Last night it didn't really stop raining - thunder and lightning in the distance weren't really giving us great hope for today. The morning was freezing cold but the sky cleared up and we could see a little bit of the blue out there.

The course was supposed to be great - almost all the way downhill. And we started great - nice downhill run, proper pace and in no time we were at checkpoint 1. It was just a nice mountain path type of a course. From checkpoint 2 we slowed down a bit to save energy for the rest. It was starting to look like a proper desert. With mountains behind us and dry, dusty road ahead and nothing on the horizon.

As we got to check point 2, things changed a bit. Andrew's heel started hurting and we were a bit worried that it might be Achilles tendon. It was a long 10k walk to make it to the next checkpoint. But we got there in the end and stocked up on ibuprofen. It's tendonitis or something like that, but not at the stage were Andrew can't continue so we will take it slow tomorrow. It's just 80k - what a better way to celebrate Andrew's birthday!...hoping to get back to the camp by 2am the latest...

As the terrain changed the weather did as well. It's boiling hot and dry - looks like it will be the same for tomorrow, so our desert hats are finally out!

There is a lot of people that will be mostly walking so the company should be great.

Keep your fingers crossed!

After a warm evening yesterday and warm night we were ready to put our sunscreen on. And it was ok till checkpoint 2 - first 18 or so km were brilliant and we ran quite a bit apart from the massive stoney, rocky section. It was more like a nice mountain terrain a bit of gentle uphills a bit of downhills, it was getting warm.

Then it started raining...and it rained for the next 24k. it was getting windy and cold. And the running route wasn't helping either - it was quite technical - rocks, stones, boulders, ups and downs. So not really a terrain to run! Towards the end we could see the road on the horizon and it was just never ending with couple of hills thrown in.

We made it, long but not bad time overall. As we came back to the camp, it was raining...now we are trying to dry our shoes and clothes by the fire. Let hope that tomorrow we will get more of a desert weather than so far. Apparently the terrain is good for running - hmm see if our legs ca take it. I could do with a longer afternoon in the camp.

More snow!

Day two done! Another 40k, this time as we were about to start it started snowing. And we had big (well 500m height gain)mountain to climb taking us to 2700m. As we started, it was snowing more and more, so the whole climb was pretty much in the snow (like Kasprowy in winter, but half the hight). It was actually good fun!

The long downhill and from check point 3 the longest 9 k ever ...Way too many rocks on the road.

We are staying in the actual houses tonight - still sleeping almost on the floor in sleeping bags, but it should be warm! Last night was freezing, and our floor was soaking wet so we used pretty much all our clothes and equipment including bivvy bags.

My cold is getting better so should be back to normal tomorrow - fingers crossed!

Ah and blister score for today - Andrew : 3, me - one tiny.

Tomorrow is a full marathon, than another one and then the long day:D

So we arrived yesterday at Camp 1 -

So here we are, just a few hours to go... Tomorrow morning we are starting with the official briefing and gear check and then off to camp 1 in the afternoon! From Sunday just a few small runs to get done;)

We have been in China for a while now - 3 weeks almost - so I'm hoping that we have acclimatised to the weather a little bit at least. We tried to run everywhere we've been but only managed a long run in Hong Kong. Looks like one thing that we did right is to taper! I just need to get rid of this stupid cold by tomorrow afternoon. Fingers crossed!