Nearly halfway through this thing. Today comedy ghastly. Very rough terrain. Up and down boulders non stop. As soon as the words came out of my mouth yesterday 'at least we're in a snow storm, not RAIN'...OBV the heavens opened and it HOONED down. That plus the gale force winds, made it A Most Unpleasant Day. CP3 people were there to give us cups of warm water and a lot of us were in really bad shape. One guy came into camp with his emergency bivy bag wrapped around him like a sari...Given that our prep talk today was all about hydrationand most peeps went out DRESSED FOR A HOT DESERT, I packed badly and had all myst weather gear somewhere in the middle of my rucksack. Sod's law. RTP staff/volunteers being amazing. 42km today and it was the hardest thing so far. Got into camp freezing and soaked to the bone, but have semi dried clothes by the fire, had my blisters tended to by lovely Dr Sir Lancealot. Everytime I get to the med tent I seem to be mid wave of my daily nausea attack post food intake. So we're a fine pair, Sir L and me, Mistress Yackalot. Andy W, you'll be thrilled to hear I've just had my first good drilling of the toenail variety. Mmmmm never thought it would feel so good to have a large needle drilled into my big toe - but Sir L has a fabulous tentside manner.

Everything aches, it's stupidtard freezing, and I'm about to crawl into a sleeping bag atop the worst mattress ever. Think it's meant for people who really care about speed. Its like a small lily pad, without the pad bit.

Another 42km tomorrow. Everything insane painful. Spirits high. Not sure why. Pray for my soles...

Sorry kids and rentals - Day 1 was a bit of a killer, so only just stumbled to a tooter.

The night before the race was one of those experiences that leave an indelible imprint on your memory. The camp was in a very remote area 2 hours outside of Hami, surrounded by mountains, sun shining. As we walked in, the local villagers had gathered to cheer us in. I felt (alas did not look) like an Olympian. An 8 man tent - VVVVV cold and a bit overwhelming. The other tenties very nice chaps, but looked worryingly fit. Hardly got any sleep - nerves, but also FREEZING cold. Didn't feel much like a desert...Morning panic OBV. Futile efforts at organization yielded a zillion ziplock bags, all filled with indistinguishable things. Morning came at 3.30am for me. Didn't stop a last minute scramble for the start line.

The Speedos took off. Stage 1 very technical, through a deep ravine. We took it slowly, partly out of choice, partly because we got stuck behind some contestants intent on cataloging their race photographically in front of Every Rock. End of stage 1 we were grateful. A couple of the fasties had slipped and fallen and done some serious damage. As we approached the start of S2, the weather took a turn and we found ourselves on a sand dune in a snow blizzard. The contestants ahead of us had been in a total white out. Terrifying, apparently. Not just because they couldn't see where they were going, but because they didn't have time to get warm kit on. I didn

I apologise in advance to my tent mates.

I think it was Confucius who said something helpful like 'He who is truly knowledgable, knows how much he does not know.'

About to have last encounter with a warm bath in the forseeable future.