffering from anything mayor: Daphne has a slight beginning of a shin splint, which should not be too dramatic since the next two days will mainly be flat (we were told...). I seem to have slight tendonitis in my right Achilles tendon - that could become a problem, but at the moment it is not slowing me down. Tonight we are staying in a local village, which is a great change cause it not only gives us a glimpse in how people are living here, but it also means sleeping inside, i.e. where it

Hello and thanks for taking interest

So I haven't managed to write anything pre-race, so let's have a quick rundown of that first: The travel went actually surprisingly smoothly given that we travelled to the middle of nowhere in China, which still is a 500000 people town, but that's China...Our first night in camp was filled with pre-race excitement and music played by the locals. Some competitors even started dancing - I asked Daphne but she was shy.

Now to the first race day: What a day! I'd say team Daphne&Alex 1, desert 0. Not for lack of trying though...The first part was fun along a creek - quite rocky, so not that much running actually. After the first checkpoint things levelled out and we made good pace while actually really enjoying ourselves. It was only when we had to start running straight into the wind - did I mention that Gobi is the world's windiest desert...- that we started to feel slightly more miserable. However it did not stop there, next it started to rain in our face and as if that wasn't enough the rain soon after turned into snow. And when I say snow, I mean freaking blizzard! Seriously, I don't think I have ever seen snowflakes as big as here. Didn't take 10min and everything around us (including us) was white - that's running in the desert for you! By that time we had made it to the final checkpoint and felt seriously miserable! My hands were blue and Daphne couldn't move hers anymore, literally...After that came probably the hardest part of the day - up a giant sand dune in the middle of a snow blizzard...to be perfectly honest the snow probably actually helped us there a bit cause it made the sand slightly harder, which was quite welcome. After that there was only 10km left and we started to feel the finish getting closer. Unfortunately Daphne started feeling ill by that stage so we had to slow down a bit which made that stretch feel actually quite long and strenuous. Nonetheless we made it under 5hours to the finish line, which means that Daphne is now leader in the women's division!!!